American universities are in the forefront of research and scholarship—so it makes sense that these institutions would lead in making their facilities environmentally sustainable. In the last 15 years, hundreds of the country’s higher-education institutions have committed to making their campuses carbon neutral. Yet only a tiny few—a dozen or so (or none, depending how the term is defined)—have so far achieved this goal. Erik Olsen, a managing partner in the New York office of the energy consultant Transsolar, has worked with a number of institutions aiming to decarbonize. “The best have detailed plans that they’re far down the road of implementing,” he says. “And the worst have no plan. And some only have plans to make a plan.”
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