Overall Rating	Gold - expired
Overall Score	69.69
Liaison	Deborah Steinberg
Submission Date	Feb. 7, 2019
Executive Letter	Download

STARS v2.1

Carnegie Mellon University
OP-1: Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Status	Score	Responsible Party
	7.83 / 10.00	Martin Altschul Director of Strategic Facilities Initiatives of FMCS Facilities Management Services

"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Part 1

Has the institution conducted a GHG emissions inventory that includes all Scope 1 and 2 emissions? :

Yes

Does the institution’s GHG emissions inventory include all, some or none of its Scope 3 GHG emissions from the following categories?:

	All, Some, or None
Business travel	None
Commuting	None
Purchased goods and services	None
Capital goods	None
Waste generated in operations	All
Fuel- and energy-related activities not included in Scope 1 or Scope 2	Some
Other categories	Some

A copy of the most recent GHG emissions inventory:

Simap GHG Inventory 2017 CMU.xlsx

A brief description of the methodology and/or tool used to complete the GHG emissions inventory, including how the institution accounted for each category of Scope 3 emissions reported above:

We have consistently used the Clean Air Cool Planet spreadsheet with data going back to 2001. For FY 2017, we switched to SIMAP, CACP's successor, and populated the data going back 5 years.

Has the GHG emissions inventory been validated internally by personnel who are independent of the GHG accounting and reporting process and/or verified by an independent, external third party?:

Yes

A brief description of the internal and/or external verification process:

Internal data is gathered primarily from Facilities Management Services records which are verified against university financial records. Partial commuter and travel records are gathered from Parking and Transportation Dept and extrapolated based on known ratios from the university's contract travel agent. The GHG inventory data was compiled by the University Engineer and Environmental Coordinator and was reviewed by members of the Green Practices Committee Working Group, 2 Faculty members, and the AVP of Facilities Management and Campus Services and the Director of FMCS Operations. We had a discussion about our data collection methodology, past and present and the committee recommended how to share our GHG inventory data with the public.

Documentation to support the internal and/or external verification process:

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Does the institution wish to pursue Part 2 and Part 3 of this credit? (reductions in Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions):

Yes

Part 2

Gross Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Gross Scope 1 GHG emissions from stationary combustion	31,648.17 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	35,852.50 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Gross Scope 1 GHG emissions from other sources	979.34 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	713 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Gross Scope 2 GHG emissions from purchased electricity	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	58,093.10 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Gross Scope 2 GHG emissions from other sources	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Total	32,627.51 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	94,658.60 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

Start and end dates of the performance year and baseline year (or three-year periods):

	Start Date	End Date
Performance Year	July 1, 2016	June 30, 2017
Baseline Year	July 1, 2004	June 30, 2005

A brief description of when and why the GHG emissions baseline was adopted (e.g. in sustainability plans and policies or in the context of other reporting obligations):

Baseline of FY 2005 was adopted after a CACP analysis was done for that year.

Figures needed to determine total carbon offsets:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Third-party verified carbon offsets purchased (exclude purchased RECs/GOs)	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Institution-catalyzed carbon offsets generated	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Carbon sequestration due to land that the institution manages specifically for sequestration	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Carbon storage from on-site composting	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Carbon offsets included above for which the emissions reductions have been sold or transferred by the institution	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Net carbon offsets	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

If total performance year carbon offsets are greater than zero, provide:

A brief description of the offsets in each category reported above, including vendor, project source, verification program and contract timeframes (as applicable):

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The reporting fields in the table below are reserved for institutions that have NOT already accounted for renewable energy purchases (including RECs and GOs) in their Scope 2 GHG emissions calculations. Other institutions - including all SIMAP users - should report zero ('0') to avoid double-counting.

Emissions reductions attributable to Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) or Guarantee of Origin (GO) purchases:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Emissions reductions attributable to REC/GO purchases	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

A brief description of the purchased RECs/GOs including vendor, project source and verification program:

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Adjusted net Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Adjusted net Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions	32,627.51 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	94,658.60 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

Figures needed to determine “Weighted Campus Users”:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Number of students resident on-site	3,935	3,744
Number of employees resident on-site	0	0
Number of other individuals resident on-site and/or staffed hospital beds	0	0
Total full-time equivalent student enrollment	11,263.60	8,803.40
Full-time equivalent of employees (staff + faculty)	4,816	3,978.30
Full-time equivalent of students enrolled exclusively in distance education	132.60	106.50
Weighted campus users	12,944	10,442.40

Adjusted net Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions per weighted campus user:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Adjusted net Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions per weighted campus user	2.52 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	9.06 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

Percentage reduction in adjusted net Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions per weighted campus user from baseline:

72.19

Part 3

Gross floor area of building space, performance year:

6,240,096 Gross square feet

Floor area of energy intensive building space, performance year:

	Floor Area
Laboratory space	600,357 Square feet
Healthcare space	3,857 Square feet
Other energy intensive space	673,182 Square feet

EUI-adjusted floor area, performance year:

8,121,706 Gross square feet

Adjusted net Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions per unit of EUI-adjusted floor area, performance year:

0.00 MtCO2e per square foot

Optional Fields

Scope 3 GHG emissions, performance year:

	Emissions
Business travel	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Commuting	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Purchased goods and services	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Capital goods	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Fuel- and energy-related activities not included in Scope 1 or Scope 2	3,813.13 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Waste generated in operations	963.17 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Other categories	75.18 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

A brief description of the institution’s GHG emissions reduction initiatives, including efforts made during the previous three years:

Althought tThe most significant Scope 1 reduction occurred in 2009 when the Bellefield Boiler Plant, partially owned by CMU, converted from coal and natural gas operation to 100% natural gas firing, CMU continues to pursue deeper GHG emissions reductions. Starting in 2011, CMU has purchased RECs to offset 100% of our electricity purchases. In both 2017 and 2018, CMU purchased RECs from the Prairie Breeze wind energy farm in Nebraska where renewable electricity generation replaces sources with the highest CO2 emissions in the nation. In addition to the ongoing 100% offset with RECs, beginning in October 2017, we also entered into a unique agreement to purchase 100% of our electricity supply (kWh equivalent) from an Illinois wind farm in our own grid territory (PJM). For this, we have a 2-year agreement with extensions available through 2021.

The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:

https://www.cmu.edu/environment/energy-water/index.html

Additional documentation to support the submission:

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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

Carnegie Mellon University's GHG emissions inventory was first initiated by an undergraduate research study in spring of 2007 in cooperation with few graduate students and faculty members using the Clean Air-Cool Planet calculator. The student project was expanded, corrected, and refined by the Green Practices intern Andrew Ko, university engineer, Martin Altschul and the university environmental coordinator, Barbara Kviz. The University's GHG emission inventory was calculated from 1995-present, to also reflect the pre and post 2006 regional EPA emissions factor reclassification. EPA eGrid pre-2006 subregion was corrected from prior submissions. Per EPA documentation Duquesne Light and Pittsburgh were considered to be in ECAR Ohio Valley. For our Scope 3 transportation accounting we have relied on very small sample sizes historically. For this submission we have decided not to include those emissions, because we are uncertain of their accuracy. We continue to study the problem and hope to report on scope 3 emissions on future GHG reports. It should be noted that the emission numbers reflect the University's growth and rebuilding efforts since year 2005.

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.