GHG Report for Bellevue College
Submitted on October 19, 2009; last updated on January 13, 2012
Summary Statistics
Making fair comparisons between higher education institutions is always challenging due to the rich diversity of higher education. The unverified nature of the information in this database and unavailability of unbiased normalization metrics means such comparisons are even more difficult. Users should therefore approach direct institution to institution comparisons with caution and recognize that all comparisons between institutions are inherently biased.| Total | Per Full-Time Enrollment | Per 1000 Square Feet | % Offset | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gross emissions (Scopes 1 + 2) | 7,023 metric tons of CO2e | 0.7 metric tons of CO2e | 11.2 metric tons of CO2e | 2% |
| Gross emissions (Scopes 1 + 2 + 3) | 22,341 metric tons of CO2e | 2.1 metric tons of CO2e | 35.6 metric tons of CO2e | 1% |
| Net emissions | 22,217 metric tons of CO2e | 2.1 metric tons of CO2e | 35.4 metric tons of CO2e | N/A |
Emissions Inventory Methodology and Boundaries
| Start date of the 12-month period covered in this report | July 1, 2007 |
| Consolidation methodology used to determine organizational boundaries | No information provided |
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If any institution-owned, leased, or operated buildings or other holdings that should fall within the organizational boundaries are omitted, briefly explain why.
There were difficulties including our North Campus Building which is leased. However, the lease on this building is expected to end soon. Once it is no longer used by the campus it will not need to be in future reports. (Commuting to the North Campus Building is included in the calculations for all campus commuting.) |
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| Emissions calculation tool used | Clean Air-Cool Planet |
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Please describe why this tool was selected.
This seemed to be the most useful tool for calculating campus emissions. However, it should be noted that it was designed for 4-year colleges and did present some challenges to 2-year colleges that required some adjustments. |
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Please describe the source(s) of the emissions coefficients used.
We used coefficients from the Clean Air-Cool Planet database. |
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| Which version of IPCC's list of global warming potentials did you use? | Fourth Assessment Report |
| Who primarily conducted this emissions inventory? | Faculty and Director of Campus Operations |
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Please describe the process of conducting the inventory.
A detailed description of the process used to conduct the audit are written up in the appendix of the attached document. This was done in order to make sure future audits are conducted using a similar methodology. In short, the audit was conducted by gathering the relevant data from different campus groups and compiling it using the Clean Air-Cool Planet spreadsheet. |
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Please describe any emissions sources that were classified as de minimis and explain how a determination of the significance of these emissions was made.
No information provided |
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Please describe any data limitations related to this submission and any major assumptions made in response to these limitations.
As noted above, as a commuter college our largest impact is from transportation, however, this is still one of the hardest areas to get a handle on - we conducted an in-depth survey of the campus community and extrapolated the results to the entire campus. Therefore, we view this number as an estimate, however, feel that is serves as a good baseline. We plan to calculate the number in the same way in the future, which will at least provide for a consistent way of monitoring changes in transportation emissions. |
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Emissions Data
Emissions from the following sources (in metric tons of CO2e)
| Scope 1 Emissions | |
|---|---|
| Stationary Combustion | 1,434.1 metric tons of CO2e |
| Mobile Combustion | 65.4 metric tons of CO2e |
| Process Emissions | 0.0 metric tons of CO2e |
| Fugitive Emissions | 92.5 metric tons of CO2e |
| Total Scope 1 emissions | 1,592.0 metric tons of CO2e |
| Scope 2 Emissions | |
| Purchased Electricity | 5,431.2 metric tons of CO2e |
| Purchased Heating | 0.0 metric tons of CO2e |
| Purchased Cooling | 0.0 metric tons of CO2e |
| Purchased Steam | 0.0 metric tons of CO2e |
| Total Scope 2 emissions | 5,431.2 metric tons of CO2e |
| Scope 3 Emissions | |
| Commuting | 14,683.3 metric tons of CO2e |
| Air Travel | 465.0 metric tons of CO2e |
| Solid Waste | 77.0 metric tons of CO2e |
| Business Road Travel | 37.0 metric tons of CO2e |
| Wastewater | 55.8 metric tons of CO2e |
| Total Scope 3 emissions | 15,318.1 metric tons of CO2e |
| Biogenic Emissions | |
| Biogenic Emissions from Stationary Combustion | 0.0 metric tons of CO2e |
| Biogenic Emissions from Mobile Combustion | 0.0 metric tons of CO2e |
Mitigation Data
| Carbon Offsets | |
|---|---|
| Carbon offsets purchased | 0.0 metric tons of CO2e |
| Offset verification program(s) | No information provided |
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Description of offsets purchased (including vendor, project source, etc.)
No information provided |
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| Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) | |
| Total RECs purchased | 204340 kWh |
| Percent of total electricity consumption mitigated through the purchase of RECs | 1.7 % |
| Emissions reductions due to the purchase of RECs | 93.0 metric tons of CO2e |
| REC verification program(s) | Green-e, ERT |
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Description of RECs purchased (including vendor, project source, etc.)
Renewable Choice Energy wind energy |
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| Sequestration and Carbon Storage | |
| Sequestration due to land owned by the institution | 31.0 metric tons of CO2e |
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Description of how sequestration was calculated
There are no long term plans to develop the 7.64 acre (3.09 ha) plot of forest located on the northwest side of campus. Therefore, it was determined that this forest was eligible for some offset credits. Using the IPCCÂ’s average (<http://www.grida.no/publications/other/ipcc%5Fsr/?src=/climate/ipcc/land_use/007.htm>) for how much carbon is sequestered by temperate forests (2.7 metric tons C / ha / yr, which converts to 9.9 metric tons CO2 / ha / yr) we calculated the annual offset of the forest as:
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| Carbon storage due to composting | 0.0 metric tons of CO2e |
Normalization and Contextual Data
| Building Space | |
|---|---|
| Gross square feet of building space | 626,910.0 sq ft |
| Net assignable square feet of laboratory space | 0.0 sq ft |
| Net assignable square feet of health care space | 0.0 sq ft |
| Net assignable square feet of residential space | 0.0 sq ft |
| Population | |
| Total Student Enrollment (FTE) | 10803.0 |
| Residential Students | No information provided |
| Full-time Commuter Students | 8193 |
| Part-time Commuter Students | 9711 |
| Non-Credit Students | No information provided |
| Full-time Faculty | 837 |
| Part-time Faculty | No information provided |
| Full-time Staff | 609 |
| Part-time Staff | No information provided |
| Other Contextual Data | |
| Endowment Size | No information provided |
| Heating Degree Days | 5278 |
| Cooling Degree Days | 350 |
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Please describe any circumstances specific to your institution that provide context for understanding your greenhouse gas emissions this year.
Campus population data is difficult to calculate for a commuter college that has varying enrollment and flexibility in the number of adjunct teaching faculty and staff each quarter. Therefore, the numbers used were averaged for the year based on quarterly data. Since the audit does not allow for a breakdown by quarter during the academic year, an average annual enrollment was calculated by taking the total number of students enrolled each quarter and dividing by 3. In addition, we are not easily able to separate full and part-time faculty and staff, so the total number is listed as "full-time" in the columns above. |
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Supporting Documentation
| Completed inventory narrative |
Bellevue College Carbon Emission Audit, June 2005-June 2008 Download |
| Completed inventory calculator | No information provided |