GREENHOUSE GAS INVENTORY
Annual Report
FY 2023
Julia Simonsen, Sustainability Initatives Intern
Hyesu Im, Graduate Research Assistant
Presented by:
As part of Georgia State University’s commitment to sustainability, the university recently completed its first annual Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory. A GHG inventory outlines the environmental impact of campus operations and activities. This is a standard benchmarking process used by universities, businesses, non-profits, and public sector entities.
This first GHG Inventory is limited to GSU’s Atlanta Campus In the 2023 fiscal year (July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2023), GSU emitted 72,787 MTCDE or metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. Out of all three scopes of measurement, Scope 2 had the highest emissions with 61,081 MTCDE, followed by Scope 3 with 9,846 MTCDE, and Scope 1 with 1,960 MTCDE. Due to time constraints, the first inventory is only partial with some data from Scope 1 and Scope 3 unavailable.
What is a Greenhouse Gas Inventory?
A greenhouse gas inventory is a detailed compilation of emissions from various sources within an organization. Emissions come from a variety of sources, referred to collectively as ‘scopes.’ Scope 1 emissions are generated from sources owned or controlled by the university. Examples of Scope 1 emissions include burning fuel used to power university vehicles, spreading fertilizer on university landscapes, and utilizing natural gas to heat university buildings. Scope 2 emissions represent purchased electricity. Scope 3 emissions are indirectly influenced by the university. Scope 3 emissions include student and employee commuting, airline emissions from study abroad travel, gas off-puts from landfills, wastewater processing, and recycled paper
Methodology
GSU’s GHG Inventory was calculated using the web-based Sustainability Indicator Management & Analysis Platform (SIMAP), developed by the University of New Hampshire, to “track, analyze, and improve your campus-wide sustainability.” SIMAP provides a list of emission sources common to higher education institutions, such as students commuting, studying abroad, and purchasing electricity. This data was gathered across multiple departments and then the raw data was imputed into SIMAP. SIMAP then used algorithms to convert the raw data into a carbon, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide equivalent format.
Eight different departments contributed data to the report. A breakdown of the reports by contribution area is in the table below
Inventory Report
Scope 1
GSU’s Scope 1 emissions came from three main sources: natural gas, the university fleet, and fertilizer. Out of the three of these sources, the diesel fuel for the university fleet was the largest emitter (Table 1). Scope 1 emissions are the smallest category with only 1,960.33 MTCDE (Table 1)
107,439 gallons of diesel fuel are from a third-party transit provider, MV Transit. Typically, all outsourced resources would be placed in Scope 3, but GSU is including this data in Scope 1 for accurate comparability in future years GSU is in the process of purchasing an all-electric bus fleet; the emissions associated with this fleet would fall under scope two emissions. Under the current SIMAP model, there is no place to enter third-party diesel fuel. By treating this as a scope one fuel source, we will be better able to evaluate the climate impact of our transition to an all-electric PantherBus fleet. If the data were put in Scope 3 for this year, our total emissions would appear to worsen after the switch to the electric bus fleet. For consistency and comparability, this data was put under Scope 1. The data not included in Scope 1 are refrigerants and chemical data
Scope 2
Scope 2 emissions were the greatest for the 2023 fiscal year, coming from one source: purchased electricity (Table 1). Scope 2 emissions accounted for almost 85% of all emissions at GSU with a total of 61,081 56 MTCDE (Table 1) The university purchased 163,722,070 kWh of electricity (Table 1).
Scope 3
Scope 3 came from six sources: air travel (Faculty/Staff), study abroad air travel, transmission and distribution losses (T&D), natural gas, solid waste, and wastewater (Table 1). Besides Scope 2 emissions, Scope 3 emissions are the second highest category (Figure 1). Scope 3 emissions amount to 6,988 42 MTCDE (Table 1), with the second highest emitter overall being T&D losses (Figure 1). T&D losses fall under Scope 3 emissions because it is the loss of energy through the transmission from the electricity producer to the user. The data not included in Scope 3 are commuting, directly financed non-air travel, paper, and food.
Some data was not included in this initial GHG Inventory; therefore, it is expected that future GHG inventories will have higher numbers.
Why is this important?
Understanding our emissions allows us to make efforts to reduce them As a research university, GSU can facilitate research to help reduce our emissions. Knowing the number of emissions produced by the university allows us to understand how we are performing compared to our peers GSU is in the same range as other universities with similar square footage and enrollment numbers (Table 2), which is a good thing, but it doesn’t mean that the university should not take more measures to reduce future emissions.
Due to the inventory only being partial, we estimate that our net emissions will be between Kennesaw State University and Auburn University.
GSU has the lowest ratio of emissions per student (Figure 3). Comparing emissions with square footage, GSU has the second lowest number among the other universities (Figure 4).
Overall, while having a large enrollment and total square footage, GSU still has lower emissions compared to similar universities.
