Climate Action Strategy

Universities have a responsibility to build a better global future and, like many other higher education institutions, Lehigh University recognizes the need to responsibly lead by example through actions that reduce GHG emissions resulting from campus operations. Implementing emissions reduction strategies is also an increasingly important issue to incoming and current students, faculty, staff and alumni and it fits squarely within the academic mission and research focus areas of the university. As a premier academic institution, Lehigh is uniquely positioned to make significant contributions to address climate change. Lehigh is furthering its commitment to climate action with the release of this Climate Action Strategy.

In 2009, Lehigh drafted and signed a university Climate Commitment, which vowed to create institutional policies and procedures to protect and improve the environment. In October 2020, Lehigh released its Sustainability Strategic Plan 2030, which establishes a long-term vision for sustainability at Lehigh. A key component of the 2030 Plan is the development of this Climate Action Strategy to establish a set of carbon mitigation actions to reach net carbon neutrality by 2040. To develop this Climate Action Strategy, Lehigh partnered with The Stone House Group (SHG) and Trust to map out a 'Pathway to Zero' emissions for Lehigh to achieve net carbon neutrality by 2040. The Climate Action Strategy prioritizes: reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving energy efficiency, offsetting electricity consumption with renewable energy and transitioning to cleaner transportation options. Throughout the CAS development process, SHG provided technical support in conducting peer analysis, identifying and evaluating carbon mitigating projects and designing pathways toward achieving the goals set forth in the 2030 Plan, while Trust provided communication, facilitation and engagement support.

The Stone House Group worked with a variety of campus stakeholders through a comprehensive and engaging process that centered around working groups that were selected to target Lehigh’s largest sources of campus GHG emissions: Building Energy, Transportation and Commuting, and Procurement (Air Travel and Paper). Additionally, a Carbon Offsets working group was established to explore how and when it would be useful for Lehigh to utilize offsets. An External Advisory Group composed of alumni, local leaders and other higher education sustainability professionals provided guidance formed through their experiences, and an Internal Advisory Group composed of faculty, staff and students provided leadership from an internal perspective. Additionally, Trust supported a series of campus ideation sessions and surveys which created space for all faculty, staff, students and alumni to learn, ask and engage in Lehigh’s Climate Action Strategy development process. Input from the campus community was a critical part of the development process and was key to establishing the guiding principles used throughout the strategy development.

Lehigh’s 'Pathway to Zero' emissions will achieve net carbon neutrality by 2040 through the pursuit of several emissions reduction strategies. By implementing the emissions reduction strategies, Lehigh anticipates a 60% reduction in emissions by 2025, 80% reduction by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2040. While the 'Pathway to Zero' emissions establishes a plan for Lehigh to achieve significant emissions reductions by 2030, Lehigh would continue to improve upon emissions reductions between 2030 and 2040 and would begin the thoughtful purchase of RECs and carbon offsets between 2035 and 2040. Based on a thorough evaluation of the emissions reduction strategies, it is estimated $12-26 million (using 2021 dollars) in incremental new investments will be required through 2040 to achieve the net carbon neutrality goal. Between 2022 and 2040, Climate Action Strategy initiatives are estimated to produce a total of more than $29 million in operational savings on campus. Some of the projects are already underway. Implementation of the other projects will begin in FY 22 and will occur in phases upon release of the strategy.