How To Develop Your Own Climate Change Guidance Document

With the growing concern of budget constraints, a common goal of higher education departments is to save money.

By reducing our energy consumption, we are ultimately reducing our energy costs. Through this document, we aim to help your institutions develop a carbon action plan, set goals to reduce energy consumption, and subsequently save your institutions/department money.

Two “sister” documents to this “How To” document are: the High Performance Design Handbook (Book I) and The High Performance Campus Design Guidelines (Book II). The Design Handbook, Book I, provides an overview, rationale and the business case for high performance design. This book is geared towards faculty, staff and higher education administrators.

At the end of book one you will find a variety of different case studies that may be of interest to those affiliated with higher education institutions. Book II, The High Performance Campus Design Guidelines, is a set of building design specs to be implemented while your campus is building a new building, or renovating an existing building. Some of the appendices from that book may also be of interest to you since they refer to Executive Orders and available subsidies.

Federal or state mandates may influence the decisions you make while you are in the planning process and local/state or federal incentive will change how cost effective a technology will be for your campus. One of the most important things to consider when developing a campus action plan is the payback period.