Overall Rating	Reporter
Overall Score
Liaison	Chelsea Hamilton
Submission Date	Feb. 29, 2024

STARS v2.2

Vanderbilt University
OP-21: Water Use

Status	Score	Responsible Party
--	Reporter	Chelsea Hamilton Sustainability Outreach Program Manager Environmental Health, Safety, and Sustainability

"---" 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 to Medium

Part 1. Reduction in potable water use per person

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

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Total water withdrawal	255,480,729 Gallons	1,419,611,966 Gallons

Potable water use:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Potable water use	241,712,460 Gallons	1,369,611,966 Gallons

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

	Start Date	End Date
Performance Period	July 1, 2016	June 30, 2016
Baseline Period	July 1, 2005	June 30, 2006

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:

Figures needed to determine "Weighted Campus Users":

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Number of students resident on-site	6,195	6,210
Number of employees resident on-site	29	7
Number of other individuals resident on-site	1,131	832
Total full-time equivalent student enrollment	12,210	11,037
Full-time equivalent of employees	23,611	19,437
Full-time equivalent of students enrolled exclusively in distance education	0	0
Weighted campus users	29,552.75	25,241.75

Potable water use per weighted campus user:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Potable water use per weighted campus user	8,179.02 Gallons	54,259.79 Gallons

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

84.93

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	16,147,947 Gross square feet	13,186,242 Gross square feet

Potable water use per unit of floor area:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Potable water use per unit of floor area	14.97 Gallons per square foot	103.87 Gallons per square foot

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

85.59

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

Area of vegetated grounds:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Vegetated grounds	113.45 Acres	120.01 Acres

Total water withdrawal per unit of vegetated grounds:

	Performance Year	Baseline Year
Total water withdrawal per unit of vegetated grounds	2,251,923.57 Gallons per acre	11,829,113.96 Gallons per acre

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

80.96

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:

Close to 700,000 gallons of condensate is collected from air handlers at The Commons Center and pumped into cooling towers at the on-campus chiller plant. 6 million gallons of condensate is collected in the same manner from MRB III and 5 million gallons from MRB IV. Cooling towers typically use treated, domestic water, and the colder this water is the more efficiently the building’s air conditioning system can operate. Significant savings are seen particularly on hot, humid days, when the cooling system removes large amounts of condensation from the air. The new Engineering Science Building has a cistern that collects stormwater from the roof and water from air handlers. The water is stored in a 10,000 gallon cistern and used for irrigation on site. Additionally, a percentage of water that is collected and pumped out of underground utility tunnels is used to irrigate sports fields and lawns on campus, reusing water that would otherwise be pumped into a recharge well in place of using potable water for irrigation.

Vanderbilt is currently undergoing a Land Use Master Planning effort that will include a Sustainability Plan as well as a Stormwater Plan, which will guide these efforts on campus for future years. Specific recommendations will be made for how Vanderbilt should be collecting and reusing water in the master plan. https://www.vanderbilt.edu/chancellor/land-use-planning-initiative/

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

The majority of campus fixtures have been upgraded to water-efficient alternatives. In the 2013/2014 academic year, Vanderbilt retrofitted all 1,000 residence hall shower heads on campus to high-performance, low-flow models through a Green Fund project. This improvement will yield a savings of 28 million gallons of water annually.

Plumbing retrofits completed an additional 3,500 water-saving bathroom fixtures, conserving over 60 million gallons of water and saving over $300,000 each year.

In 2016 all 74 of the urinals in the stadium were replaced with ultra-low flow fixtures that use only 0.125 gal/flush. The new fixtures use 95% less than the old fixtures. The upgrade will save 355,000 gallons of water each year.

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

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/sustainvu/what-we-do/water/

Additional documentation to support the submission:

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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

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