Appalachian State University
OP-1: Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Appalachian State uses the Clean Air-Cool Planet Campus Carbon Calculator for GHG inventory data. The inventory, which is managed by the Office of Sustainability, is comprised of an annual data set (fiscal year) beginning 2006 through 2013. Appalachian is an ACUPCC signatory school and thus follows their GHG management guidelines.

All (currently collected) data were compared to previous fiscal year data for anomalies and consistency. Records of previous data are kept in an ongoing log tracking correspondents, conversations, and calculations. Below are details of how this data was obtained and measured. o Institutional Data: Population numbers were primarily taken directly from the Office of Institutional Research and Planning (IRAP) website. o Steam and Backup Generators: Steam production and on-campus fuel combustion data was taken from the USI report. o Fleet Vehicles: Mileage related to travel in university-owned vehicles was reported by Motor Pool Services. o Refrigerants/Chemicals: Records of refrigerant and chemical usage were reported by Motor Pool Services, HVAC Maintenance Services, and Food Services. o Agriculture: Agricultural operations records were obtained from Landscape Services and the Sustainable Development Research & Teaching Farm o Purchased Electricity: On-campus electricity consumption data was obtained from the ASU USI report. Fuel mix information used to produce electricity at Appalachian and records of electricity use at University Highlands Apartments were obtained from New River Light & Power. The Controller’s Office provided electricity records of buildings owned by ASU that are not on-campus. o Faculty/Staff and Student Commuting: Information for FY 2006 through FY 2011 was taken from the 2009 transportation survey. The transportation subcommittee of the Sustainability Council conducted a campus-wide survey in fall of 2013 and this data was used for FY 2012 and 2013. o Directly Financed Outsourced Travel: The Controller’s Office organized and provided records of universityfinanced air and ground travel. o Study Abroad: The Office of International Education and Development reported the number of passengers and flight destinations for study abroad trips. This information was then used to estimate mileage using an online air travel calculator. o Solid Waste: The Office of Sustainability tracks on-campus solid waste generation, composting, and recycling information. o Wastewater: Wastewater data was taken directly from the USI report. o Paper: Central Warehouse provided purchasing records of standard white copy paper used throughout the university. The Graphic Arts and Imaging Technology (GAIT) department reported records of the specialty paper used in their department. o Offsets: Offset calculations are based on tons of compost and acres of preserved forest. In previous years, land acquired from the SD farm was included, but this is not documented forest preservation. Previous years’ offsets have been adjusted accordingly. o Scope 2 T&D Losses: This number is an automatic calculation that the CCC creates based on purchased electricity.

For the Performance Year reported, Appalachian did not engage a institution-catalyzed carbon offset program.

Appalachian State manages campus trees as well as the adjacent Nature Preserve using i-Tree Eco protocols. A two-part assessment of the urban forests at Appalachian State University was conducted from 2010-2012. The first component compared the managed portions of the campus (85.8 ha) with the adjacent, unmanaged Nature Preserve (27.1 ha), both of which are part of campus. i-Tree Eco protocols were applied to all trees inventoried on the managed campus, as well as plot-based samples in the Nature Preserve. On the managed campus, 3,228 trees were inventoried representing 86 species. Diameter at breast height (DBH) ranged from 3 cm to 186 cm while tree height ranged from 2 m to 40 m. The Nature Preserve contains approximately 18,812 trees belonging to 25 species. Diameter at breast height there ranged from 4 cm to 79 cm while tree height ranged from 2 m to 38 m.

Appalachian State University's commitment to composting began as a student driven initiative in 1999. Over the years, the program has grown into a successful and effective way to sustainably recycle campus food waste into a compost soil amendment for use in the campus flowerbeds. In September 2011, the university completed this state-of-the-art composting facility that expands our annual composting capacity from 100 to 275 tons. The increased capacity will allow the university to expand food waste composting opportunities and further our commitment to sustainability. Our Advanced Composting Technologies, Inc. facility creates the perfect environment for the naturally occurring biological process where microbes do all the work. The key is to give them what they need (air, water and food), when they need it, in the right proportions and let them do the work.

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Appalachian's baseline year for GHG emissions is 2009. This year was officially introduced with the issuance of our first Climate Action Plan, Toward Climate Neutrality, on September 15, 2010. It was chosen mainly because if was the first year that offered a complete and soundly recorded data set.

45 MTeCO2 from waste water 3011 MTeCO2 from transmission and distribution losses associated witih purchased electricity.

Net emissions for FY 2012 were 75,544 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (MT eCO2) and 78,556 MT eCO2 for FY2013. This is up 3.9 % from Baseline Year 2009 for 2012 and 8.0% for FY 2013. Both year’s data miss the projected reduction target laid out the CAP by more than fifteen percent. Of the nine tracked major emission sources, seven of Appalachian State University’s numbers increased from 2009. The two that show to be on the decrease, are the Scope I source for steam (natural gas) and scope III emissions from the university fleet of vehicles. The gains in steam can be explained by increased use of automatic building controls (scheduling occupancy times) increased vigilance of a stream-trap preventative maintenance routine and large scale repairs to the subterranean campus steam infrastructure. The decrease in fleet emissions is a result of correcting an oversight in the historic data collection process by which mass-transit emissions were counted in two places. This does not represent a decrease in emissions produced, merely an improvement in carbon accounting.