Georgia Tech's Climate Action Journey
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“As one of the world’s leading research universities, Georgia Tech has the opportunity, and the obligation, to create and share solutions that can help curb climate change and mitigate its harmful impact on our planet and our lives.”
–Ángel Cabrera, President
Changing Climate
The wide-ranging, catastrophic impacts of climate change are already here. However, the most recent climate reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change emphasize that with quick action, we still have time to curb some of the most drastic impacts of a warming world.
Georgia Tech’s Climate Action Plan outlines our path toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions, defines success, and explains how we will measure and report on progress. This Story Map provides a look at that path and captures what climate action means for Georgia Tech. The full Climate Action Plan is available here.
Our scope is ambitious and global, but this plan connects to our Atlanta community, one of the historic centers of civil rights activism.
Climate change impacts our community in the following ways:
Flooding and Stormwater Runoff
Storms are bringing more rain– –up to 37% more precipitation than storms brought in the 1950s–over shorter periods of time leading to flooding.
Because Atlanta operates a combined sewer and stormwater overflow system, heavy rainfall may overwhelm our stormwater infrastructure and create sewage overflows. Stormwater runoff is rain or snow that hits the street and flows directly into bodies of water, untreated. Along the way, this water picks up materials and chemicals from streets, gutters, neighborhoods, industrial sites, parking lots, and construction sites and can cause stream bank erosion. However, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) also notes that accelerating sea level rise leads to increased flooding in coastal cities, even when there is no storm.
Georgia Tech researchers and engineers are working to better understand the impact of climate change on our oceans and collaborating with NOAA to improve flooding response plans in Georgia’s coastal communities.
Georgia Tech is currently striving to reduce its stormwater footprint. To achieve this goal, Georgia Tech has implemented cisterns, infiltration systems, rain gardens, and green roofs. Cisterns around campus store and manage stormwater runoff for reuse in smart irrigation and toilet flushing.
Heat Risk and Heat Islands
Extreme heat and heat waves cause significant loss of life, as well as damage to mental health, reduced air quality, reduced agricultural productivity, and increased risk of infectious, mosquito-borne diseases like yellow fever.
In 2019, Georgia had its warmest year on record, surpassing the previous records set in 2017 and 2016. The state began 2023 with the warmest three months in its recorded history , 6.4 degrees Fahrenheit above this century’s norm.
Community members in Atlanta, along with students from Georgia Tech and Spelman College, collect data for an urban heat research project using small temperature sensors . The data helps researchers map urban heat islands in Atlanta, enabling a better understanding of climate change impacts on frontline communities.
Community, Equity, and Accessibility
Lasting, impactful climate solutions must be rooted in collaboration across disciplines and communities. Our Climate Action Plan integrates climate equity into our decision-making, from policies to practices. We consider the interconnectedness of social and environmental sustainability.
Georgia Tech regularly partners with frontline communities and supports community-led initiatives.
The Urban Climate Lab at Georgia Tech conducts cutting-edge, critical climate equity research including estimating the population health risk of a combined heat wave and blackout event for Atlanta, Detroit, and Phoenix. Findings reveal that for the many households without air conditioning, heat risk compounds under blackout conditions.
Air Quality
Poor air quality is one of the most prevalent environmental risks to health as it’s linked to a number of diseases. Vehicle emissions, manufacturing, chemical production, and fuel and natural gas all affect air quality negatively. Many of the strategies in the Climate Action Plan will help improve air quality for the campus community.
“A core focus of Georgia Tech's mission is to improve the human condition. Climate change impacts all aspects of life on earth. By implementing climate mitigation and adaptation strategies on campus, Georgia Tech can reach net-zero emissions while also improving the health of our built environment and local community.”
– Jennifer Chirico, Associate Vice President of Sustainability
Forming the Plan
Spearheaded by the Office of Sustainability, Georgia Tech began the planning process for the Climate Action Plan in collaboration with faculty, students, staff, administrative leadership, and the broader Atlanta community.
100s of viewpoints collected.
19 Advisory Task Force Members, 70+ Working Group Members, 800+ participants at CAP events, Town Halls, etc., and 100+ Students Engaged
Through dozens of meetings and events.
8 Advisory Task Force Meetings, 41 Working Group Meetings, and 10 CAP Events
Coalescing in
1 Plan with 30+ Strategies
Our commitment to climate action is rooted in our Institute Strategic Plan, Sustainability Next Plan, Campus Comprehensive Plan, and our dedication to advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Institute Strategic Plan
The Institute Strategic Plan presents Georgia Tech’s shared vision for the next decade. It is grounded in our commitment to developing leaders who advance technology and improve the human condition and is driven by a set of ambitious goals and bold actions to grow the impact we have in the world.
Sustainability Next Plan
The CAP is an important deliverable of the Sustainability Next Plan . While Sustainability Next defines an expansive, transdisciplinary scope for the Institute’s sustainability work, the CAP focuses on greenhouse gas mitigation and linking climate action to the Institute’s academic and research mission. The CAP will support Sustainability Next in making the critical connection between global sustainability and climate action.
Campus Comprehensive Plan
The Comprehensive Campus Plan (CCP) is a living document that will inform how Georgia Tech’s campus space can be utilized to support the growing and changing campus community for the next 10 years and beyond. Steeped in the ISP’s commitment to people, research, and teaching, the CCP will demonstrate how Georgia Tech will lead and inspire by example in creating a roadmap for the sustainable development and management of the campus. The CAP will support efforts to ensure the campus adapts to changing climatic conditions and minimizes our greenhouse gas emissions.
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 SDGs, which are an urgent call for action by all countries - developed and developing - in a global partnership. The UN SDGs underpin Georgia Tech’s Sustainability Next framework for catalyzing action and advancing the public good at a global scale. Climate action, the core of our CAP, is UN SDG Goal #13. Strategy sections in the plan are aligned with SDG indicators that help measure progress towards the goals.
"As a public university, we have a responsibility to work towards solutions that ensures all our stakeholders across the state and afar, equally benefit from the contributions Georgia Tech makes to advance climate solutions through research and practice."
– Chris Burke, Executive Director, Community Relations
GHG Emissions
The first step in conducting a greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) inventory is establishing the geographic boundary and scope of what emissions will be included. Georgia Tech’s GHG inventory includes emissions from the metro Atlanta campus, excluding those from outside the campus’ geographic boundary and the international campuses.
Georgia Tech collects and verifies all input data and emissions calculations, ensuring data quality, transparency, organization, and reproducibility. The inventory process follows an internationally-recognized protocol and organizes our emissions data according to industry standards.
Campus Base Map from Infrastructure and Sustainability
FY2022 GHG Emissions Inventory
Through this protocol, GHGs can be organized into three categories or scopes.
- Scope 1 includes emissions created by Georgia Tech directly.
- Scope 2 includes emissions produced by the electricity Georgia Tech purchases from the grid or other sources.
- Scope 3 includes all emissions that fall outside of scopes 1 & 2, or emissions generated by the Georgia Tech community indirectly.
Tech's emissions inventory tracks key greenhouse gases identified by the IPCC - including carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. These gases are reported in terms of metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (mt CO 2 e), a method for converting different GHGs into a common unit.
One mt CO 2 e is equivalent to 121,643 smartphones being charged or 2,564 miles driven by an average gasoline-powered passenger vehicle.
Georgia Tech Emissions Dashboard
“The Climate Action Plan is a key element of Georgia Tech’s commitment to advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 13: Climate Action. The plan will enable Georgia Tech to “Lead by Example” by reducing emissions, advancing transdisciplinary climate research, and empowering students to lead climate action on campus and in their future workplaces and communities.”
Rebecca Watts Hull, Assistant Director, Faculty Development for Sustainability Education
Net Zero Commitment
The Georgia Tech CAP reaffirms a net zero target based on the United Nations' Race to Zero Campaign . That commitment places Georgia Tech in a leading coalition of companies, education, healthcare and financial institutions, and many other non-State actors who have committed to working towards net zero emissions before 2050.
Net zero refers to equalizing the emissions we generate with the GHGs we remove during a specific time period. Once we achieve this balance, we will have achieved the target for the Race to Zero initiative.
Net zero differs from other climate goals in that it includes a “like for like” requirement: sources and sinks of emissions match in their global warming impact and in their carbon storage timescale and durability.
- For example, using a forest to balance emissions from fossil fuel extraction is not acceptable, since the methane emissions from extraction do not match forest carbon removals in terms of warming impact and duration.
- Additionally, the timescale in this example does not match as unextracted fossil fuels are stable and can persist as a sink for periods that far exceed a forest’s ability to persist as a sink.
Reaffirming this commitment to net zero will help create an accountability framework for Georgia Tech to develop a cadence of inventories, analysis, reporting, and a stocktake of its progress towards net zero.
"With this plan we set forth the steps we can see today: some steps are common to all climate action plans, and some steps are novel. We are confident that the future Georgia Tech community will discover even more innovative ways to enhance education and provide increasing benefits to Georgia and beyond. We look forward to the implementation of this plan and we especially hope it will inspire innovations going forward.”
–Valerie Thomas, Anderson-Interface Chair of Natural Systems and Professor, H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering; Joint appointment in the School of Public Policy, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts
Climate Action Strategies
Introduction to Strategies
The CAP serves as a guiding framework to strategically channel collective power and resources. The plan development process yielded dozens of ideas for climate action and initiatives. The result was eight focus areas, each containing multiple strategies. For additional detail on each strategy, explore the plan when it is published in early 2024.
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To prioritize these strategies and ensure Georgia Tech can successfully meet our climate goals a GHG reduction model was created. The model is based on the latest research and estimates to analyze strategies currently in progress and those that may be considered for the future. Strategy model results are detailed in depth in the CAP document .
“In my opinion, this is an essential step for Georgia Tech to expand its impact locally and globally. As one of the leading institutes in technology, Georgia Tech has acted on the climate movement and shows the determination to bring a brighter future to younger generations, the students, the environment, and nature through the Climate Action Plan by reducing greenhouse emissions. Not only focusing on infrastructure building and waste management, but Georgia Tech also focuses on educating and encouraging the students to act. I feel proud and excited that Georgia Tech is a part of this movement.”
–Kiera Tran, Student
Carbon Sequestration Analysis
Carbon sequestration is the practice of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide ( United States Geological Survey ). Annually, Georgia Tech’s campus sequesters approximately 376 mt CO 2 e, or the equivalent of driving 84 gas powered cars for a year. One of Georgia Tech’s key pathways to sequestering carbon is through its tree canopy .
- Trees absorb millions of tons of air pollution and greenhouse gases every year. By meeting Georgia Tech's goal of 55% tree canopy cover, we could boost sequestration to approximately 1,256 mt CO 2 e per year.
- Trees also play a critical role in providing relief from extreme heat and reducing energy bills . They lower stress , noise , and wind and water damage from storms .
- The beautification bonus from having more trees around has real health impacts:
- Research has found that having trees outside of hospital windows can shorten patient stays ;
- Communities see lower asthma rates when their children live with more trees in the neighborhood; and
- Studies have found seeing more trees can make us happier .
“Climate action is crucial for Georgia Tech due to its responsibility to the environment, commitment to academic excellence, pursuit of sustainability, engagement with students, and the potential for community partnerships. Students participate in Climate Action Plan development through advisory groups, public engagement, and workshops, contributions from student organizations, research involvement, and efforts for integration into the curriculum. This ensures that student voices and priorities are considered in shaping sustainability initiatives.”
- Athena Verghis, Student
Our Responsibility
In the Georgia Tech strategic plan, Georgia Tech commits to tackling pressing challenges. The Climate Action Plan builds on and amplifies climate work underway at Georgia Tech, including world-renowned climate research efforts and the first Living Building in the Southeast.
The CAP outlines priority strategies that Georgia Tech needs to pursue to meet ambitious climate goals. As we move into plan implementation, we will continue to work with partners across campus to accomplish key actions that will push strategies forward.
This Plan dares to imagine a brighter future, led by bold ideas and leaders making a positive impact on communities across the world. We ask that our campus community–staff, faculty, students, alumni, donors, and more–join us in advancing the strategies and actions in our CAP. For more information see the Office of Sustainability’s website and explore the full plan .
“Protecting our planet is not a choice; it’s a responsibility. Georgia Tech’s Climate Action Plan is our commitment to a prosperous future, where every action we take today ensures a thriving tomorrow for generations to come.”
– Shan Arora, Director, The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design at Georgia Institute of Technology
