Overall Rating	Gold - expired
Overall Score	70.12
Liaison	Maria Dahmus
Submission Date	March 5, 2021

STARS v2.2

University of St. Thomas
OP-21: Water Use

Status

Score

Responsible Party

4.00 / 4.00

David Clysdale
Mechanical Maintenance Supervisor
Facilities Management

"---" 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

Part 1. Reduction in potable water use per person

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

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Total water withdrawal	46,042,998 Gallons	69,945,793 Gallons

Potable water use:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Potable water use	42,967,364 Gallons	65,268,110 Gallons

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

	Start Date	End Date
Performance Period	July 1, 2019	June 30, 2020
Baseline Period	July 1, 2013	June 30, 2014

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 baseline year was selected based on the most reliable historic data available in the university's key performance indicators tracking system.

Figures needed to determine "Weighted Campus Users":

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Number of students resident on-site	2,378	2,554
Number of employees resident on-site	28	37
Number of other individuals resident on-site	11	15
Total full-time equivalent student enrollment	8,649	8,799
Full-time equivalent of employees	1,556	1,595
Full-time equivalent of students enrolled exclusively in distance education	97.80	8.30
Weighted campus users	8,192.90	8,452.03

Potable water use per weighted campus user:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Potable water use per weighted campus user	5,244.46 Gallons	7,722.19 Gallons

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

32.09

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	3,138,789 Gross square feet	3,170,000 Gross square feet

Potable water use per unit of floor area:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Potable water use per unit of floor area	13.69 Gallons per square foot	20.59 Gallons per square foot

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

33.51

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

Area of vegetated grounds:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Vegetated grounds	43.80 Acres	44.80 Acres

Total water withdrawal per unit of vegetated grounds:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Total water withdrawal per unit of vegetated grounds	1,051,210 Gallons per acre	1,561,290.02 Gallons per acre

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

32.67

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:

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

All restroom remodels and new residence hall construction projects specified low-flow fixtures and appliances. The Anderson Student Center is a LEED Gold building with low-flow fixtures. The university introduced a control strategy for cooling tower makeup water to reduce consumption, installed low flow fixtures in residence halls (sinks and shower heads), installed low-flow fixtures in several administration buildings, and introduced a steam trap maintenance program.

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:

Water used for the majority of our irrigation needs comes from two private wells located on our campus in St Paul. One well is in the north and one well is in the south. Data for those two wells were included in this report. All of our irrigation systems are controlled using a Rainbird IQ Cloud smart system. This system has the capability to control watering amounts by using evapotranspiration readings.

During the growing season of 2020, we chose one area of mid-campus to test the feasibility of using evapotranspiration information to control watering amounts. We plan to expand this program in 2021 to include all irrigation systems currently running off city water. All irrigation heads installed after 2018 are pressure regulated heads.