LOGAN, Utah — Utah State University (USU) is encouraging the campus community to do a lot of little things — like filling up the same water bottle at specially made fountains, not idling their vehicles, applying for carbon credits when traveling on business — but it's also working on a big goal that requires a lot of big things over decades: becoming carbon neutral by 2050, HJ News reported.
Since signing a Carbon Commitment in 2007, USU has cut emissions overall by 6%; while enrollment increased by 5,673 and square footage by over 2,000,000 square feet, according to the report.
The Carbon Commitment allowed USU to choose at least two tangible actions to work on toward carbon neutrality. The university mandated that all new buildings on campus will be built to LEED Silver standard or equivalent and further encouraged everyone on campus to use public transportation.
On those two fronts, USU recently unveiled the LEED-certified Huntsman Hall, a 117,000-square-foot extension of the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business and recently switched its entire Aggie shuttle bus fleet to run on natural gas instead of diesel, HJ News reported.
