Overall Rating	Gold - expired
Overall Score	72.90
Liaison	Kathleen Crawford
Submission Date	July 23, 2020

STARS v2.2

Florida Gulf Coast University
OP-2: Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Status	Score	Responsible Party
	4.45 / 8.00	Kathleen Crawford Sustainability Coordinator Environmental Health & Safety

"---" 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	124.03 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	79 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Gross Scope 1 GHG emissions from other sources	696.15 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	226 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Gross Scope 2 GHG emissions from imported electricity	26,570.21 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	17,918 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Gross Scope 2 GHG emissions from imported thermal energy	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Total	27,390.39 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	18,223 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	2,695.13 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):

Tree Campus USA and i-Tree Canopy Mapping
Over half of FGCU’s 800 acres are undeveloped. As the development of this part of Lee County accelerates, preserving and enhancing our campus’ tree canopy becomes increasingly important. Equally important, is the task of understanding the natural capital and economic value of our campus trees.

FGCU’s Physical Plant has been working with faculty and students to gather the data needed to understand the inherent value of our campus vegetation. The Physical Plant collaborates with faculty members who integrate service-learning components into their courses as well as individual student leaders and paid interns to map our campus canopy. Tools such as Project BudBurst and i-Tree Canopy enable us to quantify the annual carbon sequestration and other valuable attributes of our preserved and replanted areas.

The tools that the Physical Plant uses are sophisticated enough to differentiate between the amounts of carbon sequestered annually versus the CO2 stored in trees. We entered the amount sequestered during our reporting period in the “Non-Additional Sequestration” data entry link of SIMAP.

Newly planted areas are made possible thanks to our Tree Campus USA efforts. Each year, the Tree Campus USA Committee hosts three large-scale planting events that engage over 100 service-learning students. These events include Make A Difference Day in the Fall, Campus Beautification Day/Florida Arbor Day Celebration early in the Spring, and Eagles’ Earth Day of Action at the end of the Spring semester. These service-learning and research initiatives have proven successful; the carbon sequestered by our forest preservation efforts is equivalent to adding three new solar fields to FGCU’s campus.

Adjusted net Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions:

	Performance year	Baseline year
Adjusted net GHG emissions	27,390.39 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	18,223 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, 2017	July 1, 2009
End date	June 30, 2018	June 30, 2010

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

It was established when we signed the ACUPCC commitment.

Figures needed to determine “Weighted Campus Users”:

	Performance year	Baseline year
Number of students resident on-site	4,708	1,945
Number of employees resident on-site	12	8
Number of other individuals resident on-site	3	0
Total full-time equivalent student enrollment	13,504	5,754
Full-time equivalent of employees	1,576	311
Full-time equivalent of students enrolled exclusively in distance education	520	288
Weighted Campus Users	12,103	4,821

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	2.26 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	3.78 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

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

40.13

Gross floor area of building space, performance year:

4,346,598 Gross square feet

Floor area of energy intensive building space, performance year:

	Floor area
Laboratory space	166,842.78 Square feet
Healthcare space	4,866.76 Square feet
Other energy intensive space	40,723.40 Square feet

EUI-adjusted floor area, performance year:

4,730,740.48 Gross square feet

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

0.01 MtCO2e per square foot

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

Due to damage incurred by Hurricane Irma in fall 2017, the Solar Field did not produce as much energy for this fiscal year as in past fiscal years.

Progress toward Carbon Neutrality to Date
Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) signed the American Colleges & Universities Presidents’ Carbon Commitment (ACUPCC) in 2007, renamed to the Presidents’ Carbon Commitment in 2017. In doing so, we pledged to develop a comprehensive plan to achieve carbon neutrality as soon as possible. Second Nature, the Presidents’ Carbon Commitment’s direct support organization, defines carbon neutrality as, “having no net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, to be achieved by eliminating net GHG emissions, or by minimizing GHG emissions as much as possible, and using carbon offsets or other measures to mitigate the remaining emissions.”

Upon signing the Commitment, FGCU set a climate neutrality date of 2050 and agreed to immediately take the following tangible actions:
*Establish a policy that all new campus construction will be built to the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED Silver standard or higher
*Adopt an energy-efficient appliance purchasing policy
*Encourage use of and provide access to public transportation for all faculty, staff, students and visitors at our institution

The tangible actions established by FGCU upon signing the agreement were our first step to taking more carbon out of the earth’s atmosphere than we put into it on an annual basis.

We established 2010 as our baseline year and set interim goals to decrease our net emissions by 5% by 2015 and 10% by 2020. Since then, our overall net change in emissions has increased by 11%, missing our 2015 interim goal and not making adequate progress toward our 2020 goal. The following graph illustrates net change in net emissions by scope.

Despite not meeting our 2015 target and falling behind on our 2020 goal, FGCU can be proud of how efficiently we have grown. Our net greenhouse gas emissions per 1,000 square feet of building space has decreased 22% since 2010 and our net emissions per full time enrollment (FTE) has decreased by 38%. Figures 9 and 10 illustrate this progress.

FGCU has successfully integrated sustainability into many of our ongoing educational and operational efforts. Since our founding, we have been leaders in energy efficiency and ecosystems enhancement efforts. We are also known for our curricular integration of sustainability through core requirements such as the University Colloquium and Service Learning as well as our transformative relationships with community partners.

We continue to build to LEED silver or higher, and focus on embedded sustainability and energy saving technologies. Additionally, FGCU adopted a liquid ozone cleaning system for all residence halls, which reduces the amount of cleaning chemicals used and increases worker safety. We also continue to reduce the amount of energy and water used per FTE and manage our grounds to enhance native ecosystems. Academically, a significant number of faculty members are engaged in sustainability research, sustainability content has been successfully integrated into a high percentage of courses, and most programs have formally adopted sustainability learning outcomes.

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

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Additional documentation to support the submission:

17-18_Methods-Narrative.docx

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

The Ghg inventory was last performed in 2018 when we had a total of 4,346,598 of built space.

PRE-4 total GSF is 4,739,847.497 which includes 320,723.3sqft not included in GHG inventory or this report, as it falls outside the institutional boundary listed in PRE-3.

The remaining building space came online after 2018
• University Recreation & Wellness Center
o GSF: 50,000

• Student & Community Counseling Center
o GSF: 27,040

(Clerical error fixed in energy efficient space by aligning with Pre-4 data)

Data source(s) and notes about the submission