Duke will extend its carbon-neutral status for at least another year, according to exclusive Chronicle interviews with Climate Commitment leadership.
Toddi Steelman, vice president and vice provost for climate and sustainability, wrote in a Sunday email to The Chronicle that the University decided to purchase carbon offsets to account for campus emissions in 2025 as community members continue to reshape the institution’s long-term climate strategy and develop new 2050 targets.
Past that, however, staff in the Office of Climate and Sustainability have suggested that carbon neutrality may not be the most effective strategy.
Duke first achieved carbon neutrality in October, the fulfillment of a 17-year pledge. The University reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 31% over that period, and the remaining emissions were accounted for by the purchase of $4 million worth of carbon offsets.
Carbon offsets and credits come from external carbon removal or reduction projects, which institutions can buy to “offset” their on-site emissions — as Duke did in 2024.
Maintaining the University’s carbon-neutral status requires purchasing a new batch of offsets every year, since once a credit is retired, it can’t be used again. That means if Duke were to remain carbon neutral through 2050, it would have to buy 25 additional years’ worth of carbon offsets over that period.
Those offsets come with a hefty price tag — funds that could instead be directed toward further reducing Duke’s own emissions instead of buying the credit from other organizations’ removal projects. That’s what a net-zero goal aims to do.
“With net zero, you’re just continuing to push towards decarbonization until you get to the point where you can’t reduce any more,” Steelman said.
She noted that the Science Based Targets Initiative, which sets standards for effective GHG reduction strategies, recommends that organizations reduce their GHG emissions by about 90%, then use offsets to account for the rest. Duke is pursuing new initiatives to get to that 90% target, but it has a ways to go, currently standing at 31% down from 2007 levels.
Thus, some staff believe it may be in Duke’s best interest to pause its investment in carbon offsets and spend funds instead on targeted decarbonization work, reducing the University’s — and now the health system’s — footprint on campus instead of purchasing credits abroad.
Steelman thinks that message may have gotten lost in translation for many community members.
“I think it’s a fair criticism that we didn’t do a good enough job communicating what we wanted to do with our 2050 net-zero goal and what the consequences would be for carbon offsets or carbon neutrality as we were contemplating making this transition,” she said. “… I think there were members of our community who were disappointed … and felt like we were backing away from carbon neutrality.”
So until Duke fully fleshes out its new climate approach, the University will remain carbon neutral.
Michelle Nowlin, clinical professor of law and co-director of the Law School’s Environmental Law and Policy Clinic, serves as the chair of a new Carbon Reduction Resource Allocation Ad Hoc Committee, convened after the University made its initial carbon neutrality announcement. In her role, she’s leading a team of faculty, staff and students tasked with deciding whether the University will continue to pursue carbon neutrality as it also works toward net zero.
“You’re trying to make sure that what you’ve got is maximizing your long-term benefits and also maximizing the financial value of the investments that the institution is making,” she said.
Steelman agreed, noting that “the University has finite resources” and that staff and administrators “want to be very deliberate in terms of our decision-making and where [they] invest those resources.”
A subcommittee of the Climate Commitment Advisory Council that oversees the sustainability of campus operations made “preliminary recommendations” to “pivot away” from carbon offsets and toward more robust decarbonization efforts before the ad hoc committee was established, Nowlin said.
“I think University leadership realized that there needed to be more stakeholder input, more transparency in the process and a reevaluation of that preliminary recommendation,” she said.
She and Steelman both stressed, however, that a final decision on Duke’s carbon-neutrality status has not yet been reached and will likely materialize near the end of the academic year.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Sign up for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.
Zoe Kolenovsky is a Trinity junior and news editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.