Agnes Scott College
IL-65: Innovation A

In May 2022, Agnes Scott College partnered with the architectural firm, Goody Clancy, and the Zero Net Carbon Collaboration (ZNCC) to publish a full report on a campus-wide use of the Carbon Avoided Retrofit Estimator (CARE) tool. The CARE tool has traditionally been used at the individual building level. Because Agnes Scott has extensive documentation of the campus’ physical history, this provided a pathway for a representative reconstruction of historical emissions profiles. 

• The key findings in this report include,

  • When strategies to maintain, upgrade and renovate existing buildings are prioritized, there is a 41% reduction in total carbon emitted into the atmosphere than focusing solely on high-performance, new construction.

  • It would take 300+ years for a forest the size of Agnes Scott’s campus (100 acres) to sequester the avoided embodied carbon emissions resulting from the retention and renovation of existing buildings over the history of the campus (135 years). 

  • A case study within the report featured Rebekah Scott Hall to show avoided carbon emissions at the single building scale. Rebekah Scott Hall underwent three major renovations including the 2018 LEED Platinum, whole-building renovation. Over its 119 lifespan, building stewardship of this individual building avoided ~6,000 mtCO2e compared to new construction. 

This study provides an additional pathway to carbon neutrality through building stewardship and therefore replicability was in mind to outline key datasets an institution would need to compile, analyze with the help of the CARE tool report, and ultimately provide active, decision-making data for campus leaders. 

https://www.agnesscott.edu/assets/documents/departments/sustainability/carbon_savings_action_plan.pdf 

https://blog.drawdownga.org/we-cant-build-our-way-to-net-zero-building-stewardship-at-agnes-scott