Grand Valley State University
OP-8: Clean and Renewable Energy

Institution supports the development and use of clean and renewable energy sources using any one or combination of the following options.  

Option 1:  Generating electricity from clean and renewable energy sources on campus and retaining or retiring the rights to the environmental attributes of such electricity.  (In other words, if the institution has sold Renewable Energy Credits for the clean and renewable energy it generated, it may not claim such energy here).  The on-site renewable energy generating devices may be owned and/or maintained by another party as long as the institution has contractual rights to the associated environmental attributes.

Option 2: Using renewable sources for non-electric, on-site energy generation, such as biomass for heating. 

Option 3:  Catalyzing the development of off-site clean and renewable energy sources (e.g. an off-campus wind farm that was designed and built to supply electricity to the institution) and retaining the environmental attributes of that energy.

Option 4: Purchasing the environmental attributes of electricity in the form of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) or other similar renewable energy products that are either Green-e Energy certified or meet Green-e Energy’s technical requirements and are verified as such by a third party, or purchasing renewable electricity through the institution’s electric utility through a certified green power purchasing option. 

Option 5:  Using co-generation technologies to generate electricity more efficiently.  Note: generating electricity using co-generation technology and a renewable fuel, such as biomass, is considered Option 1 and should not be counted twice.

Since this credit is intended to recognize institutions that are generating new sources of clean and renewable energy, neither the electric grid mix for the region in which the institution is located nor the grid mix reported by the electric utility that serves the institution count for this credit.  

Technologies that reduce the amount of energy used but do not generate renewable energy do not count for this credit.  For example, daylighting, passive solar design, and ground-source heat pumps are not counted in this credit.  The benefits of such strategies are captured by OP Credit 5: Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions and OP Credit 7: Building Energy Consumption. 

Transportation fuels, which are covered by OP Credit 14: Campus Fleet, are not included in this credit. 

To aggregate energy consumption data from multiple sources, figures should be converted into MMBtu (one million British thermal units – a standard measure of energy) using the following equivalents: 

     1 kWh = 0.003412 MMBtu

     1 MWh = 3.412 MMBtu

     1 therm = 0.1 MMBtu

     1 kBtu = 0.001 MMBtu

     1 ton-hour = 0.012 MMBtu

     1 MJ = 0.000948 MMBTU

This credit applies to all institutions. 

Institutions earn the maximum of 7 points for this credit by obtaining all energy from clean and renewable sources.   Incremental points are available for meeting some energy consumption from renewable sources, purchasing Renewable Energy Credits or green power from the electric utility, and/or generating electricity using co-generation technologies.  For example, an institution that met half of its energy consumption from renewable sources would earn 3.5 points (half of the points available for this credit). 

Timeframe

Report the most recent data available.  Institutions may choose the annual start and end dates that work best with the data they have (e.g. fiscal or calendar year), as long as data are reported from a consecutive 12-month period. 

Sampling

Report all on-site, stationary energy that was consumed by the institution (as the institution defines in the overall STARS institutional boundary).  Reporting on a sample or subset of energy generation and consumption is not allowed for this credit.