Once a campus-wide greenhouse gas emissions inventory is completed, a clear picture of the institutional greenhouse gas "footprint" emerges. The goal is, of course, to shrink that footprint; the next questions are "How much?" and "How fast?"

Setting a target and timeline for emissions reductions accomplishes several important functions:

• It formalizes an institutional commitment to ongoing, comprehensive climate action.

• It provides a tangible goal and mechanism for community-wide engagement, building momentum for climate action.

• It introduces a level of accountability to the process, ensuring emissions reductions efforts are undertaken efficiently and that institutions meeting goals can rightly boast of an important accomplishment.

Fortunately, the answers to "How much?" and "How fast?" do not have to be guesswork. Leadership taken both internationally and closer to home, here in the Northeast, has resulted in varying available frameworks for adoption (or adaptation) in creating a campus greenhouse gas emissions reduction target and timeline.

The pages that follow in this section explore such existing frameworks and precedents:

• The Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty for emissions reductions on a country-by-country basis, offers short and longer-term targets, and is a worldwide standard.
• The New England Governors & Eastern Canadian Premiers Climate Change Action Plan, a regional voluntary agreement laying out steps for emissions reductions in the Northeast, offers short, medium, and long-range targets which are currently being used by the participating New England states.
• Carbon Neutrality ensures zero institutional contribution to global warming.
• The higher education community: Sample targets and achievements...
• The business sector: Sample targets and achievements...