Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 77.24
Liaison Jim Dees
Submission Date June 10, 2015
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.0

Appalachian State University
OP-26: Water Use

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.17 / 3.00 Michelle Novacek
Process Analyst
Physical Plant
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Level of water risk for the institution’s main campus:
Low to Medium

Total water use (potable and non-potable combined)::
Performance Year Baseline Year
Total water use 96,563,206 Gallons 104,708,166 Gallons

Potable water use::
Performance Year Baseline Year
Potable water use 96,563,206 Gallons 104,708,166 Gallons

Figures needed to determine "Weighted Campus Users"::
Performance Year Baseline Year
Number of residential students 5,727 5,160
Number of residential employees 11 11
Number of in-patient hospital beds 0 0
Full-time equivalent enrollment 17,097 16,388
Full-time equivalent of employees 2,621.99 2,672.24
Full-time equivalent of distance education students 1,003 1,045

Gross floor area of building space::
Performance Year Baseline Year
Gross floor area 5,110,782 Square feet 4,679,232 Square feet

Area of vegetated grounds::
Performance Year Baseline Year
Vegetated grounds 374.13 Acres 374.13 Acres

Start and end dates of the performance year and baseline year (or three-year periods):
Start Date End Date
Performance Year July 1, 2013 June 30, 2014
Baseline Year July 1, 2010 June 30, 2011

A brief description of when and why the water use baseline was adopted:

We chose a period 3 years prior to the performance year of 2013/14 in order to have data that is more current and therefore tracked consistently.


Water recycled/reused on campus, performance year:
23,000 Gallons

Recycled/reused water withdrawn from off-campus sources, performance year:
0 Gallons

A brief description of any water recovery and reuse systems employed by the institution:

The Sustainable Development Farm uses captured water as thermal storage in the greenhouse.

Beasley Media Center has a water reclamation system on the roof and the water is used for flushing toilets.


A brief description of any water metering and management systems employed by the institution:

15402 Water Meters
"Water meters shall be installed for all buildings in accordance with the State of N.C. and the Town of Boone regulations. Water meters shall be Touch-read,have a 1000 gallon multiplier and be easily accessible for reading and maintenance. Acceptable units are the Sensus SRH Compound meter with touch-read encoder ECR registers for two inch or larger and the Neptune Compound water meter with touch-read encoder ECR registers for 1-1/2 inch lines."


A brief description of any building retrofit practices employed by the institution, e.g. to install high efficiency plumbing fixtures and fittings:

Shower heads, sink aerators, and toilets are being replaced or refitted with tamper resistent, low consumption heads and devices. This project has been completed in all residents' halls and has been funded by several sources:
1) State Energy Office Grant in 2009
2) PEPCO contracts - $5.5m
3) PEPCO contract - $16.5m

By the end of 2015, approximately 90% of all fixtures on campus will be low flow.

Specifics of replacements:
*Replaced 3 gpm with 1.5 gpm shower heads
*Replaced 1.5 and 1 gpm sink aerators with .5gpm
*Replaced 3 gallons per flush gpf toilets with .6 gpf toilets
*Some urinals have been reduced to 1 pint of water per flush


A brief description of any policies or programs employed by the institution to replace appliances, equipment and systems with water-efficient alternatives:

Replace leaking steam and condensate lines

USI Report also lists the following Water Management Strategies:
1) Install water saving devices on showers and lavatories. (2013 plan)
2) Replace older model toilets with low consumption toilets. (2013 plan)
3) Use rainwater harvesting and other water re-use strategies where appropriate.(2013 plan)


A brief description of any water-efficient landscape design practices employed by the institution (e.g. xeriscaping):

When landscaping plans are reviewed, native, drought tolerant plants, are selected wherever possible. With the exception of athletic fields, none of the lawn areas or landscape beds are irrigated.


A brief description of any weather-informed irrigation technologies employed by the institution:

Under normal conditions we receive adequate rainfall here in Boone, NC to sustain our landscape. We only irrigate to establish plant material, and the few containers we have on campus. The only permanently installed irrigation systems are located on two athletic fields. These are not automatically irrigated, but are monitored daily and only irrigated if needed, based on weather and scheduled events. In general, the athletic fields are not irrigated at all under normal conditions.


A brief description of other water conservation and efficiency strategies employed by the institution:

Leaks have been repaired in
The energy manager monitors water usage per building to identify leaks
Massive undertaking to repair steam lines and recover lost condensate. This is 10 year, $25 million undertaking that began in 2007/08 and continues. Our condensate return has so far been improved from 8% recovery to approximately 65% - 70% recovery to date. The target is an 80%+ condensate return.


The website URL where information about the institution’s water conservation and efficiency initiatives is available:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

99.99% of the water used on campus is potable.


99.99% of the water used on campus is potable.

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.