Five years ago, Temple’s 2019 Climate Action plan set out specific commitments to campus sustainability — 44 total goals spanning from academics, culture, design, energy and operations. Just 28 of them have been completed since 2019. 

Some of the initiatives surpassed their initial goals, but some are not near their benchmark, according to Temple’s 2023-24 Sustainability Report, released just before spring break in February. 

Energy use in buildings is only down by 2% from 2017 and the core recycling rate is still half of its 2020 goal, down by nearly 89%. Less than 2% of campus dining services are locally sourced, compared to a goal of 20% by 2020. And total gross emissions have slightly increased, according to the report. 

Temple created the 2019 Climate Action Plan as a means to create benchmarks for the university to hit on its way to carbon neutrality.

“The Climate Action Plan is what guides the structure of that report, and the transparency of our data is something that we committed to back in the initial Climate Action commitment,” said Rebecca Collins, director of sustainability in the Office of Sustainability. “It’s all towards the ultimate goal of carbon neutrality by 2050 but the [CAP] really gave us a roadmap in different areas.”

The Sustainability Report creates a transparent space for the Temple community to review how the administration and the Office of Sustainability has worked toward their outlined goals. Last year, The Temple News reviewed the 2023-24 report for Earth Day.

“[Some of it] is greenwashing and all for optics, and they obfuscate and make it really confusing in order for people to understand [the reports],” said Ty Fowler, a senior philosophy major and co-founder of the unofficial student organization Temple Climate Action. “Temple does not clarify exactly how they are calculating the amount of emissions they are reducing. You have to take everything in the report with a grain of salt.” 

Here’s an in-depth guide to Temple’s sustainability goals progress.

OPERATIONS

Basic material waste is one of the most significant numerical changes in the report. The 2019 goal was to increase the core recycling rate to 30% by 2020 — but only reached 16% last year. The highest core recycling percentage the university has hit was in 2023 at 55%.

Single stream recycling was reported at 962 tons in 2023, down from 1,583 tons in 2019. However, the university measured only 99 tons of recycled waste in 2024. Collins attributed the dip to a new waste hauling contract with a vendor that weighs the recycling rather than tracking it using yardage.

“Prior to this recent reporting period, we were making some assumptions about weight based on yardage, and as you can see, those assumptions were a little bit generous,” said Caroline Burkholder, senior sustainability manager. “So that really is the reason for the dip in recycling, because we’re just actually weighing the material now.”

Single stream recycling includes food and beverage containers, empty cans, cartons, cardboard, glass and paper, according to the City of Philadelphia’s single stream recycling program. Plastic bags, food, tissues, batteries and other soiled materials can contaminate a whole load and prohibit the city from recycling the batch. 

All municipal solid waste is up about 100%, from 1,021 tons in 2023 to 2,093 tons in 2024. Mixed office paper increased from 148 tons in 2023 to 249 tons in 2024. Temple hasn’t utilized any vegetation compost since 2022. In 2023, Temple reported recycling 2,118 tons of construction materials, but only 130 tons in 2024.

Philadelphia has made efforts to improve sanitation and recycling, but the recycling rate is only 13%, compared to other cities like New York City, with a 20% rate, and Boston’s 25%, The Philadelphia Citizen reported. The city has tried different measures to combat waste issues like illegal dumping via trash pickups twice per week in South Philadelphia.

ENERGY & EMISSIONS

Temple uses electricity and natural gas, steam and oil in buildings and facilities. The Climate Action Plan outlines a goal of reducing energy use by 18% by 2030.

In 2019, electricity use was recorded at 678,602 million British Thermal Units. In 2024, after years of fluctuation, it was 673,308 MMBtu. One MMBtu is equal to 293 kilowatt-hour of energy — the university used around 197 million kWh in 2024.

Temple has purchased Green-e Renewable Energy Certificated sources each year since 2014, and purchased 9,500,000 kWh worth of Green-e RECs in 2023 to meet carbon reduction goals. The total energy consumption from clean and renewable sources was slightly more than two percent in 2023. 

The university also uses alternative fueled vehicles for transportation. Temple increased its fleet of electric vehicles by 17 since 2023, out of 186 total vehicles.

Fleet-based emissions from Temple’s vehicles have risen compared to the 2020 baseline of 649.55 metric tons of carbon dioxide. In 2024, the university used 687 metric tons, a 10% increase, even though Temple reduced its total vehicle number from 223 to 186 between 2020 and 2024.

The Office of Sustainability reports its greenhouse gas emissions each year, using three different scopes to break down different emissions in different departments. They’re measured in MTCO2e, metric tons of carbon dioxide. 

The first scope encompasses oil, natural gas, propane, refrigerants and fertilizers — total gross emissions in this scope is 51,930 MTCO2e, slightly higher from 2023 but reduced from the university’s high of 65,189 in 2009.

The second scope’s emissions include purchased electricity, steam and the Green-e RECs that reduce Temple’s net emissions. They purchased 5,651 MTCO2es of RECS in 2024, double from last year’s 2,825 MTCO2es. Still, the number is down from its decade-high purchase of 22,834 MTCO2es in 2016.

The third scope totals commuting, university travel, solid waste emissions and transmissions. Faculty and staff commuting emissions are slightly higher than last year, but student commuting reduced by about 700 MTCO2es. University-financed travel increased by 1,000 MTCO2es to 8,259, but hasn’t hit five digits since 2020 which was its highest recorded year at nearly 12,300 MTCO2es.

The fact sheet measures gross emissions intensity by square foot and by student. Since 2006, the percentage of emission intensity per 1,000 square foot has been cut in half. The gross emission rate per student hovered less than five percent from 2019 to 2024, when it hit 5.28 gross emission intensity.

Emission quantity is not radically different through the three different scopes, all within five thousand MTCO2es of each other.  Environmentalists primarily focus on reducing the first scope of emissions, since it deals directly with fossil fuels which release large amounts of carbon dioxide when burned.   

“It would be really impactful for Temple to divest from fossil fuels, it’s a large contributor to our scope one and two emissions,” said Nikki Ivan, a senior environmental studies major and EcoLead through the Office of Sustainability’s EcoRep program. “Overall, it’s just something that I don’t think a university should be supporting.”

CULTURE & ACADEMICS

The culture section of the report focused on different on-campus solutions that both students and faculty can contribute to, including food insecurity initiatives and some of the donation programs like Give + Go Green and Temple Thrift. 

Though not mentioned in the report, Temple Climate Action has worked since 2022 to spread awareness of sustainability. They partnered with Temple Student Government in May 2024 to release a statement advocating for Temple’s divestment from fossil fuels.

Temple’s cohort of EcoReps, an organization of students who participate in the Office of Sustainability’s development and engagement, held different events and collaborations to encourage sustainability around campus. The program began in Fall 2020 and held a total of 88 events last year for environmental education and advocacy.

“Oftentimes when people think about sustainability and environmentalism as a whole, they often feel that there’s not much that can be done, like it’s something we can’t fix,” Ivan said. “I think understanding that there are solutions and promoting sustainability and environmental advocacy, it’s something that is really impactful and can make a difference.”

The Cherry Pantry, a free-to-use pantry for students, faculty and staff, distributes canned goods and fresh vegetables from the Temple Community Garden. Students can use the pantry once per week and total visits have doubled, from 4,830 visits in 2022-23 to 9,061 visits last year. The program launched in 2018 after the university conducted a survey that revealed 35% of students experience food insecurity. 

The sector of academics and research aims to increase sustainability course offerings to teach students sustainability engagement and curricula. Temple offered sustainability courses in 80 departments — an increase from 68 in 2017 — during the 2023-24 year, surpassing its goal of a two-department increase by 2022.

One of the 2016-17 goals was to offer an increase of 10 sustainability courses by 2022. Temple has decreased the number of sustainability courses by 33 since 2016, as of 2023. Sustainability-inclusive courses, which are classes that include topics of sustainability, have decreased by 36 from the 2016 baseline.

“It’s just the hypocrisy of [academics and sustainability],” Fowler said. “They’re adding all of these unnecessary programs and classes, and not amplifying the classes and information that is integral to climate action and sustainability.” 

SUSTAINABILITY TRACKING

Temple uses a certification process from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education — the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System. The most recent four-year certification was submitted in 2023, and Temple received its first, and highest, Gold rating with a score of 66.57. The highest possible rating is platinum, with 85 minimum points needed.

Temple lacks the framework to complete different STARS standards. The university doesn’t plan to pursue green building codes and ratings in building design and construction, nor do they utilize their own zero clean and renewable electricity sources and doesn’t invest in sustainable industries, businesses or funds as of 2023. 

The certification is valid until February 2027, when Temple will most likely self-report its data again. Schools can self-report their data each year, according to the STARS website.

“Another thing students can do is be aware of this data and understand it,” Collins said. “We need students to be raising their voice about the necessity of these programs and really thinking critically about Temple’s impact and making sure we’re doing our part for the city of Philadelphia.”

The Office of Sustainability includes Burkholder, Collins and Bryce Forys, the sustainability coordinator. The office has not yet met with President John Fry.

“That report makes a lot of big claims, and three people cannot do that,” Fowler said. “They cannot do it healthily, and they cannot do it well, and it’s nothing about them – they’re great people who really care, and they’re overworked and they don’t have enough funding. I’d like to see the Office of Sustainability get more funding, more staff people and more agency.”

Collins stressed the long-term efforts of the Office of Sustainability’s work. 

“It takes a lot of engagement across the university over time to really make sure we are investing our time and finances in ways that are going to have a payoff that are really reasonable and meaningful,” Collins said. “Y’all are here for four years, so it may not seem like that there are things happening, or not quickly enough – I promise you we are working on so many things, and sometimes it just takes time to achieve that.”