Save the Date for Spring 2025!

This 6-month long, cohort-based virtual program, designed to empower higher education leaders to drive impactful decarbonization initiatives on their campuses is targeted to start in Spring 2025. AASHE is delighted to be offering this program in partnership with: APPA | Leadership in Educational Facilities, NACUBO – National Association of College and University Business Officers, SCUP – Society for College and University Planning and Second Nature. We thank them for their support and contributions!

Program Overview

In response to the growing demand from our community, AASHE is launching the Campus Decarbonization Academy, a program designed to equip campus teams with the skills, tools, and strategies needed to decarbonize campus infrastructure effectively. By fostering skill development, networking, and collective problem-solving, the program will engage individuals and teams to develop strategies to launch or advance their campus decarbonization initiatives.

Featuring experts from higher education, business and civil society, real-world case studies, and practical tools, participants will gain a holistic understanding of the latest technologies, funding sources, and skills crucial for implementing decarbonization strategies.

Who Should Attend?

This program is ideal for campus teams including sustainability, energy, and facilities managers, as well as business officers, campus planners and architects, or anyone responsible for strategic campus planning. To encourage team participation, we will be offering special discounts for group registrations. Even if you don’t have a team, individual participation is welcome, though the full benefits are best realized with a collaborative approach. The content will be particularly suited for institutions with a central plant and/or significant deferred maintenance.

What You’ll Gain:

• Understanding of major components of campus decarbonization efforts including technologies, financing, and policies.
• Access to Resources such as case studies, expert guidance, and research papers.
• Stakeholder Engagement Skills to build buy-in for major decarbonization projects across your institution.
• Practical Skills like life cycle cost analysis and strategy design for decarbonization.
• Networking Opportunities to collaborate with peers and mentors.

Why Now?

Campus decarbonization is a lengthy, complex, and costly process that requires addressing all the components covered in the Academy, as well as collaboration among various campus stakeholders. By starting now to plan for this long-term transition, campuses can get ahead of growing pressure from stakeholders and future regulations, ensuring they approach decarbonization in a proactive and efficient manner.

Existing technology makes it possible to eliminate or greatly reduce the majority of Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions on many campuses with a well designed decarbonization project. If you’re a campus that has central plants and significant deferred maintenance it may break even sooner than you think! This Academy, facilitated by leaders in campus decarbonization, provides a unique opportunity to advance your campus’s sustainability goals and make a measurable impact.

Tentative Schedule

The program is set to begin in Spring 2025 and will include bi-weekly virtual meetings, spanning approximately 10 to 14 sessions over the course of six months. An optional in-person component might be included (tbd).

Campus Decarbonization Projects Examples:

Increasing number of campuses are implementing such projects. Here are a few examples (completed or underway):

• Ball State University: Ground Source Geothermal District Heating and Cooling System
• Stanford University: GHG Emissions Mitigation | Sustainable Stanford
• Swarthmore College: Decarbonizing Swarthmore’s Energy Systems
• Carleton College: Carleton College Utility Master Plan
• Smith College: Smith Geothermal Energy Project
• Amherst College: Decarbonization of Our Campus Energy System
• Miami University: Expanding Geothermal on Miami’s Campus: North Chiller Plant Conversion to Geothermal project
• Dartmouth: Dartmouth Energy Decarbonization and Infrastructure Renewal<
• University of California System: How Three UC Campuses are Phasing out Fossil Fuels | University of California

Campus Decarbonization Academy Program Advisors

Aurora Winslade, Director of Sustainability, Edison International 
Aurora has twenty years of experience in higher education and private sector sustainability and clean energy work. Aurora currently serves as the Director of Sustainability for Edison International (EIX). EIX and its subsidiaries lead the clean energy transformation through a focus on clean energy, efficient electrification and advising the world’s largest organizations to navigate the energy transition. She provides leadership for EIX’s sustainability strategy and helps advance one of the nation’s largest electric utilities, Southern California Edison, towards a clean energy future. 

She is passionate about equipping leaders with the tools to lead successful organizational change and build healthy, just, and resilient communities, and has been leading and facilitating professional development workshops since 2008. She co-created AASHE’s first sustainability officers retreat in 2011 and has led statewide and national workshops in California, Hawaii, New York, and Taiwan.

Aurora was previously the Director of Stanford University’s Office of Sustainability (2021-2023) and served as Swarthmore College’s Director of Sustainability from 2015-2021, where she launched and co-led the Swarthmore’s “To-Zero by Thirty-Five” energy infrastructure project that will eliminate nearly all of the college’s Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions through an electrified, renewably-powered geo-exchange system. Prior to that, she founded new sustainability programs at the University of California Santa Cruz (2004-2012) and the University of Hawaii (2012-2014).

She has a B.A. from the University of California, Santa Cruz and an M.B.A. from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

Dano Weisbord (he/him), Chief Sustainability Officer, Tufts
Dano is Tuft’s first CSO and in this role furthers the institution’s commitment to be a leader in sustainability and climate matters. He is also the Executive Director for Campus Planning. In this combined role, he works across the university to bridge campus operations with education, co-curricular, and research activities.

Dano came to Tufts from Smith College where he held the position of Associate Vice President for Campus Planning and Sustainability. Dano was responsible for projects at Smith including the electrification and decarbonization of a thermal and electric district energy system. Over fourteen years at Smith, Dano served as Director of the Center for the Environment, Ecological Design and Sustainability and established the sustainability and campus planning functions.

Previously, Dano advised on corporate environmental responsibility strategy for ActionAid International and at CLF Ventures in Boston MA, where clients included international mining, energy and real-estate companies, and organized a regional wind-power industry alliance. He was a director of the Global Association of Corporate Sustainability Officers in London, and lead author on Sustainable Endowments Institute’s Greening the Bottom Line. Dano has a Master of Arts in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning from Tufts and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Industrial Design from Rhode Island School of Design.

Matthew St.Clair, Chief Sustainability Officer, University of California’s Office of the President
Matthew St.Clair is the first Chief Sustainability Officer for the University of California’s Office of the President and has been leading sustainability efforts across the 10-campus UC system since 2004. One of the current projects he is leading is three UC campuses phasing out fossil fuels. He was a founding member of the Board of Directors for AASHE. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of Strategic Energy Innovations, an environmental nonprofit that builds leaders to accelerate climate solutions.

Matt has delivered lectures at numerous universities, been an invited keynote speaker at several regional and national conferences, served as a moderator at a White House forum, and has advised the U.S. House of Representatives on the formation of an Office of Sustainability for the U.S. Capitol. He has a Masters degree in environmental policy from the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley and a Bachelors degree in economics from Swarthmore College. He is a LEED Fellow and a Certified Energy Manager.

Any questions about the Academy?
Please contact Daita Serghi, education@aashe.org