As the increasing impact of climate change continues to threaten our planet and exacerbate inequities, the University of Delaware must be a model of environmental response and resilience. The Sustainability Council is actively leading this charge.

Significant changes must occur to make this happen. Our research shows that the University of Delaware is trailing the sustainability efforts of comparator institutions. Using the sustainability benchmarking tool from the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), UD discovered that our sustainability performance ranks in the lower 25th percentile of all AASHE-rated institutions. This puts UD at a financial, social, and moral disadvantage as it seeks to attract top-quality students and faculty.

In order to keep pace with – let alone lead – our peer institutions, UD must immediately invest substantial, consistent, and permanent resources into its sustainability initiatives. That’s why the Sustainability Council created a plan that outlines the financial, academic, and institutional changes that must happen to make this possible, starting with the absolutely necessary establishment of an Office of Sustainability.

The Council is also proud to introduce the E.C.O. wheel: A wheel that outlines the eight “Environmental Core Objectives” of the Sustainability Plan. The core objectives are connected by the Office of Sustainability, the central mechanism that oversees, coordinates, and enacts the initiatives in each category.