Overall Rating	Silver - expired
Overall Score	61.04
Liaison	Tina Woolston
Submission Date	March 1, 2019
Executive Letter	Download

STARS v2.1

Tufts University
OP-1: Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Status	Score	Responsible Party
	5.02 / 10.00	Shoshana Blank Education and Outreach Program Administrator Office of Sustainability

"---" 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	Some
Commuting	All
Purchased goods and services	Some
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:

Annual GHG Report2017 (without WH and leased properties energy).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:

Used SIMAP to conduct FY17 GHG inventory. Used all default emissions factors from SIMAP, including eGRID for the New England region for electricity. (SIMAP is using eGRID 2014, when it should be updated to eGRID 2016). The only emissions factor we customized was for purchased steam since we know the fuel mix and approximation of the plant efficiency. To calculate student and faculty/staff commuting numbers, we used a commuting survey using FY16 data and applied it to the whole campus. See OP-16 and OP-17 for more info. We obtained directly financed air travel numbers from Tufts' two preferred travel agency vendors who track the mileage of all flights. This does not include 100% of financed air travel as it is likely that some staff/faculty purchase airline tickets outside of these two vendors, but it is likely the majority of air mileage. The Purchasing Department estimates this is 80% of staff/faculty air travel. Study abroad air travel mileage was estimated by taking all students' destinations and calculating mileage of round-trip flights from Boston. Directly financed travel (car/bus) was calculated with data from many different parts of the university: charter bus trips, Tufts shuttle bus trips, personal mileage reimbursements, gas purchased for rental or personal cars using university credit cards (FY16 data), and athletic teams' bus trip mileage using their annual schedule. Solid waste data from FY17 was from a waste hauler that used volume to weight conversions. All trash went to mass-burn facilities. Wastewater was calculated using water bills on all campuses and subtracting any metered irrigation. Paper purchasing data was provided by our office paper vendor. Additional paper data came from the vendor that manages all library printers and copiers, and supplies the 35% recycled content paper. Transmission & Distribution Losses were calculated with a default factor from 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?:

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

---

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	17,293.97 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	17,372 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Gross Scope 1 GHG emissions from other sources	1,314.76 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	1,217 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Gross Scope 2 GHG emissions from purchased electricity	20,980.39 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	26,098 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Gross Scope 2 GHG emissions from other sources	5,698.52 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	6,611 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Total	45,287.64 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	51,298 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, 2007	June 30, 2008

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):

---

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	851 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	851 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:

---

Adjusted net Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Adjusted net Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions	45,287.64 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	50,447 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

Figures needed to determine “Weighted Campus Users”:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Number of students resident on-site	3,525	3,587
Number of employees resident on-site	11	9
Number of other individuals resident on-site and/or staffed hospital beds	0	0
Total full-time equivalent student enrollment	11,017	9,355
Full-time equivalent of employees (staff + faculty)	4,478	3,684.50
Full-time equivalent of students enrolled exclusively in distance education	79.50	0
Weighted campus users	12,445.63	10,678.63

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	3.64 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	4.72 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

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

22.97

Part 3

Gross floor area of building space, performance year:

5,461,911 Gross square feet

Floor area of energy intensive building space, performance year:

	Floor Area
Laboratory space	351,506 Square feet
Healthcare space	126,914 Square feet
Other energy intensive space	44,948 Square feet

EUI-adjusted floor area, performance year:

6,463,699 Gross square feet

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

0.01 MtCO2e per square foot

Optional Fields

Scope 3 GHG emissions, performance year:

	Emissions
Business travel	10,556.93 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Commuting	8,631.69 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Purchased goods and services	295.94 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Capital goods	---
Fuel- and energy-related activities not included in Scope 1 or Scope 2	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Waste generated in operations	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Other categories	1,097.26 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

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

Tufts transformed a former factory into the Collaborative Learning and Innovation Complex, getting LEED Silver certified in 2015. Tufts constructed the Science and Engineering Complex in 2017, and it was certified LEED Gold in 2018. Energy-saving strategies were incorporated into every aspect of the building to minimize the building’s carbon impact. The building is predicted to use, for instance, 70 percent less energy than a typical lab building, and triple-glazed windows will reduce building heat loss during the winter and keep the building’s interior cooler during the summer, according to Andrea Love, director of building science at Payette, the firm that designed the building. The building’s mechanical system also is predicted to recover and reuse up to 72 percent of its heat before it is exhausted.

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

https://sustainability.tufts.edu/sustainability-at-tufts/institutional-environmental-initiatives/leed-certified-buildings/

Additional documentation to support the submission:

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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

Business travel includes: directly financed air travel, directly finance car/bus travel, and study abroad air travel. Commuting includes faculty, staff, and students. Purchased goods is just paper. Solid waste GHG emissions were -64.36 and wastewater emissions were 61.96. Since we could not enter negative emissions, we equated these two categories to zero for "Waste generated in operations". Other category was T&D losses. The boundary of this GHG inventory is buildings Tufts owns on its three campuses as well as the two buildings on the SMFA campus, which Tufts leases. Did not include the full operational-control boundary since that boundary was not used in our baseline year. Tufts developed a methodology for conducting a greenhouse gas emissions inventory for colleges and universities in 2002.

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.