Goucher College adopted its first climate action plan in May 2011, setting a goal to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 20 percent by 2020.

The climate action plan is required by the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment, which Goucher President Sanford J. Ungar signed in the summer of 2007. The commitment requires that within two years of signing, participating colleges and universities develop comprehensive institutional plans, interim goals, deadlines, and tracking systems for becoming "climate-neutral" - reducing or offsetting all greenhouse gas production to create a "neutral" effect on global warming.

The plan commits Goucher to reducing its total GHG emissions by 20 percent below its 2009 emissions by 2020. The goal was determined after soliciting sustainability ideas from Goucher community members during a campus-wide charrette in November 2010. Members of the Goucher Environmental Sustainability Advisory Council partnered with Environmental Health and Engineering (EH&E), Inc. to use the ideas and the results of a college's completed GHG inventory to create a workable plan to reduce the college's carbon footprint.

View Goucher's latest Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventories and Climate Action Plan .