Omissions include buildings without utility data, rentals where services are included in rent, off campus leased buildings, and residential units containing tenants.

Clean Air-Cool Planet is understood to provide a consistent platform for comparison to peer institutions. We chose this tool to allow MSU to more readily interface with these institutions.

The standard eGrid sub-region electricity mix was used.

DATA COLLECTION METHODOLOGY

Below is a summary of how data for this report was collected, and any calculations or extrapolations used to generate the GHG inventory report.

General University Data
University Population – The MSU “Quick Facts 2008-2009” report was used for the university population. For faculty and staff, full time equivalent (FTE) employee numbers were used.

Scope 1 Emissions
Stationary Combustion –This accounts for the total direct emissions from stationary combustion on the MSU campus. Stationary combustion refers to the burning of fuels to produce electricity, steam, heat, or power using equipment in a fixed location such as boilers, burners, heaters, furnaces, incinerators, kilns, ovens, dryers, and engines. Any biogenic carbon dioxide emissions that result from the combustion of biomass or biomass-based fuel are not included in Scope 1. Complete records of all utility bills were provided by Patti Yasbek and the facilities group.

Mobile Combustion from Direct Transportation – Accounts for the total direct emissions from mobile combustion in MSU-owned fleet such as cars, trucks, tractors, and buses. These emissions were captured from MSU fuel records from motor pool and Gas Island fuel sales for campus fleet vehicles supplied by Patti Yasbek and Laura Humberger at MSU.

Fugitive Emissions – Data for emissions due to the intentional or unintentional release of GHGs in the production, processing, transmission, storage, and use of fuels and other substances were supplied by MSU Facilities Services.

Agricultural Emissions – This captures emissions from on-campus fertilizer application and animal husbandry.

Scope 2 Emissions

Purchased Electricity – This captures the total indirect GHG emissions resulting from the generation of electricity purchased and used by MSU. Default eGRID region and sub-region emissions coefficients for Bozeman, Montana (supplied in the Clean Air-Cool Planet Campus Carbon Calculator v6.8) were used for all electricity emissions calculations.
Purchased Steam – MSU does not purchase any steam or chilled water.

Scope 3 Emissions
Commute Transportation – A commute survey was created and administered by Sightlines. This survey was distributed to faculty, staff and students on the MSU campus. Results from this survey were used to calculate emissions from student, faculty, and staff commuting. Extracting usable data required query sorting of the survey responses, and is explained in the following bullets. A total of twenty six questions were used to populate commute data for the GHG inventory.

CACP methodology for calculating commuting data bases calculations on FTE student population, giving part-time students equivalent of one-half a full-time student. This may not accurately capture the complex commute patterns of students going to and from campus, but until more accurate tracking is established, the CACP protocol will be used for MSU calculation.

•Commute Preferences – To determine primary commute patterns for students, faculty and staff, each group was sorted individually. Responses to question five of the survey would then show the primary commute habits of each group (bus, SOV, carpool etc). The survey also accounted for different modes of seasonal transportation by asking how often one bikes or walks to campus during the course of a year.

•Driving Distance – To determine the average trip distance for drive-alone commuters, each response group was filtered to sort by status (student, faculty or staff), and to those that selected “drive-alone” as their primary commute choice. The survey allowed respondents to specify distance they lived from campus. If a distance was not supplied, a zip code was requested to determine a general distance from campus. An average of these values was calculated for each group to enter into the CACP workbook. Any extreme outlier responses were omitted.

•Bus Distance – To determine the average trip distance for bus commuters, each response group was filtered to sort by status (student, faculty or staff), and to those that selected “bus” as their primary commute choice. The survey allowed respondents to specify distance they lived from campus. An average of these values was calculated for each group to enter into the CACP workbook.

•Weeks Worked/Trips Per Week – Values entered for the number of weeks commuting were assumed based on standard assumptions made by the consultant. It was assumed that faculty and staff commuted 42 weeks/year and students commuted 35 weeks/year to and from campus. Each group was requested to provide the amount of trips/week commuted and was averaged for each category.
•Air Travel – Air travel accounts for a large portion of most universities GHG emissions. Reported emissions from air travel for MSU are estimates based on best available data and extrapolations. The following bullets explain the methodology to calculate these Scope 3 emissions from MSU.

•Athletic Air Travel – Athletic air travel was tracked by MSU for the 2008-2009 academic year. This data was provided in dollars spent for each trip. The CACP input requires air miles, so to extrapolate air miles from these dollar values, the recommended ATA conversion factor1. It is entered into the CACP workbook as student air travel.

•Faculty and Staff Air Travel – MSU air travel spending is automatically tracked through the university purchasing card records and expense reports. The total spent on university air travel related to research and other travel was converted to air miles using the ATA conversion used throughout all MSU air travel calculations; this is equivalent to approximately 12,756,878 air passenger miles.

•Study Abroad Air Travel – At this time, MSU does not track or record air miles associated with study abroad travel. Rather than leave this value at zero, the reporting team used estimated study abroad miles based on other reporting universities based on air miles per student. This estimate will be refined in future reports at MSU develops tracking protocol to capture study abroad travel.

Other Transportation
•Air Travel - Reported emissions from air travel for MSU are estimates based on best available data and extrapolations. The following bullets explain the methodology to calculate these Scope 3 emissions from MSU research travel.

•Reimbursement for Mileage – Calculated from total dollar value reported by MSU using standards reimbursement rates per mile.

Paper – MSU purchases 30% recycled content at a minimum and amount was based on purchases through Campus Stores. Data collected from the library shows the amount of 100% recycled content paper.

Wastewater – MSU wastewater is calculated from the difference between the domestic water usage and irrigation usage. The wastewater treatment plant was contacted in regards to their treatment system.

END OF DATA METHODOLOGY

No information provided

Other Directly Financed Outsourced Travel – Other transportation modes were not included except Personal Mileage Reimbursement since the only data available consists of monetary amounts which cannot be consistently or accurately transposed into mileage.

No information provided

None purchased at this time.

None.

INVENTORY RESULTS

Well tracked data for Scope 1 and Scope 2 were typically available for the university, but some Scope 3 data specifically other directly financed air and ground travel, were based upon best available data, recommended conversion factors, and supplemented by estimates from other ACUPCC universities. MSU’s emissions presented in this report reflect a higher than average value than comparable universities on the ACUPCC website. It is important to note that many of these institutions have not reported on air travel, and many do not include comprehensive commute data. By omitting these Scope 3 emissions from the GHG reports, the university total emissions are considerably lower than the 77,375 MT CO2e reported for MSU. MSU and Sightlines choose to report on all data collected by MSU, and make assumptions for unknown parameters in order to present the most comprehensive footprint information available. Although not all of these emissions are required reporting for ACUPCC, it is recommended that MSU continues to view their GHG inventory holistically and report on full emissions. MSU acknowledges that their reported emissions are likely to change as they evolve their data collection protocols, and are not required to report on all emissions stated in compliance with ACUPCC.