Miami University
OP-1: Emissions Inventory and Disclosure

Since Miami University's previous STARS submission, we became a signatory of the Climate - Presidents' Climate Leadership Commitment (PCLC). Thus, our institutional carbon footprint reflects the emission sources reported to Second Nature per our carbon neutrality goal and forthcoming Climate Action Plan. However and given the COVID-19 pandemic, Miami University's most recent GHG emissions inventory was calculated using FY2019 data to reflect a normal operational year for our institution. Even though Miami University has historically calculated and tracked energy-based Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, this institutional carbon footprint includes Scope 3 emissions, as well as fuel used for Miami-owned vehicles and grounds equipment. Collectively, these emissions comprise a new, holistic baseline for our institution in pursuit of achieving carbon neutrality. The inventory was conducted by the Director of Sustainability and former Data Analytics lead on the Climate Action Task Force using the Sustainability Indicator Management and Analysis (SIMAP) platform. We have made the calculations for each source public on the Second Nature reporting platform website here https://reporting.secondnature.org/ape/ape-public!1447

For our initial baseline, we have deemed propane, fertilizer, refrigerants and chemicals, and heads of horses (agriculture) Scope 1 emission as de minimis. Collectively, these emissions account for roughly 1.72% of our overall Scope 1 emissions and .53% of our overall footprint. We will explore including these sources into the overall footprint in the future, as we focus on mitigating the majority (98.28%) of Scope 1 emissions (Natural Gas and Unleaded and Diesel Fuel). As reflected in this report, we only include Commuting and Air Travel Scope 3 emissions.

**As included in our annual report to Second Nature**

Limitations - Miami University Carbon Footprint FY19: Given the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused Miami’s Oxford campus to shut down in March 2020 for nearly six months, our initial baseline reflects data specific to the fiscal year 2019 (July 1, 2018 - June 30, 2019) to capture the most recent year in full campus-operation. Due to a historical analysis, limitations emerged in data collection, which is reflected below. Post pandemic, Miami University will develop measures and plans to collect data for an amended baseline and future calculations. Our energy-based carbon emissions fall under either Natural Gas or Purchased Electricity, as FY17 was the last year we burned coal on-site. Thus, in the Mitigation Data section, the following breakdown is presented for clarification:

On-Site Electricity Generation for Campus Consumption - Natural Gas to generate electricity using large gas engine electric generators on-site, outside of what we purchase from the grid
On-site Thermal Energy Generation - Production of steam via our natural gas-fired boilers and production of chilled water via our electrically driven chillers/cooling towers.

Through campus initiatives and planning with our Utility Master Plan, Miami University reduced Scope 1 and Scope 2 energy-based emissions by 52% / gsf between 2008 - 2019. In doing so, we have not used coal (Scope 1) on-site since FY2017.

Scope 1 - Sources: Propane, Fertilizer, Refrigerants and Chemicals, and Animals (number of horses at Miami’s Equestrian Center). Data was collected by various stakeholders in the Physical Facilities Department. We determined these sources collectively account for under 2 percent (1.72%) of our Scope 1 emissions and under 1 percent (0.53%) of our overall emissions upon calculation through SIMAP. Thus, we have determined these emissions de minimis for our initial analysis and will explore including these emissions into future calculations. Total emissions for all sources totaled 459.14 MTCO2e Fleet/Vehicles Process/Limitations - Data for this analysis came from three sources: (1) records for all fuel dispensed at the Physical Facilities Department, (2) fuel records at the Ecology Research Center, and (3) mileage for business usage of Intercollegiate Athletics owned/leased vehicles (excluding personal mileage). Cross-listing with a list of all vehicles/equipment owned in FY19, we estimate this captures 85-90% of total fuel usage, as we were unable to historically capture accurate fuel usage for various miscellaneous vehicles that did not fill up at the Physical Facilities Department fuel station or fall into the second and third category. A majority of our campus fleet fills up at the Physical Facilities Department. We captured mileage usage for the Intercollegiate Athletics vehicles instead of fuel usage in gallons to differentiate business miles from personal miles driven. We only include business miles in this analysis. To do this, we used fueleconomy.gov to determine the MPG for each specific vehicle to estimate fuel usage in gallons for business use. Lastly, data from the Ecology Research Center and Intercollegiate Athletics was provided in different timeframes than a complete FY, given how these departments keep data and invoices. The Ecology Research Center’s data began in April 2018, instead of July 2018 and the Intercollegiate Athletics range is from October 2018 - October 2019. Beginning in FY22, we will be able to track fuel usage for all vehicles. We will start the analysis with an updated, current list of all vehicles owned by Miami University. Concurrently, we have retired vehicles since FY19, and thus, our fuel usage recalculation will be more accurate. To ensure data collection and collaborative work to achieve neutrality, we have formed a subcommittee under the Climate Action Task Force with representatives from all sectors of campus with sizable and/or control over fleet usage. 72,550.45 gallons of unleaded fuel and 18, 767.20 gallons of diesel fuel. Natural Gas Process- Data provided by the Physical Facilities Department. No limitations exist with this data/figure. Our natural gas supplier (Glenwood Energy) owns and maintains the buildings that we meter on campus. We receive monthly data for the buildings that require natural gas. See below in the Purchased Electricity section for additional initiatives we take to ensure sound, accurate energy data. 478,042 MMBTU in total

Scope 2- Sources: Purchased Electricity Process- Data provided by the Physical Facilities Department. No limitations exist with this data/figure. We excluded T&D (Scope 3) from this analysis and will evaluate including in an amended baseline. In order to track accurate energy data, Miami University does the following (see below). All this information is reviewed and uploaded into our Utility Management Software, from this software we can generate historical usage reports. We have two control systems that allow us to record data on an hourly basis for Chilled Water, Heating Hot Water, and Steam. Primarily Siemens Controls with a handful of buildings using Delta Controls. We have been implementing electromagnetic insertion or inline meters for measuring Chilled Water and Heating Hot Water. We use Pressure Differential Meters to record our Steam Usage. We use a web-based Power Monitoring Application to record hourly data (the recording time interval varies by building in 15-minute increments up to an hour) from electric meters in each building. All CHW, HHW, Electric Meters for individual buildings are owned and maintained by Miami University.

Scope 3- Sources: Air Travel - The last time Miami University calculated air travel emissions were in FY18, where we used the SIMAP option to input the total amount spent in a fiscal year. This year, we took a more robust approach using GIS. Data was provided by records kept for all air travel directly financed by the institution in ChromeRiver by Accounts Payable. All air travel records directly financed by the institution were provided to a Miami Geography student to calculate the mileage between airports using GIS. Study abroad was excluded from this analysis because Miami University does not directly fund this air travel. See below for the assumptions we made in this analysis. If flights originated from Cincinnati, Dayton, Indianapolis, or Columbus, we multiplied the distance by two as we assumed they were round trip since they originated from a distance close to Oxford, Ohio. If they did not, we treated them as one-way flights. We were unable to determine this without going through each individual report in ChromeRiver. Our calculation was comparable to our FY18 calculation using financial records. 120 entries were unable to be mapped out of a total of 4,855 entries. 10,162,648.00 miles in total. Commuting- The last time Miami University calculated commuting emissions was in FY18, where the Office of Institutional Research provided the Sustainability Office with a list of all addresses for students, faculty, and staff. A Geography student used GIS to calculate the distance from the central location on campus (Roudebush) where we made the following assumptions. See below for FY18: Assumption 1: All students living in a residential hall are walkers. First-year and sophomores cannot have a vehicle on campus, and 95% of all First-year and Sophomores live in residential halls. Assumption 2: All people living within the Mile Square, a geographical boundary around campus, are walkers. Assumption 3: All students living outside of the Mile Square and not in a residential hall are driving to campus 4 days a week for 30 weeks total (15 in Fall and 15 in Spring). Assumption 4: All fulltime staff living outside of the Mile Square are driving to campus 5 days a week for 50 weeks. This assumes one full week vacation, as well as having a week off during winter break Assumption 5: All part-time staff living outside of the Mile Square are driving to campus 3 days a week for 50 weeks. This assumes one full week vacation, as well as having a week off during winter break Assumption 6: All full-time faculty living outside of the Mile Square are driving to campus 5 days a week for 46 weeks. We determined 46 weeks based on the academic calendar: 15 weeks for Fall, 15 weeks for Spring, 4-week Winter term, and 12-week Summer term. Assumption 7: All part-time faculty living outside of the Mile Square are driving to campus 3 days a week for 46 weeks. We determined 46 weeks based on the academic calendar: 15 weeks for Fall, 15 weeks for Spring, 4-week Winter term, and 12-week Summer term. For the current FY19 calculation, we begin the analysis with a list of all students, faculty, and staff with parking passes that showed up in our license plate registration data for FY20. Even though this data falls outside of the reporting timeline for other emissions in this analysis, we felt this was more accurate than assuming the entire campus population drives to campus. FY20 was the first full year we began using license plate registration technology, so we decided to use this timeframe to provide a more accurate calculation of who is driving to campus. Thus, this dataset did contain months where the campus population was working remotely (March-June). If a person showed up once in the data, we included them in this analysis (see below in this discussion for more detail), but we assumed that this dataset captured the majority of drivers from the July - February months. Also, we were unable to project walkers, as well as alternative forms of travel. Even though this calculation is more accurate, it still has limitations. The carbon footprint for commuting for FY19 was lower than the FY18 calculation. Still, we believe the reduction results from using only individuals with parking passes registering in our license registration system, not the entire campus population as a whole. The Office of Parking and Transportation gave the Sustainability Office a dataset of everyone with a parking pass in our license plate registration system. We removed indicators, and a Geography student mapped the mileage from each address to Roudebush. Initial parking data had 7,608 unique individuals with permits. We only considered addresses in Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky. We eliminated 1,000 individuals using an address that was not within 90 miles, as we assumed any individuals outside of this radius were not engaging in a daily commute. This took our population size to 6552 unique individuals. We then assumed that individuals were commuting from the closest distance if they had multiple addresses. Thus, we used the minimum distance out of the multiple addresses provided. We then excluded contractors, visitors, non-Miami employees, and one high school employee from the analysis to ensure our calculation was specific for Miami University faculty, students, and staff. This took our population size down to 5,197. Another limitation is that we included everyone even if they showed up in the license plate registration system once. This poses a limitation because some individuals’ carbon footprint could be represented/calculated larger than in reality. Also, this analysis is specific to calculating M-F travel and excludes Saturday and Sunday. Even though not the norm, some individuals still travel to campus on weekends. The GIS analysis generated a one-time mileage distance -- from their residence to campus. From there, we based our multipliers on these assumptions. Staff and Faculty were considered together in the dataset, and we were unable to break them apart. We know that faculty are not driving every day, especially in the summer. Still, we had to treat faculty and staff based on a similar driving schedule, meaning this calculation could be an overestimate. We multiplied a faculty/staff commuting distance by 460. This assumes staff/faculty drive this distance 5 days a week, twice a day, for 46 weeks (vacation/sick). This assumes two full-week vacations (estimation to equate to the entire campus population) and two weeks off in the December winter break. We excluded anyone with an electric vehicle. Our analysis was only able to determine Tesla vehicles, as we were unable to determine non-Tesla electric vehicles from vehicle descriptions. This resulted in 14 individuals being removed. All with a residential hall address were considered walkers and were excluded. All students not in a residential hall are driving to campus 4 days a week for 30 weeks total (15 in Fall and 15 in Spring). Thus, our multiplier was 240. This assumes a reduction of one day per week since we do not expect students to drive to campus every day. We used personal mileage reimbursement in SIMAP. 20,146,371.00 miles in total. To accurately predict driving patterns for each individual, we plan to work with the University to ask each individual buying a parking pass (additional questions may emerge throughout this work) the following questions. What is the address you are commuting daily from? How many times on average a week are you commuting in the Fall? How many times on average a week are you commuting in Spring? How many times on average a week are you commuting in Summer How often do you commute to campus on Saturday and Sunday? How many days on average do you take off throughout the fiscal year? How often do you carpool? How often do you bike, walk, or ride the bus to campus? ** Since submitting this report to Second Nature, Miami University has implemented a commuting survey, which is presented before a faculty, staff, or student buys a parking pass. These results do not reflect emission data in this section, but helped inform OP-16.

This baseline is a placeholder given we began this work during a pandemic and were unable to provide current figures. Thus and given these constraints, this is the most accurate, complete GHG footprint for our institution.

Our organizational boundary contained all operational activities of Miami University's main Oxford campus. We excluded the Middletown, Hamilton, and the Voice of America learning center regional locations to explore/plan ways to reduce carbon emissions at these locations to engage in the production of offsets.

Jess Messinger, a former Instructor of Statistics and member of the Climate Action Task Force, validated this campus-wide GHG inventory per the expectations of Climate Action Task Force membership. Jeff, alongside the Director of Sustainability, developed the methodology and analyzed the data for Scope 3 emissions. Alongside this, he validated, independently, Scope 1 and 2 emission data from the Physical Facilities Department. Verification documentation is presented in our Second Nature progress report.

See above in "A brief description of the methodology and/or tool used to complete the GHG emissions inventory "

Miami University calculates air emissions using a combination of measured emission rates (i.e. stack emissions obtained during performance tests of Miami's equipment) and emission factors published by the EPA. The following data was submitted to the Ohio EPA for the calendar year 2020.

Contact:
Cody Powell - powellcj@miamioh.edu
Dan Fetrow - Environmental Programs Manager - fetrowdd@miamiOH.edu