Green Mountain College
IN-1: Innovation 1

In academic year 2012-2013, Green Mountain College resolved that it would estimate the indirect ecological impacts of its purchases of goods and services. Climate impacts associated with its purchases would be assessed by estimating the embodied greenhouse gases in purchases. A suite of other indirect ecological impacts would also be assessed and placed into a multicriteria framework that would weight impacts based on scientific knowledge and community values. The first stage of this assessment took place in the fall semester of 2013. Kenneth Mulder’s economics of the environment class surveyed all of the college purchases of goods and services. Out of $14.04 million in purchases, $11.81 million were assessed directly. The remaining $2.23 million, generally small purchases of under $200, were assessed through a sampling procedure. Through this process, all of the college purchases of goods and services were assigned to SIC codes for 2002. Purchases by sector were then entered in an environmental input-output life cycle analysis model developed at Carnegie Mellon (www.eiolca.net), a tool which uses an integrated ecological-economic model to estimate various ecological impacts of economic production based on purchases. The preliminary results were then interpreted by students with three goals in mind. First was to understand the general nature of the impacts and to give meaning to the numbers. This occurred by researching direct impacts of the particular ecological flow (e.g. impacts of cancer-causing emissions) or by looking at comparable impacting activities (e.g. smoking cigarettes). Second, students looked for areas of ecological impact where the college impacts were particularly high relative to global and national norms. Finally, students used the data to determine what sectors of purchases at the College were most impacting and therefore might be targets for impact reduction. During the spring of 2014, Dr. Mulder and a research assistant began checking and verifying the results, while stakeholders began discussing ways to use the information to influence purchasing decisions. Key questions that remain include whether to utilize a more current model (there tend to be large time lags in the data inherently), how to proceed with the multicriteria analysis, and how to automatize the system to increase data quality and reduce associated workload. Once the data have been properly assessed and verified, the College will be begin a more formal exploration of options to reduce and/or remediate impacts including potentially striving to account for Scope III carbon emissions in the ACUPCC climate neutrality goals.

The analysis will allow the College to begin minimizing its purchasing impacts across the follow wide range of indicators: Ozone Depletion Global Warming Acidification Carcinogenicity Noncarcinogenicity Criteria Air Pollutants Eutrophication Smog Formation Ecotoxicity Fossil Fuel Use Habitat/T&E Species Water Use

Please note that this project greatly exceeds what's required of OP-16 Life Cycle Cost Analysis. Whereas OP-16 is focused on energy and water impacts of purchases, this project includes the following for all purchases, and the results will be used by the strategic plan steering committee in pursuit of the goal of authentic sustainability: Ozone Depletion Global Warming Acidification Carcinogenicity Noncarcinogenicity Criteria Air Pollutants Eutrophication Smog Formation Ecotoxicity Fossil Fuel Use Habitat/T&E Species Water Use