Overall Rating	Gold - expired
Overall Score	79.39
Liaison	Yolanda Cieters
Submission Date	March 5, 2021

STARS v2.2

Seattle University
OP-2: Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Status	Score	Responsible Party
	5.07 / 8.00	Yolanda Cieters Associate Director CEJS

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

Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions

Gross GHG emissions

Gross Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions:

	Performance year	Baseline year
Gross Scope 1 GHG emissions from stationary combustion	3,046.04 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	3,446.21 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Gross Scope 1 GHG emissions from other sources	151.43 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	126.79 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Gross Scope 2 GHG emissions from imported electricity	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Gross Scope 2 GHG emissions from imported thermal energy	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	1,024.43 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Total	3,197.47 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	4,597.43 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

Carbon sinks

Figures needed to determine net carbon sinks:

	Performance year	Baseline year
Third-party verified carbon offsets purchased	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	122 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Institution-catalyzed carbon offsets generated	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Carbon storage from on-site composting	21.49 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Carbon storage from non-additional sequestration	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Carbon sold or transferred	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Net carbon sinks	21.49 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	122 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

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

A brief description of the carbon sinks, including vendor, project source, verification program and contract timeframes (as applicable):

Carbon storage from on-site composting (performance year): Seattle University collects pre-consumer food and yard waste and converts it into compost on campus. Pre-consumer food waste is sorted and collected from kitchens and cafes on campus, then mixed with woodchips provided by the campus grounds staff. A facilities compost technician and a team of students then mix the materials and place them in a small aerated-static-pile composting facility on campus where they are converted into a safe compost-mulch that is used by the grounds staff on gardens and plant beds across campus.

Third-party verified carbon offsets purchased (baseline year): no FY09 offset data could be retrieved.

Adjusted net GHG emissions

Adjusted net Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions:

	Performance year	Baseline year
Adjusted net GHG emissions	3,175.98 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	4,475.43 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

Performance and baseline periods

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

	Performance year	Baseline year
Start date	July 1, 2018	July 1, 2008
End date	June 30, 2019	June 30, 2009

A brief description of when and why the GHG emissions baseline was adopted:

SU started collecting GHG data in 2005. Over the following three years, SU developed processes and identified emissions that we were missing. Fiscal year 2009 was the year we had data with confidence. In 2010, SU's Climate Action Plan was approved to implement the requirements of signing the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment. FY09 has been adopted as our baseline for GHG emissions.

Part 1. Reduction in GHG emissions per person

Weighted campus users

Figures needed to determine “Weighted Campus Users”:

	Performance year	Baseline year
Number of students resident on-site	2,148	1,845
Number of employees resident on-site	42	32
Number of other individuals resident on-site	0	0
Total full-time equivalent student enrollment	6,937	6,520
Full-time equivalent of employees	1,328	1,224
Full-time equivalent of students enrolled exclusively in distance education	54	0
Weighted Campus Users	6,705.75	6,277.25

Metrics used in scoring for Part 1

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	0.47 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent	0.71 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

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

33.57

Part 2. GHG emissions per unit of floor area

Performance year floor area

Gross floor area of building space, performance year:

2,151,355 Gross square feet

Floor area of energy intensive building space, performance year:

	Floor area
Laboratory space	59,106.24 Square feet
Healthcare space	0 Square feet
Other energy intensive space	59,608.37 Square feet

EUI-adjusted floor area, performance year:

2,329,175.85 Gross square feet

Metric used in scoring for Part 2

Adjusted net Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions per unit of EUI-adjusted floor area, performance year:

0.00 MtCO2e per square foot

A brief description of the institution’s GHG emissions reduction initiatives:

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Website URL where information about the institution's GHG emissions is available:

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Additional documentation to support the submission:

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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

--Reporting year for this credit: FY19

--Note that the gross floor area of building space (performance year FY19) in OP2 is different from PRE-4 (data is for FY19 too).
The PRE-4 credit GSF is SU's institutional boundary GSF whereas in OP2 we report on SU's operational boundary, that is, excluding leased buildings because we do not receive any utilities-related data for those buildings (that is entirely managed by another company) nor do we control changes or improvements related to the leased buildings' utilities.

--Note that for student residents, we adjusted our numbers for the performance year: the number of students resident on-site in FY19 was 2,448.0. But because the GHG data we report in this credit OP2 only pertains to buildings that we own and manage (operational boundary; excluding any leased buildings), we subtracted 300 students from the total number of student residents (that is the combined capacity of two residence halls that SU leases and for which we do not report any GHG data in this credit OP2).

The baseline year numbers for student residents are not changed because the two residence halls were not in use before FY10.

--NOTE ABOUT SCOPE 2 - GHG EMISSIONS FROM ELECTRICITY: We are reporting zero for electricity because our electricity provider, Seattle City Light is a carbon neutral utility. In 2005, SCL became the first electric utility in the country to achieve zero net greenhouse gas emissions. Most of its power supply portfolio includes hydropower (84%), nuclear (5%), wind (4%) and biogas (1%). Any emissions associated with unspecified market purchases are offset through their greenhouse gas neutrality policy. Also, SIMAP did a third-party verification of our GHG emissions inventory (see "Documentation to support the GHG inventory verification process" in PART 1 of this credit) and confirmed that we can claim “0” emissions for electricity as we have been doing since our FY09 baseline for our GHG inventories as well as for our 2016 and 2018 STARS reports.

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.