Overall Rating	Silver - expired
Overall Score	53.97
Liaison	Stephen Ellis
Submission Date	Aug. 2, 2019
Executive Letter	Download

STARS v2.1

Boston University
OP-22: Water Use

Status

Score

Responsible Party

3.06 / 6.00

Stephen Ellis
Director, Data Analytics
BU Sustainability

"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Level of ”Physical Risk QUANTITY” for the institution’s main campus as indicated by the World Resources Institute’s Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas:

High

Part 1

Total water use (potable and non-potable combined):

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Total water use	---	434,888,206.41 Gallons

Potable water use:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Potable water use	400,506,827.02 Gallons	434,888,206.41 Gallons

Start and end dates of the performance year and baseline year (or three-year periods):

	Start Date	End Date
Performance Year	July 1, 2017	June 30, 2018
Baseline Year	July 1, 2005	June 30, 2006

If end date of the baseline year/period is 2004 or earlier, provide:

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

The water use baseline year is FY2006, the same as the greenhouse gas and other sustainability performance baselines.

Figures needed to determine "Weighted Campus Users":

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Number of students resident on-site	11,504	11,185
Number of employees resident on-site	175	181
Number of other individuals resident on-site and/or staffed hospital beds	0	0
Total full-time equivalent student enrollment	27,168	24,623
Full-time equivalent of employees (staff + faculty)	9,253	8,439
Full-time equivalent of students enrolled exclusively in distance education	993	1,605
Weighted campus users	29,490.75	26,434.25

Potable water use per weighted campus user:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Potable water use per weighted campus user	13,580.76 Gallons	16,451.69 Gallons

Percentage reduction in potable water use per weighted campus user from baseline:

17.45

Part 2

Gross floor area of building space:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Gross floor area	15,029,385 Gross square feet	13,426,870 Gross square feet

Potable water use per unit of floor area:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Potable water use per unit of floor area	26.65 Gallons per square foot	32.39 Gallons per square foot

Percentage reduction in potable water use per unit of floor area from baseline:

17.73

Part 3

Does the institution wish to pursue Part 3 of this credit? (reductions in total water use per acre/hectare of vegetated grounds):

Yes

Area of vegetated grounds:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Vegetated grounds	701 Acres	680 Acres

Total water use (potable + non-potable) per unit of vegetated grounds:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Total water use per unit of vegetated grounds	0 Gallons per acre	639,541.48 Gallons per acre

Percentage reduction in total water use per unit of vegetated grounds from baseline:

---

Optional Fields

A brief description of the institution's water-related behavior change initiatives, e.g. initiatives to shift individual attitudes and practices such as signage and competitions:

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A brief description of the institution's water recovery and reuse initiatives:

At the Center for Student Services located 100 Bay State Road, water passing through the compost disposal system in the commercial kitchen is recycled throughout the day. Completed in June of 2012, the Medical Student Residence at 815 Albany Street uses landscape features that are designed to require as little water as possible and the residence uses 100% rainwater harvesting for irrigation, resulting in an 11% reduction in water used for irrigation. The New Balance Field uses a rainwater storage tank; in addition to rainwater, the tank captures and reuses the water that is released onto the field by the six water cannons used to wet the playing surface before and during field hockey games. Percent of building space with water metering: 100%. Boston University has building-level metering across campus, including sewer abatement meters on cooling towers and irrigation. Drought tolerant plants are selected where appropriate in other areas on campus. The Medical Student Residence at 815 Albany Street, for example, uses drought-tolerant landscaping to reduce potable water consumption for irrigation. The University has a decentralized irrigation program with over 140 irrigation systems (approximately 50% incorporate drip irrigation) installed across the Charles River Campus. All these irrigation systems incorporate localized rain sensors to reduce water waste. BU has seven Certified Green Restaurants on campus. As part of the certification, certain requirements are met that include low-flow pre-rinse spray valves in dishrooms, low-flow nozzles on prep and hand sinks, as well as Energy Star rated dish machines. Energy Star rated equipment were purchased. The new dining room, Marciano Commons, is built in a LEED Gold building and employs state of the art energy savings infrastructure such as a heat recovery system for both HVAC and water heating. In 2008, Dining Services eliminated the use of trays in all residential dining halls. By doing so, we reduced our water use by an estimated 35,000 gallons per week as well as reduced food waste by 30%.

A brief description of the institution's initiatives to replace plumbing fixtures, fittings, appliances, equipment, and systems with water-efficient alternatives (e.g. building retrofits):

The Medical Student Residences has reduced water use in the building by 40% through the installation of features such as low-flow kitchen and lavatory faucets, and showers. The Center for Student Services at 100 Bay State Road features similar low-flow plumbing and kitchen fixtures. Located in many places on campus, the EcoPower hydro turbine in faucets and toilets is powered by the motion of the water running through it; this motion creates an electrical current, which is then stored in rechargeable cells that power the Smart Sensor Systems. Dual-flush toilets can also be found in around 25 locations on campus and throughout all 26 floors at 33 Harry Agganis Way (Student Village 2). Waterless urinals are in use at 670 Albany Street. Clothes washing machines in campus housing have been replaced with high-efficiency machines. Dishwashers at the Center for Student Services have a built-in heat recovery system which use exhaust heat from freezer compressors to preheat rinse water, significantly reducing water and energy usage. In addition, these dishwashers only use about 60 gallons of water compared to the 300 gallons per hour used by a conventional dishwasher. Low-flow shower heads and toilets, as well as sewer abatement meters, are employed by BU.

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

http://www.bu.edu/sustainability/what-were-doing/water/

Additional documentation to support the submission:

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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

We calculated the total vegetated grounds using GIS and excluded buildings, parking lots, and other non-vegetated areas from our total estimate. We use then used the total area of Boston University's (BU) campus as calculated in our GIS process and normalized it against the "Total campus area" reported in IC-2: Operational Characteristics. • Charles River: 111 acres • Medical: 18 acres • Fenway: 5 acres • Tanglewood: 64 acres • Sargent: 673 acres • Holliston Animal Farm: 35 acres Fenway has been added for the first time, but not included in the adjusted baseline.