The Virginia Tech Sustainability Plan was created in 2009 to address the ways in which the university plans to meet the goals outlined in the Virginia Tech Climate Action Commitment. The university is committed to reaching a 50 percent recycling rate by 2020, improving energy efficiency where and whenever possible in campus buildings, to achieving a minimum LEED rating of silver for all new construction, and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.