Stanford University
OP-2: Greenhouse Gas Emissions

CY2011 is considered Stanford's peak emissions year and is used in all of Stanford's emissions reduction calculations, consistent with the university's Energy and Climate Plan available at: https://sustainable.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/resource-attachments/E_C_Plan_2015.pdf

Stanford has reduced its emissions by 69% from peak emissions in 2011. Stanford’s emissions reductions are a result of a careful and comprehensive planning process, originating in 2008, which focused on three key strategies:

1) Investments in energy efficiency in new construction through standards, guidelines, and energy targets
2) Conservation of energy in existing buildings through a number of energy retrofit programs
3) Decarbonization of the university’s energy supply through Stanford Energy System Innovations (SESI)

SESI transformed Stanford’s energy supply from a natural-gas based cogeneration power plant that provided electricity and steam to the campus to a more efficient central energy facility that replaced steam with hot water generated through heat recovery and sources electricity from the grid with a renewable portfolio. Heat-recovery takes advantage of the 70% simultaneous overlap in heating and cooling demand of the campus, using the waste heat from the campus chilled water system to produce hot water for campus heating. The central energy facility also hosts hot and chilled water tanks for energy storage. As a result, almost all of the heat generated for the university is fossil free and natural gas only needs to be used for heating on the coldest days of the year. The central energy facility and Stanford buildings are powered by electricity. Through a power-purchase agreement, Stanford sources most of its electricity from a 67-MW off-campus solar PV plant and 5-MW of on-campus solar PV. The remainder of renewable electricity comes from California’s grid.

As part of Stanford's long-range planning effort, the university set the goal in spring 2018 to reduce emissions by 80% by 2025 (from 2011 peak emissions). In December 2018, Stanford announced plans to construct a second solar generating plant near Lemoore, CA to allow it to do so. The 63-MW plant will help provide enough solar power to bring Stanford to a 100% renewable electricity supply, which in turn will contribute to an 80% emissions reduction since 2011. The plant will come online in 2022. See more details here: https://sustainability-year-in-review.stanford.edu/2021/

From 1987 to 2015, Stanford was served by a cogeneration plant that was owned by Cardinal Cogen, a subsidiary of General Electric. Thus, all electricity, steam, and chilled water purchased from Cardinal Cogen contributed to Scope 2 emissions, which is why the figure reported under “Gross Scope 2 GHG emissions from other sources” for the baseline year was so high (this captured emissions from chilled water and steam production at Cardinal Cogen). When the new Central Energy Facility came online in 2015, Stanford took full ownership of the facility, so the university’s primary source of Scope 2 emissions currently is purchased electricity, which now also represents the primary energy source for the Central Energy Facility. Currently, the only emissions source that is included under Scope 2 emissions from other sources is purchased heating for leased spaces.

In 2015, Stanford began including all greenhouse gases in its emissions inventory, rather than just carbon dioxide. To ensure an apples-to-apples comparison, Stanford has since adjusted its baseline emissions total for calendar year (CY) 2011 to reflect additional greenhouse gases as well.

The Population data reported for the GHG inventory varies from the population reported for other credits. The Population data reported in this credit is from Fall 2019, which is most reflective of the population for the GHG performance period of CY2019. Additionally, the boundaries for the emissions data may vary from the boundaries for other credit categories like waste. For instance, the emissions population data includes off campus student housing (e.g. Residential & Dining Enterprises leases, Hopkins Marine Station residents, etc.)

GROSS SQUARE FOOTAGE DETAILS
The GSF reported for the GHG inventory varies from the campus GSF reported for some other STARS credits. The boundary of the GHG inventory is slightly different from the overall STARS boundary, and the GSF for the GHG inventory boundary is used for this credit. The difference primarily derives from the inclusion of off-campus leased spaces in the GHG inventory boundary.

Also, note that the "Gross floor area of building space," "Laboratory Space," and "Other energy intensive space" metrics reported in this credit are based on data from 2019 to match the energy data reported from 2019. On the contrary, the corresponding metrics reported in the PRE-4 credit is based on the most recently analyzed data, which was done in early 2021.

Additionally, please note that the reported Laboratory Space metric has nearly doubled from the last submission, and the Other energy intensive space has reduced. These changes are largely due to improvements in the methodology of identifying these types of space, rather than actual increases or decreases in the GSF since Stanford's prior STARS submission. However, two of the most notable buildings constructed between the 2019 and early 2021 timeframe are the Escondido Village Residential buildings (~1,851,000 sq ft) and the Biomedical Innovation building (~219,000 sq ft). Finally, the Terman Engineering building (~44,000 sq ft) significantly improved its EUI between 2019 through 2021. This is why the "Other energy intensive space" metric reported in the PRE-4 credit (~15,000 sq ft), which is based on 2021 data, is significantly lower than the ~59,000 sq ft metric reported in the Building Energy Efficiency and Greenhouse Gas Emissions credits, which are based on 2019 data.