Executive Summary This report presents and assesses the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory for the Pittsburgh Campus of the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) for fiscal year (FY) 2020, including direct and indirect activities of the University. Since the initiation of a GHG inventorying process in 2008, this is Pitt’s sixth GHG inventory report, building on and comparing to the previous five inventories from FY 2008, 2011, 2014, 2017, and 2019 [1]–[5]. This report and its precursors serve as guidelines for the Chancellor’s Advisory Council on Sustainability, its Carbon Commitment Committee, and any future committees, groups, or individuals working to reduce the GHG emissions of Pitt. Especially given Pitt’s February 2020 commitment to achieve carbon neutrality for its Pittsburgh campus by 2037, this report has new bearing and urgency [6]. Understanding current GHG emissions is a necessary step towards developing the strategies that will help achieve Pitt’s carbon goals by lowering future GHG emissions. An annual GHG inventorying process is a part of Pitt’s Carbon Commitment, as is a climate action plan every five years [7]; still under internal review upon publication of this report, the first Pitt Climate Action Plan builds from the FY19 GHG inventory. Beyond carbon, Pitt has set specific goals related to its sustainability activities. The Pitt Sustainability Plan was published in January 2018, detailing 61 goals over 15 impact categories that fall into three overarching themes: Exploration, Community & Culture, and Stewardship [8]. Some of these goals align with those of the Pittsburgh 2030 District, of which Pitt is a Founding Property Partner of the Oakland boundary [9]. The Pittsburgh 2030 District Goals are to reduce water consumption, energy consumption, and GHG emissions from transportation 50% by 2030 below baselines [10]. Pitt also intentionally aligned its original Pitt Sustainability Plan GHG goal with those of the Pittsburgh 2030 District, aiming to reduce GHG emissions 50% by 2030 (below 2008 levels); carbon neutrality for the Pittsburgh campus by 2037 expands and extends that goal. The Plan also includes many more goals across the full spectrum of sustainability. For this analysis, Pitt’s Fiscal Year 2020 was selected as the temporal boundary, July 1, 2019, through June 30, 2020; fiscal years have been used for all past Pitt GHG inventories, allowing for result comparisons across all GHG Inventory years, which previously include FY 2008, 2011, 2014, 2017, and 2019. Overall, the University of Pittsburgh’s FY20 GHG emissions were 186,068 metric tons CO2e (MT CO2e) – a 13.6% decrease in GHG emissions from FY19, when they were 215,522 MT CO2e. Decreases were seen across several categories, including purchased steam, commuting, directly financed travel, and study abroad. By category and overall, part of this large year-over-year decrease was due to a complete, then partial University shut down from March 16, 2020, through June 30, 2020 (and beyond) due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. FY20 accounts for 3.5 months of the pandemic, and we anticipate similar pandemic-influenced trends for FY21. In line with widespread higher education GHG inventorying practices, Pitt synthesizes its GHG Inventory data using the SIMAP (Sustainability Indicator Management and Analysis Platform) web software created by the University of New Hampshire’s Sustainability Institute [11]. The University’s FY 2008, 2011, and 2014 GHG inventories used a SIMAP predecessor called “Clean Air-Cool Planet,” and subsequently imported into the SIMAP tool, causing slight changes to official past-reported data. These differences can be primarily attributed to changes in emissions factors between the two tools;
4
