Overall Rating Silver
Overall Score 61.60
Liaison Megan Curtis-Murphy
Submission Date Feb. 28, 2023

STARS v2.2

Northeastern University
OP-1: Emissions Inventory and Disclosure

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.58 / 3.00 Jacob Glickel
Director of Sustainability Operations
Climate Justice & Sustainability Hub
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Part 1. Greenhouse gas emissions inventory

Has the institution conducted a GHG emissions inventory within the previous three years that includes all Scope 1 and 2 emissions? :
Yes

A copy of the most recent GHG emissions inventory:
A brief description of the methodology and/or tool used to complete the GHG emissions inventory:
Northeastern University (NU) uses the University of New Hampshire's Sustainability Indicator Management and Analysis Platform (SIMAP) to calculate greenhouse gas emissions. Our institutional boundary includes buildings owned and/or fully managed buildings primarily on our Boston campus, but does include buildings located in our Boston-area satellite campuses in Burlington, Nahant, and Dedham, MA. We are not including any leased space on the Boston campus or at our 10 global locations. This inventory also does not include Mills College at Northeastern which merged with Northeastern in July 2022. We intend to include all leased properties including our global locations when that data becomes available in the coming years. Of note, about 2/3 of scope 1 emissions are from the central plant that produces low pressure steam for most of the Boston campus buildings.

We have uploaded calendar year 2005 through 2021 data into SIMAP. NU uses calendar year 2005 as the baseline year for all sustainability-metric data. We account for Scope 1 emissions of (1) stationary combustion of fossil fuels on campus, (2) transportation-related fossil fuel consumption, (3) Scope 2 emissions of purchases of electricity.

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?:
No

A brief description of the GHG inventory verification process:
---

Documentation to support the GHG inventory verification process:
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Scope 1 GHG emissions
Gross Scope 1 GHG emissions, performance year:
Weight in MTCO2e
Stationary combustion 29,602 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Other sources (mobile combustion, process emissions, fugitive emissions) 622 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

Total gross Scope 1 GHG emissions, performance year:
30,224 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

Scope 2 GHG emissions
Gross Scope 2 GHG emissions, performance year (market-based):
Weight in MTCO2e
Imported electricity 25,582 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Imported thermal energy 0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

Total gross Scope 2 GHG emissions, performance year:
25,582 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

GHG emissions from biomass combustion
Gross GHG emissions from biogenic sources, performance year:
0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

Scope 3 GHG emissions
Does the GHG emissions inventory include Scope 3 emissions from the following sources?:
Yes or No Weight in MTCO2e
Business travel No ---
Commuting No ---
Purchased goods and services No ---
Capital goods No ---
Fuel- and energy-related activities not included in Scope 1 or Scope 2 No ---
Waste generated in operations No ---
Other sources No ---

Total Scope 3 GHG emissions, performance year:
0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

A brief description of how the institution accounted for its Scope 3 emissions:
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Part 2. Air pollutant emissions inventory

Has the institution completed an inventory within the previous three years to quantify its air pollutant emissions?:
Yes

Annual weight of emissions for::
Weight of Emissions
Nitrogen oxides (NOx) 24.90 Metric tons
Sulfur oxides (SOx) 0.24 Metric tons
Carbon monoxide (CO) 19.08 Metric tons
Particulate matter (PM) 0.47 Metric tons
Ozone (O3) 0 Metric tons
Lead (Pb) 0 Metric tons
Hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) 0 Metric tons
Ozone-depleting compounds (ODCs) 0 Metric tons
Other standard categories of air emissions identified in permits and/or regulations 0 Metric tons

Do the air pollutant emissions figures provided include the following sources?:
Yes or No
Major stationary sources Yes
Area sources Yes
Mobile sources No
Commuting No
Off-site electricity production No

None
A brief description of the methodology(ies) the institution used to complete its air emissions inventory:
The air emissions are calculated through the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection's Source Registration reporting requirement for Title V entities in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The emissions are reported annually and include all stationary sources on the Boston campus, include the central steam plant.

Optional Fields

Gross Scope 2 GHG emissions from purchased electricity (location-based):
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Gross Scope 2 GHG emissions from imported thermal energy (location-based) :
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Website URL where information about the institution’s emissions inventories is available:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
The greenhouse gas emissions inventory is for calendar year 2021 and does not include leased facilities or Mills College at Northeastern.

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.