Overall Rating	Gold
Overall Score	66.21
Liaison	Stephen Ellis
Submission Date	June 9, 2023

STARS v2.2

Boston University
OP-2: Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Status	Score	Responsible Party
	6.10 / 8.00	Stephen Ellis Director, Data Analytics BU Sustainability

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

Gross Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions:

	Performance year	Baseline year
Gross Scope 1 GHG emissions from stationary combustion	45,700 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	58,825 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Gross Scope 1 GHG emissions from other sources	1,800 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	1,802 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Gross Scope 2 GHG emissions from imported electricity	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	91,795 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Gross Scope 2 GHG emissions from imported thermal energy	11,500 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	13,013 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Total	59,000 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	165,435 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

Figures needed to determine net carbon sinks:

	Performance year	Baseline year
Third-party verified carbon offsets purchased	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Institution-catalyzed carbon offsets generated	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Carbon storage from on-site composting	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Carbon storage from non-additional sequestration	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Carbon sold or transferred	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Net carbon sinks	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

A brief description of the carbon sinks, including vendor, project source, verification program and contract timeframes (as applicable):

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Adjusted net Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions:

	Performance year	Baseline year
Adjusted net GHG emissions	59,000 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	165,435 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

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

	Performance year	Baseline year
Start date	July 1, 2021	July 1, 2005
End date	June 30, 2022	June 30, 2006

A brief description of when and why the GHG emissions baseline was adopted:

Beginning in 2019, in an effort to capture a more complete picture of our emissions, we included fleet, fugitive, and shuttle emissions under Scope 1 - other sources. These figures had not been included in the past because of missing or incorrect data dating back to FY2006. Historically, the boundary for the University's STARS reports has been limited to the Charles River and Medical Campuses. For the first time, in 2019, we were able to capture emissions data from facilities off campus within New England. In addition, on June 1, 2018, Wheelock College merged with BU, becoming the Fenway Campus; this campus is included in our institutional boundary.

For consistency, Boston University uses a Fiscal Year 2006 baseline for its sustainability metrics.

Figures needed to determine “Weighted Campus Users”:

	Performance year	Baseline year
Number of students resident on-site	11,158	11,185
Number of employees resident on-site	150	181
Number of other individuals resident on-site	0	0
Total full-time equivalent student enrollment	29,594	24,623
Full-time equivalent of employees	9,581	8,439
Full-time equivalent of students enrolled exclusively in distance education	1,529	1,605
Weighted Campus Users	31,061.50	26,434.25

Adjusted net Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions per weighted campus user:

	Performance year	Baseline year
Adjusted net Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions per weighted campus user	1.90 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	6.26 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

Percentage reduction in adjusted net Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions per weighted campus user from baseline:

69.65

Gross floor area of building space, performance year:

15,592,611 Gross square feet

Floor area of energy intensive building space, performance year:

	Floor area
Laboratory space	657,812.90 Square feet
Healthcare space	80,053.90 Square feet
Other energy intensive space	239,760.20 Square feet

EUI-adjusted floor area, performance year:

17,308,104.80 Gross square feet

Adjusted net Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions per unit of EUI-adjusted floor area, performance year:

0.00 MtCO2e per square foot

A brief description of the institution’s GHG emissions reduction initiatives:

BU's initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions can be found at the following website and in the following document:

1. BU Sustainability's Climate Action website: https://www.bu.edu/sustainability/vision-progress/climate-action-plan-2/#section-0-article-0

2. BU's Climate Action Plan: https://www.bu.edu/sustainability/files/2021/05/BUClimateActionPlan_Report_FINAL.pdf

Website URL where information about the institution's GHG emissions is available:

https://www.bu.edu/sustainability/vision-progress/data-dashboard/

Additional documentation to support the submission:

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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

As part of our Climate Action Plan, BU is matching 100% of our scope 2 electricity needs by retiring Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) from the BU Wind Farm. This project came online in December 2020 in the middle of FY21 and reduced our carbon emissions by 58.3%. It has continued since and matched 100% electricity for FY22. Hence the drop in electricity emissions from previous years is from BU Wind Farm matching electricity by wind power.

This represents FY2022 BU Metrics.

Additional links highlighting BU's Climate Action Plan:

Net Zero Direct Emissions:
https://www.bu.edu/sustainability/projects/net-zero-direct-emissions/

Act on Indirect Emissions:
https://www.bu.edu/sustainability/projects/act-on-indirect-emissions/

Data source(s) and notes about the submission