Introduction
A greenhouse gas emissions inventory is an accounting of the amounts and sources of emissions of greenhouse gases attributable to the existence and operations of an institution. The completion of such an inventory provides an essential foundation for focused, effective outreach on the issue of climate change at a college or university, and the basis for institutional action to address it—in other words, it is a crucial first step toward comprehensive campus climate action efforts.
The Ohio U greenhouse gas emissions inventory will cover the main Ohio U campus in Athens, Ohio. Its purpose is to show how many greenhouse gases Ohio U emits each year and to provide a foundation for discussing how these gases can best be reduced. The inventory will include data from a wide variety of campus sectors, including energy, transportation, agriculture, solid waste, and refrigeration. Our inventory will consider factors like how many gallons of gasoline students, faculty, and staff use daily to commute to school or work, and the amount of coal and natural gas used to generate steam heat at the Lausche Heating Plant, a facility owned and operated by Ohio U.
The greenhouse gas emissions calculator covers seven main categories of data: budget, energy, transportation, agriculture, solid waste, refrigeration, and offsets. The budget section will evaluate Ohio U’s operating budget, energy budget, and research dollars. The energy category will encompass everything from electricity use to the amount of steam heat generated on campus. The heating plant uses three coal-fired and one gas-fired boiler to produce steam that operates a generator and four hot water heaters, which in turn produce steam used to heat and cool buildings. The heating plant also produces hot water for campus use. Energy emissions will likely account for the vast majority of overall campus emissions.
Transportation will include the amount of fuel used for all Ohio U vehicles as well as the number of miles traveled by plane for faculty, staff, and official university organizations like sports teams. For agriculture, data collectors will conduct headcounts of university owned animals, since methane is released from many animals’ bodies and by the decomposition of manure. Information about fertilizer use for campus grounds will be included in this category as well.
The solid waste section will include data on emissions generated from Ohio U’s waste stream. Ohio U has over 16,000 recycling bins spread across campus, and the new Baker University Center uses biodegradable service ware made of corn, potato starch, and sugar cane. But Ohio U still produces up to 14 tons of landfill waste every day, and this contributes to our overall greenhouse gas emissions, primarily through the production of methane gas at the landfill. Ohio U recently received a $250,000 grant from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to establish the first full-scale composting project at a college or university in the state. This project will help reduce the campus’ ecological footprint by offsetting carbon releases.
Data on refrigeration tracks the use of hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) and perfluorocarbon (PFC) in our campus equipment. These compounds have replaced chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in refrigerators, coolers, and air conditioners because they do less damage to the ozone layer. However, they have a high global warming potential, which means they tend to trap high amounts of heat in the atmosphere compared to carbon dioxide.
“Offsets” refer to projects and programs that reduce overall levels of greenhouse gas emissions, both on and off campus. These can include efforts to plant trees on campus, purchase carbon offset vouchers, or develop wind and solar power stations on campus. We might also consider ways to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions in Athens as a way of offsetting our campus emissions. The Presidents Climate Commitment targets climate neutrality, which means that we are responsible for finding ways to offset all of our emissions by a target date.
For more information about the Clean Air Cool Planet greenhouse gas emissions calculator, please visit http://www.cleanair-coolplanet.org/.
