Spartan DRIVE Carbon Offset Campaign

Spartans, you can help put UNCG on the road toward a more sustainable future!

UNC Greensboro’s Office of Sustainability is calling for collective action from the Spartan community to help reduce the University’s carbon footprint and improve housing conditions for Guilford County residents.

Spartans, you can support this campaign by contributing $15 per year of employment to offset your greenhouse gas emissions from commuting to and from campus. If you’ve worked at UNCG for 5 years, you can offset your emissions for $75!

A carbon offset is a reduction or removal of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gasses in one place to compensate for emissions made elsewhere. Contributions to the new Spartan DRIVE Fund will be invested in energy efficiency projects on campus to help reduce the University’s carbon footprint.

Work from home, drive an EV, bike or bus campus? You can "sponsor a student" to help reduce student commuter emissions, too!

Additionally, 10% of funds raised will be donated to Community Housing Solutions, a local non-profit that provides critical home repairs including weatherization improvements for Guilford County homeowners who meet a low-income threshold to help make their homes warmer, drier, and safer, often reducing their utility bills.

DRIVE Fund donors will also have the opportunity to volunteer every semester to work on one of the homes sponsored by the program, allowing Spartans to put our motto of service into action.

The UNC System Sustainability Policy directs universities to become carbon neutral by 2050. UNC Greensboro has achieved a 13% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) since 2009. The average UNCG commuter is responsible for 1 ton of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions every year just for their travel to and from campus, which added up to 11,458 tons of CO2 in FY23 or approximately 17% of the university's total carbon footprint.

UNCG’s carbon footprint has three major contributors:

• Emissions from employee and student commuters (17%)
• Emissions from the generation of electricity purchased from Duke Energy (31%)
• Emissions from fuels like natural gas, gasoline, and propane burned on campus for energy (30%)
• Other contributors include: business travel, refrigerants, paper, & waste

UNC Greensboro is recognized by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education as one of the country’s most environmentally friendly universities. UNCG has also been designated as a Tree Campus by the Arbor Day Foundation and a Bicycle Friendly University by the League of American Bicyclists.

More information about the program can be found on the Office of Sustainability website.