In 2018, the college began to quantify our carbon footprint by applying the University Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) inventory protocol to college-scale data. The following table and text describe five years of inventory results indicating that we are responsible for ~10K mt CO2e/year over that time span.
The protocol does not account for most Scope III emissions, likely associated primarily with purchasing, suggesting that we are probably responsible for an additional ~40%, or 4000 mt, based on cursory University estimates. Also, all electricity and heating (~80-85% of our footprint) related decision making and purchasing are done at the University administration level, thus as a college we are limited in what we can accomplish with respect to decreasing our carbon footprint to changing our behavior and use of those utilities and advocating for change at the University level. The following table aggregates relevant data from the inventory and is followed by pie chart presentations (in the accordions) of the inventory results for each of the five years studied.
| % | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 5 YR AVE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electricity | 48.45 | 47.18 | 51.26 | 45.95 | 49.87 | 48.542 |
| Steam | 35.58 | 37.34 | 41.92 | 42.85 | 36.98 | 38.934 |
| Natural Gas | 2.01 | 1.81 | 0.36 | 0.4 | 0.03 | 0.922 |
| Chilled H2O | 4.38 | 4.46 | 2.82 | 3.43 | 2.93 | 3.604 |
| Water | 0.13 | 0.17 | 0.13 | 0.15 | 0.17 | 0.15 |
| Wastewater | 0.13 | 0.16 | 0.13 | 0.15 | 0.16 | 0.146 |
| EMS Vehicles | 0.07 | 0.18 | 0.16 | 0.04 | 0.19 | 0.128 |
| Fleet | 0.65 | 0.68 | 0.1 | 0.35 | 0.68 | 0.492 |
| Commuters | 4.41 | 3.98 | 2.97 | 4.61 | 4.08 | 4.01 |
| Air Travel | 4.2 | 4.03 | 0.15 | 2.07 | 4.92 | 3.074 |
| MTCO2e | 10440 | 9730 | 10946 | 9887 | 9222 | 10045 |
Our most recent inventory is for the 2022-23 fiscal year in which total emissions amounted to 9,222 MTCO2e. Building usage decreased from its peak in FY 20-21 showing a 10% decrease in usage from the previous year. Air travel was the highest year in the 5 year span, surpassing the pre-Covid inventory year, while commuting emissions decreased in association with a 10% decrease in EMS parking passes.
In FY 2021-2022, emissions decreased by about 10% from the year prior with total emissions of 9,887 MTCO2e. All emissions sources trended back toward pre-Covid amounts with decreases in electric and steam and increases in all other sources with the exception of college-owned vehicles which saw a significant decrease in emissions. This could be from decreased usage or from off-campus fueling.
Air travel increased but was still significantly less than prior to Covid. Commuting emissions returned to pre-pandemic amounts although it should be noted that many EMS employees continue a hybrid remote-campus schedule thus this estimate could be updated (lowered).
Our most recent inventory is for the 2022-23 fiscal year in which total emissions amounted to 9,222 MTCO2e. Building usage decreased from its peak in FY 20-21 with a 10% decrease in usage from the previous year. Air travel was at it’s highest, surpassing pre-covid inventory year while commuting emissions decrease in association with a 10% decrease in EMS parking passes.
FY 2020-2021 showed the highest emissions total in the 5 year span of the EMS GHG inventory data with a total of 10,946 MTCO2e. All accounted for emissions decreased during this year with the exception of electric and steam which displayed a 20% increase from the previous year. One possible explanation for this is that usage decreased slightly in buildings where space is predominantly assigned as classroom and office space, but increased in buildings used for research and laboratory space. It may be the case, that research activities were of greater focus during this time since campus activities were less during the pandemic and many staff and students could confine themselves to lab space.
Commuting days during this year were reduced 16.5% per the university-wide GHG inventory. Note that commuting emissions are calculated solely based on the number of active parking passes, round trip distance to the home address of the pass holder, and number of commuting days --- not based on actual employee driving mileage. The number of parking passes decreased by 9% during this year.
The majority of the data for FY 2019-2020 represents “normal” college operations, but the last 3 months of the year reflect the start of the COVID pandemic and the subsequent beginning of operational changes. Sources immediately affected were employee-based air travel and daily commuting. This resulted in a total of 9,730 MTCO2e in emissions -- a 7% decrease from the previous year.