Sustainable Energy Transition (SET) is happy to announce we passed our end of year goal of 100 endorsers from 30 Classes ahead of schedule! With 22 days to go, alumni of all ages are encouraging their alma mater to become a leader in climate change practice to match Princeton’s leadership in climate scholarship. SET is excited to have reached this milestone early, and hopes to connect with hundreds more alumni to show overwhelming support for deeper emissions reduction on campus.
After going live in early October, the Princeton Alumni for Climate Excellence (PACE) campaign has connected with alumni over email, on facebook, and at alumni events in New York City. The statement signed by over 100 alumni calls for Princeton to lead in on-campus emissions reduction just like its Professors and researchers lead in climate policy scholarship and advocacy. “There is no better-situated institution to lead by example than our alma mater Princeton University,” explained Class of 2008 alumnus Dennis Markatos-Soriano and founder of SET. “We have the resources, both academic and financial, to be a model of climate mitigation that other campuses and communities can look to for inspiration and insight.”
The PACE statement calls on the University to aim for climate neutrality in its campus operations by 2030 (a situation of zero net carbon emissions), building on the Google.org Clean Energy 2030 report that came out this past fall. Princeton’s Students United for a Responsible Global Environment (SURGE) chapter advocates a complementary goal. They call for the campus to commit to at least a 25% deeper cut in emissions than University leadership put forward this past January. Such a cut would make emissions at least 25% below 1990 levels by 2020 (the leading recommendation for developed countries in current post-Kyoto international negotiations). Alumni encourage further cuts throughout the 2020s to achieve climate neutrality, through a range of actions such as increased efficiency, integrating more roof-top solar installations, and the construction of a Princeton wind farm within the region.
Support has come from all ages, from the Classes of 1956 and 1957 to recent graduates in 2008. Geographically, alumni endorsers live all over the world — from China to Rwanda to Belgium to Manhattan. If you would like to add your name to the list of Princeton Alumni for Climate Excellence, please do so at http://setenergy.org/projects/pace-campaign/pace-statement/
In addition to communicating with hundreds more alumni in the months ahead, SET plans to begin directly engaging University leadership to give them the resources and support they need to commit to excellent climate policy.
This effort has been made possible by support from the Evergreen Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Fund for the City of New York and individual donors. By volunteering or sponsoring this effort, you can help SET pull together a critical mass of alumni support to make Princeton a leader in climate mitigation and catalyze further emission cuts throughout the country and the world. If interested, please contact us.
Tags: alumni, climate change, energy, leadership, Princeton University