Overall Rating	Silver - expired
Overall Score	58.21
Liaison	Julie Hopper
Submission Date	July 29, 2021

STARS v2.2

University of Southern California
OP-1: Emissions Inventory and Disclosure

Status	Score	Responsible Party
	2.46 / 3.00	Elias Platte-Bermeo Sustainability Program Assistant Office of Sustainability

"---" 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:

STARS_Bounds_GHGI_MB_14BL_plusFY19_USC_FLEET_ADJUSTED_7.28.xlsm

A brief description of the methodology and/or tool used to complete the GHG emissions inventory:

A customized version of the Campus Carbon Calculator™ (Excel) tool was utilized, with updated emissions factors from SIMAP (v2020). Activity data was provided to consultants, who reviewed it, entered it into the tool, analyzed and summarized it for USC.

See "S_Annual 2019" tab for STARS reporting year data.

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 GHG inventory verification process:

Activity data was collected by USC's Energy office from departments across campus. That activity data was reviewed by Energy office staff, and by consultants from U-CAN, who are familiar with USC's previous years' activity data; they reviewed the data for outliers based on past years as well as averages from other campuses. U-CAN entered activity data into the customized Campus Carbon Calculator tool, and provided results to the Energy office. Those results were reviewed by Energy office staff, and by other stakeholders from across campus, for consistency and coherence.

Documentation to support the GHG inventory verification process:

USC_GHG_Reporting_Letter_U-CAN.pdf

Scope 1 GHG emissions

Gross Scope 1 GHG emissions, performance year:

	Weight in MTCO2e
Stationary combustion	27,558.20 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Other sources (mobile combustion, process emissions, fugitive emissions)	1,857.70 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

Total gross Scope 1 GHG emissions, performance year:

29,415.90 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

Scope 2 GHG emissions

Gross Scope 2 GHG emissions, performance year (market-based):

	Weight in MTCO2e
Imported electricity	75,099.80 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Imported thermal energy	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

Total gross Scope 2 GHG emissions, performance year:

75,099.80 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

GHG emissions from biomass combustion

Gross GHG emissions from biogenic sources, performance year:

17.87 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	39,076.10 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Commuting	Yes	86,318 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Purchased goods and services	No	---
Capital goods	No	---
Fuel- and energy-related activities not included in Scope 1 or Scope 2	Yes	6,759 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Waste generated in operations	Yes	7,169.70 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Other sources	No	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

Total Scope 3 GHG emissions, performance year:

139,322.80 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

A brief description of how the institution accounted for its Scope 3 emissions:

FOR COMMUTING: Students' and employees' travel mode and VMT data was collected for baseline year based on survey, parking data and other available sources; then extrapolated for performance year by multiplying numbers of FTE students and employees. FOR BUSINESS TRAVEL: Business travel data was collected for the performance year from three firms that support USC's travel bookings; air travel is based on total $ spent, which were converted to air miles using the SIMAP conversation factors (v2020). Baseline year business travel data was not available, so is assumed to be the same as FY2019. Waste data for comes from invoices and other records for waste collection across USC's facilities, for both the baseline and performance years.

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)	49,496.85 Tons
Sulfur oxides (SOx)	287.33 Tons
Carbon monoxide (CO)	39,690.60 Tons
Particulate matter (PM)	3,771.85 Tons
Ozone (O3)	0 Tons
Lead (Pb)	48.25 Tons
Hazardous air pollutants (HAPs)	105,310.10 Tons
Ozone-depleting compounds (ODCs)	415 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	No
Area sources	Yes
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:

Based upon our emissions, USC is required annually to submit an Annual Emissions Report to the Air District. The District’s reporting web tool involves using emission factors (based upon permit emission limits) and specified equipment through-put data to calculate air emissions.

Optional Fields

Gross Scope 2 GHG emissions from purchased electricity (location-based):

49,072 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

Gross Scope 2 GHG emissions from imported thermal energy (location-based) :

---

Website URL where information about the institution’s emissions inventories is available:

https://green.usc.edu/sustainability-2020-update/

Additional documentation to support the submission:

---

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

The scope of the GHG inventory reported for STARS is slightly different than the scope of the GHG inventory listed on the Office of Sustainability website (https://green.usc.edu/sustainability-2020-update/) for Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions.

This is because the GHG numbers reported in STARS align with the scope of USC's overall STARS Report and PRE credits; these GHG numbers cover buildings owned and operated by USC and exclude the Medical Enterprise (hospitals). The GHG inventory listed on the Office of Sustainability website has a broader scope, including hospitals.

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.