As higher education grapples with the effects of climate change, campus technologies present solutions, ambiguity and complexity — sometimes all at the same time. Technology can help reduce carbon emissions, but computing also requires energy, which adds to the carbon footprint.
IT leaders have an essential role in helping institutions navigate these questions and make the best of technology from a climate change perspective.
“Technology adds to the complexity, but not necessarily in ways that are altogether bad,” says Alex Maxwell, senior manager for climate programs at Second Nature, a nonprofit that helps colleges accelerate climate action. “It also enables a lot of interesting and perhaps more rigorous ways to account for things like carbon emissions.”
Second Nature’s signature program, the Climate Leadership Network, has 440 signatory institutions that have formally committed to climate leadership. Its University Climate Change Coalition relies on collaboration and expertise to advance climate resilience, particularly at the community level.
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