Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 66.59
Liaison Chris Bond
Submission Date Oct. 30, 2014
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.0

Unity Environmental University
IC-2: Operational Characteristics

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete N/A
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Endowment size:
14,239,000 US/Canadian $

Total campus area:
238 Acres

IECC climate region:
Mixed-Humid

Locale:
Small town

Gross floor area of building space:
248,000 Gross square feet

Conditioned floor area:
207,000 Square feet

Floor area of laboratory space:
5,000 Square feet

Floor area of healthcare space:
2,500 Square feet

Floor area of other energy intensive space:
0 Square feet

Floor area of residential space:
84,000 Square feet

Electricity use by source::
Percentage of total electricity use (0-100)
Biomass ---
Coal ---
Geothermal ---
Hydro ---
Natural gas ---
Nuclear ---
Solar photovoltaic 4.50
Wind 94.30
Other (please specify and explain below) 1.10

A brief description of other sources of electricity not specified above:

Two campus solar arrays supply 4.5% of our electricity, with the remainder purchased from the grid. We offset 98.9% of the grid purchase with RECs from western wind.


Energy used for heating buildings, by source::
Percentage of total energy used to heat buildings (0-100)
Biomass 11
Coal 0
Electricity 1
Fuel oil 85
Geothermal 0
Natural gas 0
Other (please specify and explain below) 1

A brief description of other sources of building heating not specified above:

The 'other' category above is propane because we do not have access to natural gas on campus


Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

Unity College was the first college in the US to divest its endowment from fossil fuels. Our focus now is on divesting our campus infrastructure from fossil fuels. We have a net-zero energy President’s home, a certified passively heated 10 student residence hall that costs $200 to heat and will be net-zero energy in 2015, a new net-zero carbon 70 student residence hall, a solar photo-voltaic power purchase agreement on our library that supplies 80% of its electricity, and six biomass boilers that eliminate reliance on fossil fuels in three buildings. These initiatives are part of a strategic plan approved by the trustees to become carbon neutral by 2020.


Unity College was the first college in the US to divest its endowment from fossil fuels. Our focus now is on divesting our campus infrastructure from fossil fuels. We have a net-zero energy President’s home, a certified passively heated 10 student residence hall that costs $200 to heat and will be net-zero energy in 2015, a new net-zero carbon 70 student residence hall, a solar photo-voltaic power purchase agreement on our library that supplies 80% of its electricity, and six biomass boilers that eliminate reliance on fossil fuels in three buildings. These initiatives are part of a strategic plan approved by the trustees to become carbon neutral by 2020.

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.