January 29, 2015
Narrative Summarizing 2008 – 2014 Greenhouse Gas Reports
Submitted to ACUPCC by Eastern Connecticut State University
This narrative includes a summary of Eastern Connecticut University’s Greenhouse Gas reporting methodology and data sources for the years 2008 through 2014. This information should help when attempting to compare our campus GHG reports from different years. We will continue to improve data collection and methodology over time.
2008 Report
-Consolidation methodology to determine organizational boundary: None
-Submitted by: Nancy Tinker, Director of Facilities
-Team who worked on it: Students, faculty, staff (student in Business Office,Facilities staff, Green Campus Committee)
-Tool Used: Clean Air Cool Planet (Excel Version, we don’t have access to this)
-Data not included: Waste, C sequestration
-Limitations to submission: Noted estimates of scope 3, commuting data based on assumptions, need to collect data to test validity of assumptions
-Total Carbon amount: 13,452 metric tons CO2e
2010 Report
-Consolidation methodology to determine organizational boundary: None
-Submitted by:Nancy Tinker, Director of Facilities
-Team who worked on it: Faculty and students, student assistants in Business Office and Facilities Office)
-Tool Used: Clean Air Cool Planet (Excel version, we don’t have access to this)
-Data not included: C sequestration, recycling was included (not waste)
-Limitations to submission: Scope 3 emissions based on several assumptions
-Total Carbon amount: 16,142 metric tons C02e
2012 Report
-Consolidation methodology to determine organizational boundary: Financial Control approach
-Submitted by:Nancy Tinker, Director of Facilities
-Team who worked on it: External Consultant (Sightlines, a consultant to the central office)
-Tool Used: Other (Sightlines data)
-Data not included: Waste, C sequestration
-Limitations to submission: None noted.
-Total Carbon amount: 10 metric tons C02e
2013 Report
-Consolidation methodology to determine organizational boundary:
-Submitted by:Nancy Tinker, Director of Facilities
-Team who worked on it:External Consultant (most likely Sightlines)
-Tool Used: Custom Tool (unknown)
-Data not included: Waste, C sequestration
-Limitations to submission: None noted
-Total Carbon amount: 13,522 metric tons C02e
2014 Report
-Consolidation methodology to determine organizational boundary: None selected (not applicable)
-Submitted by:Lynn Stoddard, Director, Institute for Sustainable Energy (ISE)
-Team who worked on it:Lynn Stoddard, Laura Miller, Stephanie Rogers (ISE); Renee Keech (Facilities); Sue Kennedy (Fiscal Affairs)
-Tool Used: Clean Air Cool Planet updated online calculator
-Data not included: University business-related travel (land and air)
-Limitations to submission: Need to complete a transportation survey to refine commuting data and add in university travel information
-Total Carbon amount: 19,134.75 metric tons C02e
Submission Overview
In previous greenhouse gas reports Nancy Tinker, the Director of Facilities at Eastern and the ACUPCC Implementation Liaison, took charge of updating the greenhouse gas inventory. Her methodology involved collecting data for Eastern’s annual energy usage from an external consultant, Sightlines. The new ACUPCC Implementation Liaison is the Director of the Institute for Sustainable Energy, Lynn Stoddard, working closely with the Interim Director of Facilities Management and Planning, Renee Keech. Since there was little information left on data sources, calculations, and methodology, it would be inappropriate to make a direct comparison between Eastern’s past GHG reports and the 2014 report. The document and our 2014 report attempt to document the data sources and methodology used for the 2014 report. Eastern’s annual electricity, natural gas, and oil data were collected from the Office of Fiscal Affairs (Sue Kennedy), based on actual bills, and entered into the Clean Air-Cool Planet Carbon Calculator. Recycling and waste data were provide by our waste hauler to our EHS Director (Eric Germaine) and also entered into the Clean Air-Cool Planet Calculator. A carbon sequestration value was developed using the EPA methodology and accounts for 6.97 ha of forested land in our arboretum on campus and 18.58 ha of forested land at the Mansfield Sports Complex near campus.
Transportation notes
For the fiscal year 2014 we did not have any data for university related business travel, however, we do plan to access to all faculty and staff Travel Application forms so we plan to include this in our next update. In our collection of transportation information we relieddata and assumptions from Institutional Advancement’s Brian Lashley. Brian reported that in 2014 there were 1,861 full-time commuter students and 871 part-time commuters. We made the assumption that full-time commuter students travel to school 3 times a week and part-time twice a week. We also assumed that these students lived an average of 30 miles away from the university. We estimated that the total trips per year for commuter students was 227,075 trips per year, resulting in 6,812,250 miles traveled to campus per year. For full-time staff we made the assumption that they work 230 days a year and part-time staff work 200 days per year with an average one-way commute of 25 miles. The estimated annual number of trips per year for staff was 55,800 with 1,395,000 miles traveled to campus each year. For full-time faculty we assumed that they travel to campus 4 times a week, 30 weeks a year. For part-time faculty we assumed that they travel to campus twice a week, 30 weeks a year. We assumed that both full-time and part-time faculty drive an average 25 mile one-way trip to campus. The estimated annual trips made to campus for faculty was 45,000 with an estimated total of 1,125,000 miles traveled to campus/year.
Carbon Sequestration Notes
For forest sequestration, Facilities Director Renee Keech reported that the Arboretum has a total of 7.7 hectares of forested land and the Mansfield Sports Complex has 29.5 hectares of forest, 18.5 hectares being undeveloped forested land. We used EPA’s forest sequestration carbon value of 0.73 per hectare of sequestered carbon per year to get our total value of sequestered carbon of 19.2 metric tons for 2014. Please see below images that show the two parcels of land used to calculate our carbon sequestration areas.
Arboretum Land Use Cover Map
Image courtesy of Emily Wilson, UCONN CLEAR program, utilizing WinCog software.
Mansfield Recreational Facility
Image courtesy of Emily Wilson, UCONN CLEAR program, utilizing state of CT software.
GHGs summary
The table and graphs below showEastern’s changing emissions over time.
GHG Report Summary for Eastern Connecticut State UniversityReporting Year / Gross Emissions / Net Emissions / Full Time Enrollments / Total Bldg. Sq. Ft. / [action]
2008 / 25288.0 / 25288.0 / 5137.0 / 1995106.0 / [ view ]
2010 / 27954.0 / 27954.0 / 5600.0 / 2169106.0 / [ view ]
2012 / 9.678 / 9.678 / 5586.0 / 2240120.0 / [ view ]
2013 / 13522.0 / 13522.0 / 5440.0 / 2287325.0 / [ view ]
2014 / 19154 / 19135 / 4777 / 2288256
Next Steps
Moving forward, Eastern can expect to see some changes for the 2015 fiscal year as we continue to access better data and refine our methodology. We would like to thank the following people who have helped to prepare Eastern’s 2014 GHG report.
-Renee Keech, Interim Director of Facilities Management and Planning
-Susan Kennedy, Fiscal Affairs, billing information for campus buildings
-Brian Lashley, Institutional Advancement, population and transportation information
-Laura Miller, Energy Technical Specialist, Institute for Sustainable Energy
-Stephanie Rogers, Student Intern, Institute for Sustainable Energy
-Lynn Stoddard, Director, Institute for Sustainable Energy
-Linda Thomasso, Carbon Sequestration Publication
-Emily Wilson, UCONN CLEAR Program
1