Published in 2022, the first ever Pitt Climate Action Plan (PittCAP) for the University of Pittsburgh’s Pittsburgh campus presents our strategy, approach, and details to achieve carbon neutrality by 2037, the 250th anniversary of our founding.
We have worked to ensure that our carbon neutrality strategy fulfills our full sustainability aspirations of reaching toward environmental solutions while balancing and addressing our academic mission, pursuing equitable outcomes, and helping create economic resilience for our University and communities.
Through annual inventories, data-driven strategies, and targeted initiatives, Pitt measures progress toward its 2030 goal of cutting emissions 50% below 2008 levels. These efforts guide decision-making, support climate action, and highlight the University’s role in building a lower-carbon future. Learn more about how we track GHG below.
(Projected Numeric GHG Reductions in metric tons CO2e Annually)
All actions delineated in the Pitt Climate Action Plan will cascade over time. These projections for our Pitt greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation activities show how each strategy contributes to our carbon reduction journey between 2019 and 2037, helping us meet our incremental target to reduce GHG emissions 50% below 2008 levels by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2037.
(Projected Numeric GHG Reductions in metric tons CO2e Annually)
Climate action starts right here on campus. Get involved through sustainability programs, research, and initiatives that make our campus a model for climate solutions.
Get started at home. Discover how small efficiency upgrades—from LED lighting and smarter thermostats to energy audits and solar-ready choices—can lower your carbon footprint and strengthen our communities.
Climate action grows with your choices. Build your power by cutting food waste, choosing plant-based meals, composting, supporting local farms, and driving electric to create real impact at home and in the community.
Climate action begins with what you use. Reduce what you buy, choose reusable items, and recycle smart to cut waste and protect our planet.
“Carbon neutrality” refers to balancing all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions put into the atmosphere by removing or capturing and storing (i.e., sequestering) an equivalent quantity of GHG emissions. To achieve that goal, we have three GHG mitigation priorities: reducing our energy demand, cleaning our energy supply, and shifting to low-carbon connections. Other strategies we’ll depend on to get to carbon neutrality include campus education and behavior shifts, as well as eventual carbon insets and offsets.
See the Climate Action Plan page 6.
The Pitt Climate Action Plan (PittCAP) builds on the goals of our existing Pitt Sustainability Plan, while setting both an insistent and realistic approach on the carbon opportunities and challenges in front of our campus, community, and world. The University is committed to updating the PittCAP every five years moving forward, until our carbon emissions exist in balance with the natural world.
We have the tools at hand to combat the climate emergency – and it will take every one of us to do so. Your decisions at Pitt, at home, and around the world make a difference, representing everyday opportunity to positively impact our lives here in Pittsburgh, as well as those of other communities around the world. Together, we are part of the solution and can build a brighter equitable future for all.
Every person, every action, every purchase, and every voice can bring us one step closer to keeping climate change in check.
Learn how you can help on campus, at home, and every day. UPDATE LINK
If you’re interested in having someone come talk to your campus group or class, please contact us. UPDATE LINK
A greenhouse gas (GHG) or “carbon” offset is a unit of carbon dioxide-equivalent (CO2e) that is reduced, avoided, or sequestered to compensate for emissions occurring elsewhere (WRI report).
Though the carbon offset market is voluntary, offsets are a globally traded commodity.
Carbon offsets can be generated via several strategies, including tree planting, efficiency efforts, renewable energy, methane capture, regenerative agriculture, and other approaches. Traditionally, carbon offsets are procured from external entities, are independently verified, and externally achieved.
Carbon offsets are a required piece to reach carbon neutrality by 2037 – and we can use that opportunity to reflect our values and create a cascade of mission-related, environmental, equitable, and economically resilient solutions. Depending on outcomes, the University can choose to focus on projects that offer benefits beyond carbon (i.e., community, educational, health, equity, resilience, and environmental); the Carbon Commitment Committee is already investigating opportunities of this type. An increasing number of companies in Pitt’s existing and future supply chain already purchase carbon offsets of their own.
See page 40 of the Climate Action Plan.
Due to the nature of higher education GHG accounting, University investments are not included in Pitt’s GHG inventory or carbon neutrality goal, nor is it common practice for universities to account for the GHG emissions of their endowments in campus inventories.
With this in mind, the Office of Finance released the University’s first annual Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) report in Spring 2022, which highlights the application of ESG factors in ensuring the CEF provides strong financial returns in perpetuity and to fossil fuel investments specifically. (2021 Board Ad Hoc Committee on Fossil Fuels’ Report)
Explore the many awards and recognitions that highlight Pitt’s leadership in sustainability. From AASHE STARS Gold to Bee Campus USA and other national and community honors, these achievements showcase the University’s progress and ongoing commitment to climate action and resilience.
Beyond the PittCAP document, the University is already operationalizing a roadmap of climate action and investments that include prioritized strategies and timelines with clear actions, leaders, stakeholders, and success measurements. Pitt’s Carbon Commitment Committee is responsible for ensuring both this PittCAP and its roadmap are followed, as led by the University’s Office of Sustainability.
As we advance through our GHG-reduction strategies, we’ll be integrating the crosscutting themes of academic mission, equitable outcomes, and economic resilience. Each is fundamental to every climate action decision we make and are included in our roadmap to ensure we’re addressing each intentionally as we advance toward carbon neutrality.
Developed under the direction of the Carbon Commitment Committee of the Chancellor’s Advisory Council on Sustainability, this PittCAP builds on the goals of our existing Pitt Sustainability Plan, while setting both an insistent and realistic approach on the carbon opportunities and challenges in front of our campus, community, and world.
