The Climate Action Plan Committee had the opportunity to host the Week 8 Community Reflection in Stetson Chapel! Titled “Towards Carbon Neutrality with the Climate Action Plan,” the goal of this community reflection was twofold. First, the Climate Action Plan Committee wanted to share the current progress to fulfilling the Climate Action Plan’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Transparency and accessibility of information play a vital role in creating a campus-wide culture of sustainability, and the Climate Action Plan Committee is dedicated to increasing our community’s awareness of climate change as well as our efforts to combat it.

Second, the Committee wanted to create a productive space where students could create their own meaningful climate action. This past November, Environmental Stewardship Center Director Sara Stockwood and Outdoor Environmental Coordinator Greta Farley attended the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) Conference. As part of the sessions and keynotes they attended by people working towards sustainability on college campuses around the United States, they were asked to formulate their own personal climate action plans. In one session by Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, they were given a climate action Venn diagram (attached below) to fill out. The choice to include an activity was deliberate; climate action does not just happen to us, we have to work towards it together. While true climate justice requires systemic changes, we wanted to challenge the defeatist attitude that is quick to appear when we talk about enacting change by reminding our campus population that their actions do have an impact.

During the Community Reflection, attendees were challenged to use this Venn diagram to answer what brings them joy, what they’re good at and what work they think needs doing. After completing these questions, participants could assess the heart of the Venn diagram, where all three circles overlap to find their personal climate action. A few of them shared their diagrams with us: