Greenhouse Gas Emissions Report

In 2018, College of EMS began to quantify our C footprint by applying the university Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) inventory protocol to College-scale data. The following graphs and text describe five years of inventory results indicating that we are responsible for ~10K mt CO2e/year over that time span. The protocol does not account for most Scope III emissions, likely associated primarily with purchasing, suggesting that we are probably responsible for an additional ~40%, or 4000 mt, based on cursory university estimates. Also, ALL electricity and heating (~80-85% of our footprint) related decision making and purchasing are done at the university administration level, thus as a college we are limited in what we can accomplish with respect to decreasing our C footprint to changing our behavior and use of those utilities and advocating for change at the university level. The following table aggregates relevant data from the inventory and is followed by pie chart presentation of the inventory results for each of the five years studied.

%	2018/19	2019/20	2020/21	2021/22	2022/23	5 YR AVE
Electricity	48.45	47.18	51.26	45.95	49.87	48.542
Steam	35.58	37.34	41.92	42.85	36.98	38.934
Natural Gas	2.01	1.81	0.36	0.4	0.03	0.922
Chilled H2O	4.38	4.46	2.82	3.43	2.93	3.604
Water	0.13	0.17	0.13	0.15	0.17	0.15
Wastewater	0.13	0.16	0.13	0.15	0.16	0.146
EMS Vehicles	0.07	0.18	0.16	0.04	0.19	0.128
Fleet	0.65	0.68	0.1	0.35	0.68	0.492
Commuters	4.41	3.98	2.97	4.61	4.08	4.01
Air Travel	4.2	4.03	0.15	2.07	4.92	3.074
MTCO2e	10440	9730	10946	9887	9222	10045

FY 2022-2023 EMS GHG Emissions (MTCO2e) by Source

Our most recent inventory is for the 2022-23 fiscal year in which total emissions amounted to 9,222 MTCO2e. Building usage decreased from its peak in FY 20-21 showing a 10% decrease in usage from the previous year. Air travel was the highest year in the 5 year span, surpassing the pre-Covid inventory year, while commuting emissions decreased in association with a 10% decrease in EMS parking passes.

FY 2021-2022 EMS GHG Emissions (MTCO2e) by Source

In FY 2021-2022, emissions decreased by about 10% from the year prior with total emissions of 9,887 MTCO2e. All emissions sources trended back toward pre-Covid amounts with decreases in electric and steam and increases in all other sources with the exception of college-owned vehicles which saw a significant decrease in emissions. This could be from decreased usage or from off-campus fueling.

Air travel increased but was still significantly less than prior to Covid. Commuting emissions returned to pre-pandemic amounts although it should be noted that many EMS employees continue a hybrid remote-campus schedule thus this estimate could be updated (lowered).

Our most recent inventory is for the 2022-23 fiscal year in which total emissions amounted to 9,222 MTCO2e. Building usage decreased from its peak in FY 20-21 with a 10% decrease in usage from the previous year. Air travel was at it’s highest, surpassing pre-covid inventory year while commuting emissions decrease in association with a 10% decrease in EMS parking passes.

FY 2020-2021 EMS GHG Emissions (MTCO2e) by Source

In FY 2021-2022, emissions decreased by about 10% from the year prior with total emissions of 9,887 MTCO2e. All emissions sources trended back toward pre-Covid amounts with decreases in electric and steam and increases in all other sources with the exception of college-owned vehicles which saw a significant decrease in emissions. This could be from decreased usage or from off-campus fueling.

Air travel increased but was still significantly less than prior to Covid. Commuting emissions returned to pre-pandemic amounts although it should be noted that many EMS employees continue a hybrid remote-campus schedule thus this estimate could be updated (lowered).

Our most recent inventory is for the 2022-23 fiscal year in which total emissions amounted to 9,222 MTCO2e. Building usage decreased from its peak in FY 20-21 with a 10% decrease in usage from the previous year. Air travel was at it’s highest, surpassing pre-covid inventory year while commuting emissions decrease in association with a 10% decrease in EMS parking passes.

FY 2019-2020 EMS GHG Emissions (MTCO2e) by Source

The majority of the data for FY 2019-2020 represents “normal” college operations, but the last 3 months of the year reflect the start of the COVID pandemic and the subsequent beginning of operational changes. Sources immediately affected were employee-based air travel and daily commuting. This resulted in a total of 9,730 MTCO2e in emissions -- a 7% decrease from the previous year.