Marks of Distinction Details     List of Awarded Marks

Marks of Distinction 2019 Infographic

Making Your Mark: Climate Leadership Network institutions lead with Distinctions

Marks of Distinction is an initiative for the Climate Leadership Network that recognizes signatories that set high-performance goals, demonstrate and report measurable progress towards those goals and support Network activities.

For more than a decade, signatory institutions have shared their knowledge by developing climate action plans and submitting annual progress evaluations. Until now, this information has never been used to recognize the accomplishments of individual schools. The Marks of Distinction recognize schools according to key performance indicators that demonstrate climate leadership.

The Marks of Distinction initiative will allow your institution to tell the story of your progress to students, faculty, community members, and alumni. Signatories are encouraged to strive to achieve Marks of Distinction and to share the recognition with your campus & community to inspire further climate action. 

Marks of Distinction Categories

Marks of Distinction are awarded in three categories:

• Performance: Recognizes climate action progress based on data collected through the Reporting Platform
• Participation: Recognizes participation in a program or initiative that advances a campus’ climate action
• Goals: Recognizes institutions that have set aggressive climate action goals, going above and beyond incremental change

	Marks of Distinction	Type	How Are the Marks of Distinction Determined?	More Information	What year's data or participation will this be awarded on?
	100% Renewable Energy Goal	Goal	A public statement declaring a 100% Renewable Energy purchasing goal by 2030. Starting in 2019, institutions will also be able to note this goal in their updated Climate Action Plan. Renewable Energy is defined as Thermal and Electricity purchases.	More Information	All Years
	Aggregated Renewable Energy Purchase	Program	Signatories who have joined together, and made an aggregated large scale renewable energy purchase.	More Information	All Years
	Billion Dollar Green Challenge	Participation	Billion Dollar Green Challenge participants have committed to establishing Revolving Funds that are 1% of the institution’s endowment value, or one million dollars.	More Information	2019
	C2P2	Participation	Participation in the Carbon Credit and Purchasing Program, which indicates leadership in campus emissions reduction and verification of marketable carbon offsets, and a dedication to reinvestment of proceeds in further carbon reductions.	More Information	2019
	Carbon Neutral	Performance	A 100% reduction of total carbon from baseline to current year as reporting in the Annual Progress Evaluation.	More Information	2019
	Carbon Neutral Goal by 2025	Goal	A carbon neutrality goal in the Climate Action Plan that is 2025 or sooner.	More Information	Current CAP
	Carbon Reduction 25%, 50%,75%	Performance	Represents meeting reduction thresholds of total carbon from baseline to current year as reporting in the Annual Progress Evaluation. For example if an institution has a 41% reduction, this crosses the 25% threshold.	More Information	2019
	Climate Leadership Award	Performance	The Climate Leadership Awards recognize advanced leadership in climate change mitigation and resilience across academic, community, and operational arenas.	More Information	2019
	Cross Sector Forums	Participation	Institutions that held public campus and community forums or workshops on shared climate action plan goal setting and/or resilience assessments. Program participation is Indicated via the Resilience Assessment Reports, UC3 participation, or other public statements.	More Information	2019
	Honor Society	Participation	Through exemplary contribution to the Network via dues or service activities.	More Information	2019
	On Track	Performance	Institutions select their own carbon reduction goals in the Climate Action Plan, when their submitted data via the Annual Progress Evaluation matches these goals, they would be determined "On Track".	More Information	2019
	Renewable Energy Purchaser; 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%	Performance	In the Annual Progress Evaluation signatories can note the percent of a signatory’s energy purchase is renewable in a given year. This includes electricity and thermal energy but not transportation fuels.	More Information	2019
	Revolving Fund	Goal	A Revolving Fund is a financing mechanism targeted to campus climate action projects that lower emissions, increase capacity for future projects, and reduce operating costs.	More Information	2020
	We Are Still In	Participation	Represents institutions who have participated in the We Are Still In campaign, voicing crucial support for continued US participation in international climate agreements.	More Information	2019
	Marks of Distinction	Type	How Are the Marks of Distinction Determined?	More Information	What year's data or participation will this be awarded on?