Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 54.65
Liaison Kelly Nowicki
Submission Date May 20, 2015
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.0

University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
OP-1: Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 4.32 / 10.00 Rob Tyser
Professor
Biology
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

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Does the institution's GHG emissions inventory include all Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions?:
Yes

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Does the institution's GHG emissions inventory include all Scope 3 GHG emissions from any of the following categories?:
Yes or No
Business travel Yes
Commuting Yes
Purchased goods and services No
Capital goods No
Fuel- and energy-related activities not included in Scope 1 or Scope 2 No
Waste generated in operations No

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Does the institution's GHG emissions inventory include Scope 3 emissions from other categories?:
No

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A brief description of the methodology and/or tool used to complete the GHG emissions inventory:
Scope 1 data sources: natural gas (Xcel Energy and UW-L heating plant records), distillate oil & coal (UW-L heating plant records) Scope 2 data source: Xcel Energy records) Scope 3 data sources: student survey, faculty survey, reviewed travel expense reports Data were input into v7 Clean Air/Cool Planet's (CACP) carbon calculator. Regarding Scope 2: A large fraction of electricity from Xcel Energy is generated from renewable sources. Xcel provides lbs generated per C02 generated MWH per year, which we used to calculate MT CO2 for our baseline and performance years. CO2 emissions calculated in this manner were 75% (baseline year) and 68 % (performance year) of those determined from CACP. We used these percentages to adjust Scope 2 emissions accordingly.

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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?:
Yes

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A brief description of the internal and/or external verification process:
Dan Sweetman (Facilities Planning and Management) reviewed the data and process used.

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Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions::
Performance Year Baseline Year
Scope 1 GHG emissions from stationary combustion 16,513 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent 17,774 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Scope 1 GHG emissions from other sources 199 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent 167.10 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Scope 2 GHG emissions from purchased electricity 15,241 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent 16,631 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Scope 2 GHG emissions from other sources 0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent 0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

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Figures needed to determine total carbon offsets::
Performance Year Baseline Year
Institution-catalyzed carbon offsets generated 0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent 0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Carbon sequestration due to land that the institution manages specifically for sequestration 0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent 0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Carbon storage from on-site composting 0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent 0 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Third-party verified carbon offsets purchased 779.10 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent 705.20 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent

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A brief description of the institution-catalyzed carbon offsets program:
---

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A brief description of the carbon sequestration program and reporting protocol used:
---

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A brief description of the composting and carbon storage program:
---

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A brief description of the purchased carbon offsets, including third party verifier(s) and contract timeframes:
Wisconsin Act 141 directs the Department of Administration (DOA) to purchase renewable electrical energy. The DOA disperses the renewable energy credits (REC’s) to state institutions and apportions part of the credit to the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse (UW-L). The RECs for UW-L are dispersed proportionally based on electrical consumption.

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Figures needed to determine “Weighted Campus Users”::
Performance Year Baseline Year
Number of residential students 3,507 2,885
Number of residential employees 15 12
Number of in-patient hospital beds 0 0
Full-time equivalent enrollment 10,187 9,649
Full-time equivalent of employees 1,099 966
Full-time equivalent of distance education students 286.45 168.09

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Start and end dates of the performance year and baseline year (or three-year periods):
Start Date End Date
Performance Year July 1, 2013 June 30, 2014
Baseline Year July 1, 2010 June 30, 2011

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A brief description of when and why the GHG emissions baseline was adopted:
Records are available back to FY2010. We decided to use FY2011 as our baseline year, because in FY2010 two residences were eliminated and two large campus buildings were being constructed. Our energy use patterns in FY2011 are more representative.

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Gross floor area of building space, performance year:
2,798,100 Square feet

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Floor area of energy intensive building space, performance year:
Floor Area
Laboratory space 327,500 Square feet
Healthcare space 33,600 Square feet
Other energy intensive space 469,300 Square feet

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Scope 3 GHG emissions, performance year::
Emissions
Business travel 2,101 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Commuting 5,570 Metric tons of CO2 equivalent
Purchased goods and services ---
Capital goods ---
Fuel- and energy-related activities not included in Scope 1 or Scope 2 ---
Waste generated in operations ---
Other categories (please specify below) ---

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A brief description of the sources included in Scope 3 GHG emissions from "other categories":
Students from two UW-L courses (BUS 230 and ENV 301) surveyed UW-L students and faculty regarding their commuting patterns. ENV 301 students also reviewed travel expense reports submitted by faculty/staff to estimate "financed travel" emissions.

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A copy of the most recent GHG emissions inventory:
None
The website URL where the GHG emissions inventory is posted:
---

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A brief description of the institution’s GHG emissions reduction initiatives, including efforts made during the previous three years:
---

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Electricity provider (Xcel Energy) web site regarding carbon emissions: http://www.xcelenergy.com/staticfiles/ xe-responsive/Admin/Managed%20Documents%20&%20PDFs/2014_CO2_Worksheet.pdf

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.