Net Zero on Campus

As the risks and impacts of climate change become more visible every year, the call for net-zero emissions is no longer restricted to country-level commitments. It has become equally important for non-state actors, like business corporations and large institutions, to establish targets and pathways to net zero by mid-century or sooner. Universities and colleges across the world have the unique opportunity in this race to net zero to not only build strategies to reduce emissions within their operations, but also to champion knowledge, climate research, and action within their communities.

With university net-zero commitments rising worldwide, the SDSN has developed the Net Zero on Campus Initiative in collaboration with the Climateworks Centre, Monash University, Second Nature, and the EAUC. Together, they created a guide (in Chinese, English, Greek, and Spanish) and accompanying online toolkit to help universities and colleges accelerate their climate action plans, while creating new communities of practice.

Building on this global expertise, as of January 2026, the SDSN is leading a new Erasmus+ project, University Cooperation for Net Zero on Campus (UNICO). UNICO supports European universities in translating net-zero commitments into action by strengthening institutional capacity, fostering peer learning, and deepening collaboration between campuses and their surrounding communities.