FOREWORD FROM THE PRESIDENT I am proud to share with you the University of St. Thomas’ first comprehensive strategic plan for sustainability. It represents the commitment of our entire university to lead and achieve in environmental stewardship and caring for God’s creation – areas at the core of our mission to advance the common good. While St. Thomas has made remarkable progress toward sustainability over the past decade, we are just getting started. In May 2019, the Undergraduate Student Government General Council passed a resolution in support of sustainability initiatives. This plan identifies a vision for advancing this commitment. Through it, we will catalyze university-wide engagement and build a culture that prepares our students to be sustainability leaders today and tomorrow. This plan has ambitious goals, but I am confident in our ability to achieve them. One is a goal of carbon neutrality for St. Thomas by 2035. Here we have plotted a course to reduce our university’s carbon emissions by half of what they were in 2007 within the next five years. Carbon neutrality – a dream a decade ago – is clearly within reach! I would like to express my deep gratitude to the many students, faculty, staff and alumni who have worked together to create this plan. Nearly 1,500 individuals engaged in the planning process through class projects, a community visioning brainstorm, a strategic plan workshop and nine work groups. This collective effort resulted in a plan to infuse sustainability throughout the academic, cocurricular, administrative and operational functions of our university. I look forward to seeing this plan grow as we continue to put our minds, ideas, strategies and initiatives to work for sustainability. I look forward to working with you as we rise to the challenge of protecting the environment to create a better world for present and future generations.
Sincerely,
Julie H. Sullivan, Ph.D. President
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