North Carolina State University
PA-2: Sustainability Planning

From the Sustainability Strategic Plan for Goal 2: Academics:
Strategy 1: Enhance cohesion among academic programs that address sustainability.
Strategy 2: Ensure that every NC State undergraduate student engages in coursework with critical and creative thinking and substantive learning outcomes focused on sustainability.
Strategy 3: Facilitate opportunities for NC State students to participate in high-impact academic experiences in sustainability.
Strategy 4: Increase the demographic and disciplinary diversity of the NC State community engaged in sustainability academics.
Strategy 5: Establish NC State as an institution that develops sustainability stewards and leaders.
Strategy 6: Establish NC State as the first choice for prospective students committed to sustainability.
Strategy 7: Engage external stakeholders in supporting NC State’s academics sustainability initiatives.
Strategy 8: Establish new sustainability student scholarships and fellowships.
Strategy 9: Increase the university’s profile in sustainability-related research.

From the Sustainability Strategic Plan for Goal 1: Student Leadership:
Strategy 1: Increase student involvement with high-impact, co-curricular experiences in sustainability.
Strategy 2: Expand sustainability training and outreach for students.

From the Sustainability Strategic Plan for Goal 4: Community and Culture:
Strategy 3: Develop the connective tissue with our campus and Triangle community in order to bridge our collective vision to “think and do” as we address society’s grand challenges

From the Sustainability Strategic Plan for Goal 3: Operations, Planning and Design
Strategy 1: Reduce NC State’s total greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent from the 2008 baseline.
Strategy 2: Reduce existing building annual energy use per square foot by 40 percent from the 2002 baseline.
Strategy 3: Expand the amount of renewable energy used to meet NC State’s needs.
Strategy 4: Reduce campus water consumption by 65 percent from the 2001 baseline.
Strategy 5: Enhance and coordinate stormwater efforts to ensure water quality for the university’s growing campus.
Strategy 6: Reduce single-occupancy vehicles on campus by 5 percent for employees and 7 percent for students from the 2015 baseline.
Strategy 7: Reduce the consumption of and demand for petroleum products in the university fleet.
Strategy 8: Achieve a 70 percent landfill diversion rate from the 2006 baseline toward zero waste.
Strategy 9: Implement source reduction and environmentally-preferable purchasing initiatives to decrease waste before it occurs.
Strategy 10: Exemplify a sustainable food system from origin to plate by adding capacity to grow food on campus land for campus dining facilities.
Strategy 11: Continue to raise awareness for Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investing.
Strategy 12: Utilize information technology to reduce resource use across campus.

From the Sustainability Strategic Plan for Goal 3: Operations, Planning and Design
Strategy 11: Continue to raise awareness for Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investing.

From the Sustainability Strategic Plan for Goal 4: Community and Culture:
Strategy 2: Embrace and demonstrate an expanded definition/ vision of sustainability that pursues improvement of the human condition, respect for all members of the community, social justice, diversity and inclusion, work-life balance, workplace and campus safety, and wellness.

NC State's new Strategic Plan, which will expire in 2030, has listed sustainability as a university value. This value has been approved the Board of Trustees and states: Sustainability, in our commitment to wise stewardship of resources, prudent financial planning and environmentally responsible operations.

The University Mission For Sustainability-
To engage the students, faculty members, staff, and University partners in preparing for a more sustainable future

The University Vision For Sustainability-
To advance sustainability into the culture, mission, and activities of the university and to become nationally recognized for its successes.

In 2008, NC State signed what has become Second Nature's Carbon Commitment and has tracked its emissions progress through GHG inventories completed for FY2013, FY2017, FY2020 and FY2021. As a signatory of the University Global Compact, NC State has made a commitment to integrate the UN Sustainable Development Goals through all arms of the university. NC State's Office Global Engagement has taken the lead on this through its Global Learning for All Initiative, which built a commitment to the SDGs into the core of its structure to provide a unifying framework for some of its multifaceted initiatives in research, teaching and learning, co-curricular engagement, and service, and to help all members of the campus community engage in addressing the complex issues of our world.