Overall Rating	Gold
Overall Score	77.34
Liaison	Sally DeLeon
Submission Date	Feb. 27, 2022

STARS v2.2

University of Maryland, College Park
OP-21: Water Use

Status

Score

Responsible Party

3.55 / 5.00

Emily Hightower
Sustainability Coordinator
Environmental Safety, Sustainability, and Risk

"---" 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:

Medium to High

Part 1. Reduction in potable water use per person

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

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Total water withdrawal	485,770,839 Gallons	568,533,135 Gallons

Potable water use:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Potable water use	485,770,839 Gallons	568,533,135 Gallons

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

	Start Date	End Date
Performance Period	Jan. 1, 2020	Dec. 31, 2020
Baseline Period	Jan. 1, 2007	Dec. 31, 2007

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:

The water use baseline was adopted when UMD submitted for a STARS Rating in 2014. This year was chosen because it was the last year before the campus initiated a coordinated, campus wide approach to setting sustainability goals and measuring progress.

Figures needed to determine "Weighted Campus Users":

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Number of students resident on-site	11,776	10,595
Number of employees resident on-site	0	0
Number of other individuals resident on-site	0	0
Total full-time equivalent student enrollment	37,316	32,420
Full-time equivalent of employees	9,277	7,973
Full-time equivalent of students enrolled exclusively in distance education	988	0
Weighted campus users	37,147.75	32,943.50

Potable water use per weighted campus user:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Potable water use per weighted campus user	13,076.72 Gallons	17,257.82 Gallons

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

24.23

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	15,326,492 Gross square feet	13,236,841 Gross square feet

Potable water use per unit of floor area:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Potable water use per unit of floor area	31.69 Gallons per square foot	42.95 Gallons per square foot

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

26.21

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

Area of vegetated grounds:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Vegetated grounds	833.48 Acres	844.59 Acres

Total water withdrawal per unit of vegetated grounds:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Total water withdrawal per unit of vegetated grounds	582,822.43 Gallons per acre	673,146.89 Gallons per acre

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

13.42

Optional Fields

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

The Green Terp program (for residence halls) and the Green Chapter program (for fraternity and sorority houses) incorporate water saving actions into the certification process. Some actions include reducing showers by five minutes, washing clothes in cold water, turning off the tap when brushing and washing hands, and reporting leaks in faucets, showers, or toilets. For more information, visit: https://sustainability.umd.edu/get-involved/students/green-terp

The Green Office program offers a number of collective behaviors through which offices can commit to reducing water consumption on campus. For more information, visit: https://sustainability.umd.edu/green-office-program

The Small Footprint Pledge offers three actionable behaviors through which people can commit to conserving water on campus: 1) I will reduce my showering time by five minutes; 2) I will turn off the tap while brushing my teeth; 3) I will check my faucets, showerheads, and toilets for leaks and call 4-WORK or my landlord when repairs are needed.

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

The University of Maryland has 6 water harvesting units. They are located at Washington Quad, Knight Hall, two on Denton Quad, NOAA, and the Community Learning Garden by the School of Public Health. Most units are cisterns that capture rainwater for reuse. The Washington Quad, surrounded by residence halls, now features a stormwater irrigation system. A 10,000 gallon cistern receives stormwater from the roofs of the surrounding buildings. A computer controlled system then directs the water to a drip irrigation system to the plant beds nearby. The system eliminates the need to water all the planted beds during warm periods.

Knight Hall, home to the school of Journalism, is a green building surrounded by green space that now captures the rain that falls on the site in a 10,000 gallon cistern buried under the courtyard. This system collects rainwater from roof drains, channels the water through a high capacity filter in the courtyard, and stores it in an underground cistern. A drip irrigation system detects the amount of moisture in the soil so that plants are only watered as needed. When the irrigation system calls for water, pumps send water from the cistern through the irrigation system for distribution on-site.

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

Many restroom fixtures have been replaced with automatically flushing, low capacity units. New and renovated restrooms have equipment required under the University's Design Criteria Facilities Standards. With these installations, there is a predicted 5 million gallons per year reduction. All toilets/urinals in the residence halls are low-flow with an adjustable water-use option. All faucets/shower-heads have had low-flow disks installed. There is an anticipated reduction of 1.5 million gallons per year due to all residence hall upgrades.

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

https://sustainability.umd.edu/water

Additional documentation to support the submission:

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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

Facilities Management began reporting annually to the University Sustainability Council on water consumption, water reuse and recycling, and other water related goals in 2015. We do not track non-potable water consumption consistently across campus, so only potable water use has been measured for this credit.

In 2020, the Office of Sustainability and Department of Engineering and Energy updated the methodology for which the university monitors and reports on potable water consumption. The methodology was retroactively applied for data between 2006 and 2020.