Overall Rating	Bronze
Overall Score	41.51
Liaison	Lori Chance
Submission Date	May 16, 2024

STARS v2.2

Messiah University
OP-21: Water Use

Status

Score

Responsible Party

3.16 / 4.00

Brandon Hoover
Director of Sustainability
Operations

"---" 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 Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas:

Low

Part 1. Reduction in potable water use per person

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

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Total water withdrawal	29,876,993 Gallons	37,008,000 Gallons

Potable water use:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Potable water use	28,258,500 Gallons	36,778,000 Gallons

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

	Start Date	End Date
Performance Period	July 1, 2022	June 30, 2023
Baseline Period	July 1, 2007	June 30, 2008

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:

Baseline year of fiscal year 2008 was chosen because this is the year that Messiah conducted in first GHG inventory and signed the Climate Commitment

Figures needed to determine "Weighted Campus Users":

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Number of students resident on-site	1,945	2,426
Number of employees resident on-site	14	14
Number of other individuals resident on-site	14	14
Total full-time equivalent student enrollment	3,231	2,794
Full-time equivalent of employees	682	650
Full-time equivalent of students enrolled exclusively in distance education	385	0
Weighted campus users	3,149.75	3,207

Potable water use per weighted campus user:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Potable water use per weighted campus user	8,971.66 Gallons	11,468.04 Gallons

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

21.77

Part 2. Reduction in potable water use per unit of floor area

Gross floor area of building space:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Gross floor area	1,587,703 Gross square feet	1,317,672 Gross square feet

Potable water use per unit of floor area:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Potable water use per unit of floor area	17.80 Gallons per square foot	27.91 Gallons per square foot

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

36.23

Part 3. Reduction in total water withdrawal per unit of vegetated grounds

Area of vegetated grounds:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Vegetated grounds	46 Acres	46 Acres

Total water withdrawal per unit of vegetated grounds:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Total water withdrawal per unit of vegetated grounds	649,499.85 Gallons per acre	804,521.74 Gallons per acre

Percentage reduction in total water withdrawal per unit of vegetated grounds from baseline:

19.27

Optional Fields

A brief description of the institution's water-related behavior change initiatives:

The college has not done as much to address individual behavior changes; however, many of the efforts involved installing low flow shower heads or taking vegetative space (grass) out of watering and mow production.

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

The campus garden uses water collection to water its garden and collects over 2,000 gallons of water each year

A brief description of the institution's initiatives to replace plumbing fixtures, fittings, appliances, equipment, and systems with water-efficient alternatives:

automatiflush
showerheads,
airators on sinks

Website URL where information about the institution’s water conservation and efficiency efforts is available:

---

Additional documentation to support the submission:

Water-FY23.pdf

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

Potable water data -
FY2023 - Suez water - 28,258,500 gallons of billable potable water used on campus

Other water - SRBC (water pulled from the yellow breeches)
SRBC - Susquehanna River Basin Commission - Data on non-potable water pulled from the Yellow Breeches
FY2023 - 1,618,493 gallons pulled from the yellow breeches

Messiah is given a permit to pull water from the Yellow Breeches Creek which runs through campus. it is used for irrigating athletic fields and other vegetative spaces. This makes the total water use much higher.