This April, Dartmouth College announced a striking figure—it will invest up to$500 millionto enhance campus sustainability. However, the Ivy League school's plan to actually reduce its environmental impact is not so "eye-catching," and few people on campus can even see these changes firsthand.

The reason is that most of the funds will be used to upgrade the campus heating infrastructure, converting the original steam heating system to a hot water system. Josh Keniston, Dartmouth's senior vice president for capital planning and campus operations, said, "Hot water doesn't sound sexy or innovative, but it's actually much more flexible than steam." He is leading the university's energy transition efforts.

The hot water system under construction includes numerous distribution points, among them thousands of underground boreholes—meaning the related infrastructure is almost entirely invisible. The distributed system requires no central heating plant, allowing the college to adopt multiple heating methods, such as electric heat pumps, solar heat pumps, and even storing water heated during New England summers underground for winter use. This provides diverse pathways for energy utilization.

The conversion to a hot water system—while replacing aging infrastructure—will bring a 20% efficiency improvement. Keniston said, "A lot of energy is lost through steam distribution." These energy savings can offset part of the investment cost over the coming years.

This infrastructure overhaul is part of the college's emissions reduction plan, which aims to cut campus emissions by 60% by 2030 and achieve 100% reduction by 2050. The plan is integrated with broader research, academic, and community engagement on campus.

In fiscal year 2022, the college reported greenhouse gas emissions of approximately58,500 metric tons. The administration says it is on track to meet most of its long-term reduction goals, but acknowledges it may fall short of its 2025 target to reduce carbon emissions to 38,414 metric tons.

According to Keniston, Dartmouth's $500 million investment represents about a quarter of its overall capital improvement plan. In addition to the hot water system conversion, the investment includes energy efficiency measures such as improving building envelopes, and funds non-combustion technologies like geothermal exchange boreholes, large heat pumps, and solar power for electricity generation and hot water production.

Dartmouth President Sian Beilock wrote in a letter to campus in April that this expenditure is the largest sustainability investment in the college's history. In the letter, she acknowledged, "Our past efforts at decarbonizing our campus have fallen short. Our new, more ambitious goals are designed to help us take a leadership role in campus sustainability—especially in more remote, colder climates."

Where emissions come from: heating, electricity, conferences

Dartmouth College is just one of thousands of U.S. colleges and universities, and among the wealthier ones, with annual revenues of$1.4 billionand assets of $11.7 billion. Meanwhile, many other institutions are struggling to balance budgets or even stay operational.

Although the higher education sector accounts for only arelatively small shareof total U.S. emissions, the industry still employs about4 million workersand enrolls over18 million students, who consume significant energy and resources. On many campuses, there is substantial room for emissions reductions, including at institutions with far fewer resources than Dartmouth.

According to Julian Dautremont, program director at the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), about a quarter of colleges and universities are leaders in sustainability. He said, "The other three-quarters are a mixed bag. I'm sure they're doing some recycling and some energy efficiency work—they're not doing nothing—but the gap is really large."

One of the largest sources of campus emissions is their own electricity and heating infrastructure—such as Dartmouth's heating system—as well as purchased electricity. According to data from Gordian, a facilities intelligence company, fixed utilities (including on-campus infrastructure that burns fossil fuels) account for 35.8% of average total emissions at colleges. Purchased electricity and indirect utilities account for another 32.8% of the 2023 emissions inventories tracked by Gordian.

The hustle and bustle of campus life also carries a significant carbon footprint. Employee and student commuting accounts for 11.8% of average emissions, while other travel—including academic conferences and leadership meetings—accounts for another 11.5%.

So far, efforts to reduce climate emissions have focused mainly on electricity procurement. Dautremont said that power purchase agreements (PPAs) are one of the key strategies for colleges to lower their carbon footprint. PPAs provide institutions with long-term electricity purchase contracts and can focus on green energy. Groups of colleges can alsopoolthese agreements. For example, nine institutions in North Carolina and Pennsylvania arecollaborating on a PPAaimed at offsetting the current energy use of each member institution and supporting a solar project in Kentucky.

Dautremont noted that as PPAs become relatively common, the new frontier for emissions reductions lies in campus heating systems—exactly where Dartmouth is directing its funds.

Sustainability on a budget

However, colleges have many other potential tools to reduce their energy and environmental footprint without a $500 million capital expenditure. Sophie Mason and Duncan Ketel, planning services account managers at Gordian, noted that temperature control is a simple way to save energy—lowering heating intensity in winter and cooling intensity in summer.

Mason said that avoiding emissions is one of the most important things colleges can do, which may mean renovating existing buildings and improving their efficiency. From an emissions perspective, renovation is preferable to new construction, especially when old, inefficient buildings remain in use after new ones are built.

Dautremont also mentioned that reducing procurement of items like paper and printers (thereby reducing indirect emissions) is another way to lower the carbon footprint. He also suggested that removing trays in campus dining halls can reduce food waste and its associated production and preparation emissions, at almost no cost to the institution.

Reducing car commuting and employee travel would also impact campus emissions. Mason noted that conference travel decreased during the pandemic but has been trending upward since 2020.

However, cultural and structural barriers persist at many institutions. Mason said, "There may be opportunities to reduce travel—connecting with prospective students or alumni through virtual or remote meetings. But in many cases, universities see that as a second-best option. Face-to-face interaction is very important to them."

As for commuting, efforts to get students and staff to bike or take transit more often depend largely on the municipal infrastructure of the city where the university is located. But even marginal efforts like carpooling campaigns can make a difference. Ketel said, "If I used to drive alone and now carpool with three classmates, that's a change. It costs the university nothing—just staff time to promote it."

Perhaps one of the most important tools is an organizational approach to sustainability. Mason suggested that, where possible, sustainability should not be viewed in isolation but rather by looking for "connections and overlaps with areas that already have investment momentum," such as deferred maintenance and research, where capital expenditures can serve dual purposes.

At Dartmouth, shifting to a phased way of thinking about investment helped redefine what was feasible, Keniston said. For example, the college had considered replacing No. 6 fuel oil with a biomass plant, but instead of overhauling its heating approach all at once, it is phasing in the heating infrastructure conversion through the hot water system.

Keniston said, "Allowing ourselves to take small steps and build over time has opened up different technology options for us. It also gives us flexibility in construction management and financial management. If the economy fluctuates and we have to pause, we won't have stranded assets."