Statement on West Chester University’s Commitment to Climate Action 
Fall 2025 

In 2010 West Chester University joined higher education leaders across North America in pledging to recognize and respond to the challenge of climate change. To operationalize that commitment, in 2013 WCU released its Climate Action Plan: Carbon Neutrality by 2025. 

Since then, WCU has made outstanding progress in bringing sustainability into our academics and operations, including impressive reductions in total carbon emissions. We have 

  • reduced carbon emissions from operations by more than 30% from our baseline year of 2010 even as our student body grew by 20% and campus building space by 22%,
  • made major investments in energy-efficient, low-carbon geo-exchange heating and cooling systems that keep more than 40% of all building space on campus comfortable year-round,
  • decommissioned and demolished an outdated coal- and oil-fired boiler plant and used the land on which it was located for construction of the Sciences & Engineering Center and the Commons (SECC), a LEED Gold certified building designed to high standards of energy efficiency and healthy indoor space,
  • developed a series of Brandywine Project sustainability education workshops for faculty, staff, and students, and
  • honored our commitment to environmental education on campus by teaching and conducting research in our Robert B. Gordon Natural Area, campus vegetable gardens, and other locations on campus where built and natural systems interact.

While our Climate Action Plan set an ambitious goal of carbon neutrality by 2025, we recognize that this target reflected circumstances in 2013 that were very different than they are today. Achieving carbon neutrality requires both reducing emissions from campus operations and purchasing carbon offsets to balance remaining emissions. We have made good progress on emission reductions, yet the cost of carbon offsets has risen substantially in the last 12 years, to the point that purchasing them is now prohibitive given the economic realities of the 2020s.

Nevertheless, WCU’s carbon neutrality goal has served an important purpose in inspiring staff, faculty, and students to upgrade our facilities, pursue energy efficiency, launch educational programs, and expand opportunities to learn about the connections between human health and safety and the integrity and diversity of natural systems.  

We are proud of these and other successes. They help us make progress towards our mission of student success. They inspire us to recommit ourselves to WCU’s core values and vision and to educate future generations of students who will contribute to the common good in the Commonwealth, the country and the world.  

To prepare our community for the challenges of the twenty-first century – addressing the climate crisis, ensuring clean air and water, protecting biodiversity and natural ecosystems, defending democracy, and supporting economic opportunity for all – WCU is updating its commitments to environmental sustainability with these intentional actions: 

  • Our Office of Sustainability, in collaboration with colleagues and students across campus, continues to monitor and document our progress towards carbon neutrality and the dozens of initiatives in our original Climate Action Plan.
  • We are considering our options for a new Climate and Sustainability Action Plan that will use a science-based approach to revise our targets for decarbonizing operations to the extent possible in the coming decades.
  • A team of WCU employees who this year participated in a Campus Decarbonization Academy are applying the lessons they learned about the planning, design, construction, operations, and financial strategies for ensuring safe and comfortable buildings, laboratories, and services on campus while significantly reducing carbon emissions.  

Our commitment to environmental sustainability remains resolute. We have learned from our experiences with our initial climate action plan and take those lessons forward to develop goals and targets that reflect the seriousness of the environmental challenges we face. 

Dr. Bradley Flamm
Director, West Chester University Office of Sustainability