Overall Rating	Gold
Overall Score	83.87
Liaison	Yolanda Cieters
Submission Date	March 1, 2024

STARS v2.2

Seattle University
OP-21: Water Use

Status

Score

Responsible Party

2.13 / 4.00

Yolanda Cieters
Associate Director
CEJS

"---" 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 to Medium

Part 1. Reduction in potable water use per person

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

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Total water withdrawal	31,354,597.50 Gallons	37,496,103.90 Gallons

Potable water use:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Potable water use	31,354,597.50 Gallons	37,496,103.90 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, 2018	June 30, 2019

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:

Most recent sample size from pre-COVID occupancy that also follows today's methodology.

Figures needed to determine "Weighted Campus Users":

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Number of students resident on-site	1,719	1,846
Number of employees resident on-site	35	42
Number of other individuals resident on-site	0	0
Total full-time equivalent student enrollment	6,744	6,937
Full-time equivalent of employees	1,358	1,328
Full-time equivalent of students enrolled exclusively in distance education	192.60	54
Weighted campus users	6,370.55	6,630.25

Potable water use per weighted campus user:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Potable water use per weighted campus user	4,921.80 Gallons	5,655.31 Gallons

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

12.97

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	2,210,938 Gross square feet	2,151,355 Gross square feet

Potable water use per unit of floor area:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Potable water use per unit of floor area	14.18 Gallons per square foot	17.43 Gallons per square foot

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

18.63

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

Area of vegetated grounds:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Vegetated grounds	20 Acres	20 Acres

Total water withdrawal per unit of vegetated grounds:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Total water withdrawal per unit of vegetated grounds	1,567,729.88 Gallons per acre	1,874,805.19 Gallons per acre

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

16.38

Optional Fields

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

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

A cistern captures the rainwater off the Advancement & Alumni building and this water is used to irrigate the landscape.

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

We utilize aerators in all public bathrooms on campus that are limited to 0.5 GPM.

Seattle University has a Resource Management Plan that codifies water conservation practices in our facilities for both building and irrigation water: https://www.seattleu.edu/media/facilities-services/UPDATED_Seattle-University-Resource-Management-Plan-2.pdf

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

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Additional documentation to support the submission:

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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

--Performance year for this credit: FY23. Baseline year for this credit: FY19

--The footprint of SU's buildings, impervious surfaces, and areas that are not regularly managed or maintained accounts for 17 acres.
Total area of managed grounds = 33 acres: 20 acres vegetated grounds; 13 acres paved.

--Note that the gross floor area of building space (performance year and baseline year) in OP21 is different from PRE-4.
The PRE-4 credit GSF is SU's institutional boundary GSF whereas in OP21 we report on SU's operational boundary (for both the performance and baseline year), that is, we exclude leased buildings from our count because we do not receive any utilities-related data for those buildings nor do we control changes or improvements related to the building’s utilities.
o SU’s Institutional boundary in performance year 2023 is 2,310,148. (= 2,296,459 owned + 13,689 for one leased building (YOBI building)
o SU’s Operational boundary in performance year 2023 is 2,210,938. (buildings where SU has ownership/control of maintenance/building operations).

This is also the case for Baseline year FY19:
o SU’s Institutional boundary in baseline year 2023 is 2,396,448
o SU’s Operational boundary in baseline year 2019 is 2,151,355. (buildings where SU has ownership/control of maintenance/building operations).

--Note that for student residents, we adjusted our numbers for the performance year and baseline year: the number of students resident on-site in FY23 was 2,283.0. But because the water data we report on in this credit OP21 only pertains to buildings that we own and manage (operational boundary; excluding any leased buildings), we subtracted 564 students from the total number of student residents; that is the combined capacity of the three residence halls that SU leases (Douglas, Vi Hilbert, and Yobi) and for which we do not report any waste data in this credit OP21.

We did the same for baseline year FY19: the number of students resident on-site in FY19 was 2,448.0. We subtracted 602 students from the total number of student residents; that is the combined capacity of the three residence halls that SU leases (Douglas, Vi Hilbert, and Yobi) and for which we do not report any waste data in this credit OP21.