Abby Hoelscher
Zeppos Tower landscape through the trees, photographed on Sept. 7, 2023. (Hustler Multimedia/Abby Hoelscher)
Vanderbilt announced an 11% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions during fiscal year 2023, making progress towards its sustainability objectives to be carbon neutral by 2050. According to the latest annual sustainability report released by the Environmental Health and Safety Department, the reduction in emissions builds upon its 35% drop since 2016, when the university began reporting emissions independently from Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
In 2021, Vanderbilt achieved carbon neutrality in advance of its original target, thanks to a partnership with the nonprofit Climate Vault. This collaboration enabled the university to offset its entire carbon footprint for the fiscal years 2019–20 and 2020–21. The report highlights the university’s significant decline in commuting emissions, which decreased by 64% during FY2023. The decrease was attributed to the adoption of telecommuting practices and enhanced insights into commuting behaviors.
!function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var t in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r=0;r