Overall Rating	Silver - expired
Overall Score	56.41
Liaison	Audrey McSain
Submission Date	March 1, 2019
Executive Letter	Download

STARS v2.1

Lehigh University
OP-1: Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Status	Score	Responsible Party
	4.26 / 10.00	Douglas Spengel Associate Director Utilities and Engineering Facilities Services

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

Part 1

Has the institution conducted a GHG emissions inventory that includes all Scope 1 and 2 emissions? :

Yes

Does the institution’s GHG emissions inventory include all, some or none of its Scope 3 GHG emissions from the following categories?:

	All, Some, or None
Business travel	Some
Commuting	All
Purchased goods and services	Some
Capital goods	None
Waste generated in operations	Some
Fuel- and energy-related activities not included in Scope 1 or Scope 2	All
Other categories	Some

A copy of the most recent GHG emissions inventory:

Lehigh GHG Emissions Inventory FY2018 Using SIMAP.xlsx

A brief description of the methodology and/or tool used to complete the GHG emissions inventory, including how the institution accounted for each category of Scope 3 emissions reported above:

The Sustainability Indicator Management and Analysis Platform (SIMAP) was used to compute GHG emissions for all Scope 1, 2, and 3 sources this year. In previous years Scope 3 emissions were not estimated. As a result, some baseline figures were adjusted upward this year to correspond with the new Scope 3 emission sources included in this performance year as if the current Scope 3 emissions values were also applicable during the baseline year. Scope 3 emissions from the following categories were determined as described: 1) Wastewater is computed from the amount of potable water used minus the difference between the metered amount of water entering evaporative cooling towers and not returning from the cooling towers to the sewer system. 2) Fertilizer usage comes from purchasing records. 3) Commuting calculated by obtaining student/faculty residence data from the Office of Institutional Research. For daily commute, we broke down transportation type by survey responses from a survey filled out by 10% of the campus in Spring 2018. For student travel to/from home, we calculated tri-state commuting by averaging the miles it takes to get to/from campus from the most populous counties in each of the states. In all other states, US territories and international countries, we took the number of flight miles to/from NYC airports and bus miles from Port Authority to Bethlehem. 4) Paper data acquired from WB Mason (campus paper provider) then broken down by paper type 5)Business travel inputted by number of dollars spent. We indicated "some" on this credit because we were only able to identify plane travel. 6) Compost data acquired by campus facilities

Has the GHG emissions inventory been validated internally by personnel who are independent of the GHG accounting and reporting process and/or verified by an independent, external third party?:

Yes

A brief description of the internal and/or external verification process:

Independent calculation by Facilities Services Utilities and Engineering staff.

Documentation to support the internal and/or external verification process:

20180315-2017-emissions-report.pdf

Does the institution wish to pursue Part 2 and Part 3 of this credit? (reductions in Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions):

Yes

Part 2

Gross Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Gross Scope 1 GHG emissions from stationary combustion	21,960.80 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	26,327 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Gross Scope 1 GHG emissions from other sources	1,433.10 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	1,275.50 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Gross Scope 2 GHG emissions from purchased electricity	27,240 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	31,511 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Gross Scope 2 GHG emissions from other sources	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Total	50,633.90 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	59,113.50 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

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

	Start Date	End Date
Performance Year	July 1, 2017	June 30, 2018
Baseline Year	Jan. 1, 2007	Dec. 31, 2007

A brief description of when and why the GHG emissions baseline was adopted (e.g. in sustainability plans and policies or in the context of other reporting obligations):

April 2008, after creation of an independent Climate Commitment document. For the 2007 calendar year baseline, only Scope 1 and 2 emissions had been calculated. This reporting year, after Scope 3 emissions were calculated for the first time, the baseline emissions were increased by the amount of this year's Scope 3 emissions.

Figures needed to determine total carbon offsets:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Third-party verified carbon offsets purchased (exclude purchased RECs/GOs)	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 sequestration due to land that the institution manages specifically for sequestration	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 offsets included above for which the emissions reductions have been sold or transferred by the institution	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Net carbon offsets	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

If total performance year carbon offsets are greater than zero, provide:

A brief description of the offsets in each category reported above, including vendor, project source, verification program and contract timeframes (as applicable):

Lehigh did not purchase any offsets during the baseline year or the performance year. Lehigh has forest land that serves as a carbon sink but the quantity of this sink has not yet been determined.

The reporting fields in the table below are reserved for institutions that have NOT already accounted for renewable energy purchases (including RECs and GOs) in their Scope 2 GHG emissions calculations. Other institutions - including all SIMAP users - should report zero ('0') to avoid double-counting.

Emissions reductions attributable to Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) or Guarantee of Origin (GO) purchases:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Emissions reductions attributable to REC/GO purchases	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

A brief description of the purchased RECs/GOs including vendor, project source and verification program:

Lehigh did not purchase any RECs/GOs during the baseline year or the performance year.

Adjusted net Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Adjusted net Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions	50,633.90 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	59,113.50 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

Figures needed to determine “Weighted Campus Users”:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Number of students resident on-site	3,463	4,608
Number of employees resident on-site	0	0
Number of other individuals resident on-site and/or staffed hospital beds	0	0
Total full-time equivalent student enrollment	6,659	7,577.33
Full-time equivalent of employees (staff + faculty)	1,814.67	1,654
Full-time equivalent of students enrolled exclusively in distance education	203	234.33
Weighted campus users	7,068.75	7,899.75

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	7.16 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	7.48 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

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

4.28

Part 3

Gross floor area of building space, performance year:

4,589,815 Gross square feet

Floor area of energy intensive building space, performance year:

	Floor Area
Laboratory space	184,608 Square feet
Healthcare space	3,101 Square feet
Other energy intensive space	332,920 Square feet

EUI-adjusted floor area, performance year:

5,298,153 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

Optional Fields

Scope 3 GHG emissions, performance year:

	Emissions
Business travel	5,011.70 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Commuting	4,374.18 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Purchased goods and services	60.30 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Capital goods	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Fuel- and energy-related activities not included in Scope 1 or Scope 2	2,015.20 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Waste generated in operations	40.80 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Other categories	40,084 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

A brief description of the institution’s GHG emissions reduction initiatives, including efforts made during the previous three years:

Recent initiatives include relamping and installation of new variable speed drives in several buildings. As fluorescent lights burn out or fail, they are being replaced with light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Several buildings and outdoor areas have been relamped with LEDs, including many street lights on each campus. HVAC staff have been installing new variable speed drives on existing motors to extend motor life and to reduce energy. An electric-powered bus was added to the bus fleet at the end of the performance year. Similar types of projects are planned for the coming year.

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

https://sustainability.lehigh.edu/climate-commitment

Additional documentation to support the submission:

---

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

Scope 3 - 1) Commuting includes both student/faculty daily travel to campus. 2) Business travel includes air travel only. 3) Purchased goods and services is only paper purchasing. 4) The Other category represents student travel to/from home. Solid Waste was not included in the Scope 3 GHG Emissions Inventory. We will include this next in next year's report.