Overall Rating	Gold - expired
Overall Score	68.71
Liaison	Keisha Payson
Submission Date	Feb. 28, 2019
Executive Letter	Download

STARS v2.1

Bowdoin College
OP-22: Water Use

Status

Score

Responsible Party

0.98 / 4.00

Keisha Payson
Sustainability Director
Sustainable Bowdoin

"---" 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:

Low to Medium

Part 1

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

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Total water use	---	49,669,725 Gallons

Potable water use:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Potable water use	49,494,109 Gallons	49,669,725 Gallons

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

	Start Date	End Date
Performance Year	Sept. 28, 2017	June 28, 2018
Baseline Year	July 1, 2004	June 30, 2005

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:

To be consistent with Bowdoin's previous STARS submissions, which used 7/1/2004-6/30/2005.

Figures needed to determine "Weighted Campus Users":

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Number of students resident on-site	1,634	1,581
Number of employees resident on-site	25	22
Number of other individuals resident on-site and/or staffed hospital beds	22	0
Total full-time equivalent student enrollment	1,814	1,677
Full-time equivalent of employees (staff + faculty)	928	704
Full-time equivalent of students enrolled exclusively in distance education	0	0
Weighted campus users	2,493.25	2,186.50

Potable water use per weighted campus user:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Potable water use per weighted campus user	19,851.24 Gallons	22,716.54 Gallons

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

12.61

Part 2

Gross floor area of building space:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Gross floor area	2,094,839 Gross square feet	1,968,654 Gross square feet

Potable water use per unit of floor area:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Potable water use per unit of floor area	23.63 Gallons per square foot	25.23 Gallons per square foot

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

6.36

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	280 Acres	272.62 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	182,193.99 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:

Bowdoin's Eco Reps have installed educational signs in residence hall bathrooms with statistics about water usage and tips for reducing it.

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

Bowdoin utilizes a rainwater capture system on the roof of two dorms and an academic building for toilet flushing in those buildings. The college landscapes with indigenous plants that do not require irrigation. Additionally, surfaces are designed to direct rainwater runoff toward plants and maintain plant health. Bowdoin has several storm water retention ponds, vegetative swales, infiltration galleries, under drained soil filters, and under drained bio-retention cells. The Building Design Standards for Renovation Projects has a section devoted to reduction of storm water runoff. The last 4 major construction projects have had some LEED certification in which storm water credits were met.

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 College experimented with waterless urinals for several years but they were not well-received due to blow back pressure issues that Housekeeping staff experienced during filter changes - ultimately the units were removed. In recent years the College has specified minimal flush urinals (0.125 gallons per flush) for all new building projects. Since 2009, the college has adopted design strategies and systems to reduce building water use to exceed the requirements of the Energy Policy Act (EPACT) of 1992. The college has since then adopted use of infrared faucet sensors and delayed action shut-off or automatic shut-off valves, use of low flow toilets, use of metering faucets at 0.25 gallons per cycle, use of low-flow kitchen faucets, use of low-flow shower heads, use of domestic dishwashers that use 10 gallons per cycle or less, use of front loading clothes washers that meet EPA ENERGY STAR ® requirements. As mentioned above, Bowdoin utilizes a rainwater capture system on the roof of two LEED silver certified residence halls and a LEED platinum certified academic building for toilet flushing in those buildings.

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

https://www.bowdoin.edu/facilities/campus-construction/completed-projects/index.html

Additional documentation to support the submission:

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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

Bowdoin specifies low flow fixtures in all building projects.