Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 61.13
Liaison Elizabeth Drake
Submission Date March 6, 2020

STARS v2.2

Swarthmore College
OP-1: Emissions Inventory and Disclosure

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.94 / 3.00 Ralph Thayer
Director of Maintenance
Facilities Management
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Part 1. Greenhouse gas emissions inventory

Has the institution conducted a GHG emissions inventory within the previous three years that includes all Scope 1 and 2 emissions? :
Yes

A copy of the most recent GHG emissions inventory:
Swarthmore_SIMAPAnnualReport_2018.pdf

A brief description of the methodology and/or tool used to complete the GHG emissions inventory:
Swarthmore's annual greenhouse gas inventory is completed using SIMAP.

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?:
No

A brief description of the GHG inventory verification process:
---

Documentation to support the GHG inventory verification process:
---

Scope 1 GHG emissions
Gross Scope 1 GHG emissions, performance year:
Weight in MTCO2e
Stationary combustion 5,747.62 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Other sources (mobile combustion, process emissions, fugitive emissions) 191.96 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

Total gross Scope 1 GHG emissions, performance year:
5,939.58 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

Scope 2 GHG emissions
Gross Scope 2 GHG emissions, performance year (market-based):
Weight in MTCO2e
Imported electricity 0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Imported thermal energy 0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

Total gross Scope 2 GHG emissions, performance year:
0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

GHG emissions from biomass combustion
Gross GHG emissions from biogenic sources, performance year:
0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

Scope 3 GHG emissions
Does the GHG emissions inventory include Scope 3 emissions from the following sources?:
Yes or No Weight in MTCO2e
Business travel Yes 4,522.65 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Commuting Yes 909.43 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Purchased goods and services Yes 95.88 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Capital goods No ---
Fuel- and energy-related activities not included in Scope 1 or Scope 2 Yes 456.43 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Waste generated in operations Yes 312.07 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Other sources No 0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

Total Scope 3 GHG emissions, performance year:
6,296.46 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

A brief description of how the institution accounted for its Scope 3 emissions:
Swarthmore College uses SIMAP to calculate Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions, in alignment with Second Nature's guidelines, measuring emissions from Commuting, Air Travel, Waste, Paper, and T&D losses. The College's Climate Action Manager collects the necessary data on an annual basis and oversees the inventory.

Part 2. Air pollutant emissions inventory

Has the institution completed an inventory within the previous three years to quantify its air pollutant emissions?:
Yes

Annual weight of emissions for::
Weight of Emissions
Nitrogen oxides (NOx) 3.43 Tons
Sulfur oxides (SOx) 0.26 Tons
Carbon monoxide (CO) 4.34 Tons
Particulate matter (PM) 0.30 Tons
Ozone (O3) 0 Tons
Lead (Pb) 0.00 Tons
Hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) 0 Tons
Ozone-depleting compounds (ODCs) 0 Tons
Other standard categories of air emissions identified in permits and/or regulations 0 Tons

Do the air pollutant emissions figures provided include the following sources?:
Yes or No
Major stationary sources Yes
Area sources No
Mobile sources No
Commuting No
Off-site electricity production No

None
A brief description of the methodology(ies) the institution used to complete its air emissions inventory:
We used primarily DEP emissions factors and data from our boilers to generate estimates of air emissions, which were then submitted to DEP.

Optional Fields

Gross Scope 2 GHG emissions from purchased electricity (location-based):
5,703.82 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

Gross Scope 2 GHG emissions from imported thermal energy (location-based) :
0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

Website URL where information about the institution’s emissions inventories is available:
https://www.swarthmore.edu/sustainability/progress-toward-climate-neutrality

Additional documentation to support the submission:
---

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
For Scope 2 GHG Emissions: STARS guidance directs us to use the market-based Scope 2 emissions calculation methodology, which counts REC purchases in calculating emissions. Since we purchase RECs to cover all electricity consumption on campus, our Scope 2 emissions are technically 0 under this methodology.

For Scope 3 GHG Emissions: Purchased goods and services figure only includes paper purchasing.

This information was assembled by Elizabeth Drake, the Climate Action Manager from the Sustainability Office.
Email: edrake1@swarthmore.edu

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.