Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 69.61
Liaison Tina Woolston
Submission Date Nov. 2, 2022

STARS v2.2

Tufts University
OP-1: Emissions Inventory and Disclosure

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.04 / 3.00 Jason Erbach
Environmental Manager
Environmental Health and Safety
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

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:

Used SIMAP to conduct FY20 GHG inventory. Used all default emissions factors from SIMAP, including eGRID for the New England region for electricity. The only emissions factor we customized was for purchased steam since we know the fuel mix and approximation of the plant efficiency.


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:
---

Gross Scope 1 GHG emissions, performance year:
Weight in MTCO2e
Stationary combustion 22,449 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Other sources (mobile combustion, process emissions, fugitive emissions) 797 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

Total gross Scope 1 GHG emissions, performance year:
23,246 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

Gross Scope 2 GHG emissions, performance year (market-based):
Weight in MTCO2e
Imported electricity 11,625 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Imported thermal energy 3,696 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

Total gross Scope 2 GHG emissions, performance year:
15,321 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

Gross GHG emissions from biogenic sources, performance year:
0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

Does the GHG emissions inventory include Scope 3 emissions from the following sources?:
Yes or No Weight in MTCO2e
Business travel Yes 5,197 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Commuting Yes 5,036 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Purchased goods and services Yes 243 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Capital goods --- ---
Fuel- and energy-related activities not included in Scope 1 or Scope 2 Yes 1,024 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Waste generated in operations Yes 168 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Other sources Yes 56 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

Total Scope 3 GHG emissions, performance year:
11,724 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

A brief description of how the institution accounted for its Scope 3 emissions:

Business travel = air travel, study abroad, ground transportation
Commuting = student and employee commuting
Purchased Goods and Services = office paper only
Additional Energy Emissions = T&D losses only
Waste = just that
Other sources = wastewater

To calculate student and faculty/staff commuting numbers, we used a commuting survey and applied it to the whole campus. See OP-16 and OP-17 for more info.

We obtained directly financed air travel numbers from Tufts' two preferred travel agency vendors who track the mileage of all flights. This does not include 100% of financed air travel as it is likely that some staff/faculty purchase airline tickets outside of these two vendors, but it is likely the majority of air mileage. The Purchasing Department estimates this is 80% of staff/faculty air travel.

Study abroad air travel mileage was estimated by taking all students' destinations and calculating mileage of round-trip flights from Boston.

Directly financed travel (car/bus) was calculated with data from many different parts of the university: charter bus trips, Tufts shuttle bus trips, personal mileage reimbursements, gas purchased for rental or personal cars using university credit cards, and athletic teams' bus trip mileage using their annual schedule.

Solid waste data was from a waste hauler that used volume to weight conversions.

Wastewater was calculated using water bills on all campuses and subtracting any metered irrigation.

Paper purchasing data was provided by our office paper vendor.

Transmission & Distribution Losses were calculated with a default factor from SIMAP.


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) 22.88 Tons
Sulfur oxides (SOx) 0.51 Tons
Carbon monoxide (CO) 12.27 Tons
Particulate matter (PM) 2.41 Tons
Ozone (O3) ---
Lead (Pb) ---
Hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) ---
Ozone-depleting compounds (ODCs) ---
Other standard categories of air emissions identified in permits and/or regulations 11.70 Tons

Do the air pollutant emissions figures provided include the following sources?:
Yes or No
Major stationary sources Yes
Area sources ---
Mobile sources No
Commuting No
Off-site electricity production No

A brief description of the methodology(ies) the institution used to complete its air emissions inventory:

Tufts maintains MassDEP minor source air permits on each campus. These permits require annual compliance reporting called source registration. The source registration report reports fuel usage on each campus and converts fuel usage to emissions factors.

O3, Pb, OCDs and Other compounds are unknown. We are not required to track/report HAPs because we don't use more than 1 Ton of an individual HAP or 25 Tons of all combined HAPs, so total HAPs is also unknown.


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:

Air emissions estimates from source registration and restricted emissions status permits.

All data for FY20


Air emissions estimates from source registration and restricted emissions status permits.

All data for FY20

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.