Overall Rating Silver
Overall Score 60.05
Liaison Jessica Thompson
Submission Date Feb. 15, 2023

STARS v2.2

Northern Michigan University
OP-1: Emissions Inventory and Disclosure

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.42 / 3.00 Brandon Sager
Sustainability Coordinator
Facilities
"---" 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:
NMU hired an engineering consultant to create a campus energy master plan. As part of the plan, the consultant calculated a baseline greenhouse gas inventory for the campus. NMU provided hourly and monthly energy data including natural gas consumed, electricity purchased, gasoline and diesel fuel consumed by the university fleet. The data was provided for calendar years 2018 and 2019 because this period was prior to the COVID pandemic when campus operations were normal. During 2020 and 2021, university facilities operations were scaled back and did not reflect normal activities.

Impacts due to COVID prevented us from conducting a more recent (and accurate) assessment, thus we are using data from 2018-2019 and we have designated our performance year as 2018-2019. The consultant used the provided energy data and created a mass and energy balance to check that all energy conversions balanced. Then EIA for GHG emissions were applied to all to provide GHG emissions for each energy system, and finally
each energy system and its emissions were assigned to either Scope 1 for direct emissions or Scope 2 for indirect emissions.

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:
---

Scope 1 GHG emissions
Gross Scope 1 GHG emissions, performance year:
Weight in MTCO2e
Stationary combustion 19,397 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Other sources (mobile combustion, process emissions, fugitive emissions) 338 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

Total gross Scope 1 GHG emissions, performance year:
19,735 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

Scope 2 GHG emissions
Gross Scope 2 GHG emissions, performance year (market-based):
Weight in MTCO2e
Imported electricity 12,289 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Imported thermal energy 0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

Total gross Scope 2 GHG emissions, performance year:
12,289 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:
---

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) 22.62 Tons
Sulfur oxides (SOx) 0.14 Tons
Carbon monoxide (CO) 19 Tons
Particulate matter (PM) 1.72 Tons
Ozone (O3) 0 Tons
Lead (Pb) 0.00 Tons
Hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) 0 Tons
Ozone-depleting compounds (ODCs) 0 Tons
Other standard categories of air emissions identified in permits and/or regulations 1.35 Tons

Do the air pollutant emissions figures provided include the following sources?:
Yes or No
Major stationary sources Yes
Area sources No
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:
Michigan Air Emissions Reporting System (MAERS) is the State of Michigan's web-based application used in the collection of emission data from the permitted sources/facilities. The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE), Air Quality Division (AQD) maintains MAERS reports for commercial, industrial, and governmental sources of air pollution in Michigan.

NMU tracks our annual natural gas, wood, and fuel oil usage and applies those throughputs to a program of equations on the MAERS website. Based on our fuel usage quantities and on industry average fuel parameters, MAERS’ program calculates estimated emissions.

Note: Ozone, HAPs, ODCs are not part of our emission inventory. We entered "O" as a place holder for those pollutants.

Optional Fields

Gross Scope 2 GHG emissions from purchased electricity (location-based):
---

Gross Scope 2 GHG emissions from imported thermal energy (location-based) :
---

Website URL where information about the institution’s emissions inventories is available:
---

Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Impacts due to COVID prevented us from conducting a more recent (and accurate) assessment, thus we are using an older inventory and we have designated our performance year as 2018-2019.

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.