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Carbon Pollution Commitment
Reduce emissions of carbon pollution (greenhouse gases) from on-campus energy generation and utility energy purchases 25%, and reduce per-passenger-trip carbon pollution intensity 30%, below 2006 levels by 2025. The University has not signed the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment, which pledges to make the campus carbon-neutral.

Energy Use Profile
The University of Michigan operates a large energy infrastructure, including the Central Power Plant. The facility is a natural gas-fired, cogeneration plant, meaning that it produces steam and electricity simultaneously. The Central Power Plant supplies a substantial amount of the University’s total annual electricity demand. The remainder is purchased through the regional utility, DTE Energy.

Of the total energy used in 2012, about 0.67% came from renewable energy sources. This does not include the 9 million kWh of renewable energy certificates purchased by the University, which represents 0.42% of total energy (or 1.8% of purchased energy) used in 2012.

Carbon pollution from fossil fuel energy used in 2012 totaled 683,105 metric tons of CO2e (MTCO2e). An additional 1,293 MTCO2e came from biofuels, which are considered carbon neutral. Carbon pollution emissions from fossil fuel energy are composed of the following: 52.2% natural gas, 46.6% coal, 1.1% gasoline, and 0.1% oil.

Energy Industry Financial Assets
The endowment and working capital portfolios of the University of Michigan contain fossil fuel financial asset investments totaling at least $946 million. Total U.S. higher education investments in fossil fuels equal approximately $20 billion ; the University holds nearly 5% of this total. The University’s total endowment and working capital portfolios are a combined $9.16 billion as of June 30th, 2012.

The known fossil fuel companies in the endowment and working capital portfolios hold a total of 284 billion tons of CO2 in their fossil fuel reserves. This is well over half of the remaining 495 billion tons of CO2 that can safely be emitted before reaching the 2 degree Celsius warming threshold. Examples of known fossil fuel companies in the portfolios are: Chevron, BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Lukoil, TransCanada, TransOcean, and Halliburton.

Sustainability
The University of Michigan has more than 640 courses with content on sustainability, and more than 670 faculty with expertise in sustainability issues. The courses cut across a wide range of fields from engineering, to business and environmental policy. There are a number of different graduate programs dedicated to sustainability such as the Erb Institute for Sustainable Enterprise and the Dow Sustainability Fellows program. The latter program is funded by Dow Chemical Company, a corporation with a long history of endangerment to the environment and human health. Eight University researchers, including graduate students, shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore for work towards mitigating climate change.

The University has pledged to meet LEED Silver standards for major construction projects, and the University's energy conservation program, Planet Blue, has installed building upgrades, saving more than $4 million a year.