Colorado College announced Wednesday that it is now carbon neutral.
The Colorado Springs school started work to reduce its footprint in 2009 with the goal to become carbon neutral by this year. That means the school is removing as much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as it's putting in.
Ian Johnson directs Colorado College's sustainability projects. He says the school is doing this because climate change is a major threat to our future.
"This is the global issue of the day or of our lifetime, quite honestly,” Johnson said. “As we look at it, we've recognized every one of our students is going to have to deal with this in some way, shape or form."
The college took steps like renovating some buildings to include energy-efficient designs and installing solar panels on and off-campus.
The school is not done working toward environmental sustainability, Johnson said. Colorado College plans to keep the momentum going by developing new projects that will help reduce carbon already in the atmosphere.
Editor's Note: CPR has an agreement with Colorado College to operate the radio station KRCC.
