Overall Rating | Silver - expired |
---|---|
Overall Score | 58.49 |
Liaison | Richard Johnson |
Submission Date | Nov. 11, 2014 |
Executive Letter | Download |
Rice University
OP-26: Water Use
Status | Score | Responsible Party |
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1.40 / 4.00 |
"---"
indicates that no data was submitted for this field
Level of water risk for the institution’s main campus:
Medium to High
Total water use (potable and non-potable combined)::
Performance Year | Baseline Year | |
Total water use | 228,718,800 Gallons | 253,520,000 Gallons |
Potable water use::
Performance Year | Baseline Year | |
Potable water use | 228,718,800 Gallons | 253,520,000 Gallons |
Figures needed to determine "Weighted Campus Users"::
Performance Year | Baseline Year | |
Number of residential students | 2,824 | 2,815 |
Number of residential employees | 71 | 71 |
Number of in-patient hospital beds | 0 | 0 |
Full-time equivalent enrollment | 6,301.33 | 6,071.33 |
Full-time equivalent of employees | 2,861 | 2,842 |
Full-time equivalent of distance education students | 0 | 0 |
Gross floor area of building space::
Performance Year | Baseline Year | |
Gross floor area | 5,695,320 Square feet | 5,695,320 Square feet |
Area of vegetated grounds::
Performance Year | Baseline Year | |
Vegetated grounds | 142.66 Acres | 142.66 Acres |
Start and end dates of the performance year and baseline year (or three-year periods):
Start Date | End Date | |
Performance Year | July 1, 2012 | June 30, 2013 |
Baseline Year | July 1, 2011 | June 30, 2012 |
A brief description of when and why the water use baseline was adopted:
During the 2011-2012 school year Houston was experiencing one of the worst droughts ever recorded. Thus, this was adopted as the baseline year to offer worst-case scenario data.
Water recycled/reused on campus, performance year:
12,000,000
Gallons
Recycled/reused water withdrawn from off-campus sources, performance year:
0
Gallons
A brief description of any water recovery and reuse systems employed by the institution:
Condensate harvesting: Air conditioning systems provide a constant source of clean, cold water that is well suited for reuse. In the fall of 2008, Rice began capturing condensate water from the air conditioning systems of the Biosciences Research Collaborative to use as make-up water in the cooling towers of the South Plant. This is a free source of water that Rice would otherwise have to buy from the City of Houston during the summer of 2011, Rice completed a project to capture condensate water from many of the science buildings to bring back to the Central Plant's cooling towers. Combined, these systems are estimated to save at least 12 million gallons of water per year, which is equivalent to about 5 to 6 percent of Rice's annual water consumption in a typical year.
A brief description of any water metering and management systems employed by the institution:
Several Rice buildings are individually metered for building-level water consumption, including (but not limited to) Alice Pratt Brown, Dell Butcher Hall, The Rice Stadium, the Greenbriar building, McNair Hall, the Rice Children’s Campus, the Gibbs Recreation and Wellness Center, the Biosciences Research Collaborative, and the President’s House. Otherwise, many buildings are served from master meters. Irrigation water is typically metered separately.
A brief description of any building retrofit practices employed by the institution, e.g. to install high efficiency plumbing fixtures and fittings:
(1) Dual–flush toilets are located in Duncan College, McMurtry College, the Biosciences Research Collaborative, Brockman Hall, and the Gibbs Recreation Center. There are more than 405 dual-flush toilets on campus. The toilets have two options, full flush and partial flush. Full flushes use 1.6 gallons of water and partial flushes, which vary between buildings due to toilet model, use either .8 or 1.1 gallons of water. It is estimated that 788,715 gallons of water per year will be saved because of the dual-flush toilets.
(2) During the spring of 2011, the Rice Housing and Dining department partnered with the student eco-rep for Hanszen College to test a new showerhead that reduces water consumption by 40 percent with an economic payback of just a few months. The student and his roommates reported that the low-flow showerhead provided a better shower than the showerhead it replaced. With student support, during the summer of 2011, both Hanszen and Lovett Colleges were retrofitted with these new showerheads.
3) Generally speaking, most old toilets across campus were replaced in the late 1990s with newer fixtures that meet current federal standards of 1.6 gallons per flush.
A brief description of any policies or programs employed by the institution to replace appliances, equipment and systems with water-efficient alternatives:
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A brief description of any water-efficient landscape design practices employed by the institution (e.g. xeriscaping):
The University tries to select plant material that is native or well adapted to the area. Additionally, Rice’s irrigation system has evolved to utilize drip irrigation for the campus’ landscape which is much more water-efficient than conventional watering systems.
A brief description of any weather-informed irrigation technologies employed by the institution:
Each irrigation controller has a simple rain sensor attached. The sensor delays irrigation until it has dried out.
A brief description of other water conservation and efficiency strategies employed by the institution:
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The website URL where information about the institution’s water conservation and efficiency initiatives is available:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Baseline enrollment: http://oir.rice.edu/uploadedFiles/Office_of_Institutional_Research/Content/Common_Data_Set/CDS_2011-2012%20Short%20CDS.pdf
Baseline year data is from the fall of 2011
Performance year data is from the fall of 2012
Note: We considered the number of beds to be a proxy for the number of on-campus students. While the number of students living on-campus changes constantly during the year, the number of beds is stable each semester.
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.