The University of Colorado's student government will vote tonight on whether to require that three of its buildings become carbon-neutral.

The Legislative Council has jurisdiction over the campus recreation center, the University Memorial Center and the Wardenburg Health Center. A yes vote tonight means the council would commit to running those buildings with "no net releases of climate-harmful emissions such as carbon dioxide to the atmosphere," according to a statement the council released.

Dave Newport, director of the CU Environmental Center, said students on the Boulder campus actually don't have that far to go to become carbon-neutral. That's because they've been aggressively trying to tackle carbon emissions on every front, from transportation to electricity to waste management, he said.

"We're already doing a heck of a lot, but once again we'll show leadership," Newport said.

Students already spend $58,000 annually on wind-powered electricity for the three facilities they're charged with running, he said. Over time students hope to spend more of that money on solar panels in order to "plug directly into the sun," Newport said.

If tonight's resolution passes, Newport said, the environmental center will also try to reduce the amount of carbon students produce from driving. On this issue too, CU students are ahead of the curve with the student bus pass, Newport said. Only 11 percent of students drive to campus alone, he said.

"That's huge in a nation where 99 percent of us drive in to work alone," he said.

Waste in landfills also generates greenhouse gases. Newport said the campus has made progress on that front, too. For the last three years, the total amount of waste going to landfills has declined even as the number of people on campus has grown.

But, he said, there's still room for improvement.