Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 67.00
Liaison Ken Foster
Submission Date March 15, 2018
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Vassar College
OP-6: Clean and Renewable Energy

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.16 / 4.00 Alistair Hall
Sustainability Assistant
Dean of Strategic Planning
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Total energy consumption (all sources, excluding transportation fuels), performance year :
297,325 MMBtu

Option 1 

Total clean and renewable electricity generated on site during the performance year and for which the institution retains or has retired the associated environmental attributes:
27 MMBtu

None
A brief description of on-site renewable electricity generating devices :
7kW PV solar array on the roof of the College Center

Option 2 

Non-electric renewable energy generated on-site, performance year:
1,500 MMBtu

None
A brief description of on-site renewable non-electric energy devices:
Vassar College installed shallow-source geothermal heating and cooling in newly-built senior housing apartments (Town Houses and Terrace Apartments). The town house system has 20 Wells each 300 feet deep that provide can 31,500 BTUh each.

Option 3 

Total clean and renewable electricity generated by off-site projects that the institution catalyzed and for which the institution retains or has retired the associated environmental attributes, performance year:
5,114 MMBtu

None
A brief description of off-site, institution-catalyzed, renewable electricity generating devices:
In 2016 Vassar entered an agreement to source electricity from a 0.9MW small scale hydro plant in Beacon, NY.

Option 4 

Total third-party certified RECs, GOs and/or similar renewable energy products (including renewable electricity purchased through a utility-provided certified green power option) purchased during the performance year:
5,117 MMBtu

A brief description of the RECs, GOs and/or similar renewable energy products, including contract timeframes:
As part of LEED certification for Sanders Physics, New England, and the Bridge Building, RECs are being purchased to cover 70% of the electricity usage at these buildings. The agreement has been signed for 2 years.

Optional Fields

The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Sierra magazine requests the following information from U.S. institutions that wish to share data with that organization:

Electricity use, by source (percentage of total, 0-100):
Percentage of total electricity use (0-100)
Biomass 1
Coal 3
Geothermal 0
Hydro 18
Natural gas 37
Nuclear 33
Solar photovoltaic 1
Wind 5
Other (please specify and explain below) 0

A brief description of other sources of electricity not specified above:
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Energy used for heating buildings, by source::
Percentage of total energy used to heat buildings (0-100)
Biomass 0
Coal 0
Electricity 0
Fuel oil 6
Geothermal 1
Natural gas 93
Other (please specify and explain below) 0

A brief description of other sources of building heating not specified above:
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Percentage of total energy consumption from clean and renewable sources:
3.95

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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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.