We need to demand action on Rice’s commitment to carbon neutrality
We need to demand action on Rice’s commitment to carbon neutrality
Note: this is a reproduction of an op-ed I published in the Rice Thresher, the student newspaper.
In 2022, Rice announced a plan to become carbon neutral by 2030, a noble if lofty ambition. The announcement laid out a multifaceted approach: sustainable investment of the endowment, green infrastructure on campus and targeted research funding. Yet these bold words mean little without genuine tracking of the plan’s progress.
Take the investment strategy first. The Rice Management Company, which manages the University’s endowment, makes no mention of the carbon neutral plan on its homepage, although it does highlight its “portfolio of oil and gas royalties.”
In fact, the plan is only directly mentioned in the 2022 Endowment Stewardship Update. I’m no asset manager, but to reach a carbon neutral investment portfolio less than five years from now, Rice would probably want to keep track of its progress. If there were progress, I would also assume that it would be mentioned in a yearly report.
The record on campus isn’t much better. I was excited to find a report of our campus’s carbon footprint, published by the Office of Sustainability. The report indicated a trend of decreasing Scope 1 and 2 emissions, representing direct emissions from Rice-owned sources and indirect emissions from purchased electricity, respectively.
However, the report was published in 2022 with the claim that Scope 3 emissions data, capturing indirect emissions from upstream and downstream sources such as purchased goods, waste and investments and assets — everything not captured by Scope 1 or 2 — would be reported “later in 2022” and that in 2023 a “guide detailing calculations, assumptions, and emissions factors” would be available. Neither of these is readily accessible, if they exist, and after I reached out to the Office of Sustainability, the site was updated to remove the discussion of Scope 3 emissions.
The carbon footprint report is not the only case of an outburst of enthusiasm for sustainability followed by apparent inaction. Many aspects of Rice’s sustainability policy are clearly never updated: A Water Year in Review Report has not been published since 2022, the sustainability newsletter has not been updated since 2019 and Rice’s third-party sustainability rating expired in 2021.
Encouragingly, Rice has maintained its commitment to getting new buildings Gold certified or better in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a rating on a building’s “greenness.” Yet it’s not clear what, if any, progress has been made towards renovating old buildings to be more energy and environmentally conscious.
Announcing big goals with little follow-up is also apparent in Rice’s research. The initial carbon neutral announcement highlighted the Sustainable Futures Fund, which was created “to support interdisciplinary research on the broad range of environmental challenges” through an “annual funding opportunity for at least the next five years.” But based on the available submission form and the funded awards I can find, the fund was only used for research grants in 2021.
The student body, on the other hand, has taken meaningful steps towards sustainability. The success of the residential college composting program was initiated and continued by students. Student organizations such as Sunrise Rice enable impact beyond campus through organized policy discussions and pressure on local officials and industries. The Graduate Student Loan Closet helps minimize waste by enabling appliance reuse. Undergraduate EcoReps help realize sustainable lifestyles at residential colleges.
Why stop at neutrality? Clearly the student body cares about climate action and a green future, so we should demand more from our institution. Call for transparency in the form of accurate and timely reporting, and real action after announcements.
(2025/10/21)