Incredible Shrinking Footprint

When then-President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord in 2017, the University of Maryland kept working to reduce its output of greenhouse gases, as did other institutions, cities and states.

Thanks to a new online portal, Terps can now monitor the latest data on UMD’s work to reduce its carbon footprint—down a net 56% since a 2005 baseline, with both reductions in energy usage and increased investments in carbon-reduction technology to offset emissions. That kind of continuing progress, combined with partners nationwide, kept the United States within range of its commitments in the 2016 Paris agreement, which the country recently reentered under President Joe Biden.

Beyond emissions from electric power and vehicles, the new SustainableUMD Progress Hub features articles, interactive graphics, tables and charts to plug users into other kinds of stats: tons of waste the campus diverted from landfills, water usage, spending on green cleaning products, the output of UMD’s solar panels, and the number of students who earned a sustainability studies minor last year.

“It’s really powerful software that allows the user to dive into the data and make comparisons over time on how we are doing,” said Scott Lupin, director of UMD’s Office of Sustainability, which created the website. “What it shows is that while we still have work to do, the university has embraced a culture of sustainability and made significant progress on all our goals, from our use of energy and reduction of greenhouse gases, to our reduction of solid waste and educating students about sustainability.”

Read on for some of the hub’s highlights: