[CHICAGO, IL & CAMBRIDGE, MA] Second Nature, a national nonprofit working to accelerate climate action in and through higher education, and Tradewater, a B Corp and climate project developer, are pleased to announce a partnership that will unite and build on each of their existing engagements with the higher education sector. The goal of this partnership is to enable the higher education sector to eliminate 1 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent (CO2e) emissions by 2030 through the collection, control, and destruction of non-CO2 gases.

Old generations of refrigerants, including chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrofluorocarbons (HCFCs), are known ozone-depleting substances (ODS) and some have a global warming potential more than 10,000 times that of CO2. Once these super pollutants are emitted, they cannot be captured or sequestered. According to Project Drawdown, refrigerant management is a top solution to slowing climate change in the short term. Higher education institutions can make an immediate impact by collecting legacy refrigerants found in old equipment on their own campuses and destroying it, or by procuring high-quality offsets from projects that mitigate non-CO2 gases.

"Refrigerant management isn't top of mind for many campus sustainability professionals and yet the impact of collection and destruction is huge," says Bridget Flynn, Senior Manager of Climate Programs at Second Nature. “We are excited to be partnering with Tradewater to activate campuses to take responsibility for these gases and tangibly reduce emissions.”

The 1 Million Tonne Campaign will:

• Give higher education institutions a new way to create measurable, permanent climate benefit on their own campuses
• Enable higher education institutions to co-develop high-quality carbon credits using Tradewater’s solution to permanently destroy refrigerant gases
• Promote knowledge sharing between higher education institutions through Second Nature’s Solutions Center and an upcoming webinar 

“Second Nature and the hundreds of higher education institutions they work with are incredibly thoughtful and ambitious about climate action,” said Eli Etzioni, Partnerships Manager at Tradewater. “The 1 Million Tonne Campaign gives these leaders a way to collectively scale their work on mitigating the world’s most potent greenhouses gases. We are thrilled to be a part of this pioneering initiative.” 

Tradewater has delivered carbon credits to institutions including Brown University and Pomona College. In a comprehensive evaluation of the offset space, climate research group Giving Green stated that “Tradewater offers one of the most attractive combinations of price and certainty.” Tradewater also has multiple on-campus refrigerant management projects scheduled for later this year. 

Colleges, universities, and others interested in learning more about refrigerant management, determining the quality of carbon offsets, and how colleges and universities are incorporating offsets into holistic climate action plans alongside on-campus decarbonization are invited to register for the upcoming webinar on May 30th.