Alaska Pacific University Greenhouse Gas Report: FY 2014
Introduction
This is the first greenhouse gas assessment of the Alaska Pacific University
(APU) campus. Data was compiled from as far back as 2008, but no further due to
university policy that purges documents once they are more than 6 years old. Not all
data was available back to 2008, but all sections were collected for as many years as
were available. The effort to collect data from previous years was to get an idea of
the university’s emissions for more than just one or two years to begin to get an idea
of trends in emissions. The fiscal year calendar (July 1 – June 30) was used to
account for each year because this is how the school had data organized and it
works well with the academic year. This specific assessment is for fiscal year 2014.
The consolidation method chosen for this assessment was the Operational
Control Approach. There are a few buildings on campus owned by the university, but
are leased out and completely run by outside entities, which were not included in
this assessment. This assessment includes the main APU campus in Anchorage and
the Kellogg campus in Palmer (also known as ‘the farm’), which is also a part of APU.
The Clean Air Cool Planet (CA-CP) Campus Carbon Calculator was used for
this greenhouse gas report. This tool came recommended by the ACUPCC and has
also been used by many other universities around the country. The CA-CP default
emissions coefficients were used in this project. Global warming potentials were
used from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth
Assessment Report.
This project was done by Nate Anderson, a student from the environmental
science department at APU.
Methods
The inventory was done during the 2015 spring semester (February – April). Data
was collected from many different departments around campus throughout the
semester. The Clean Air-Cool Planet Campus Carbon Calculator and American
College and University President’s Climate Commitment Reporting instructions
were used to build the scope of data collection. Data was collected from several
different departments around the Alaska Pacific University (APU) campus. Natural
gas consumption, gasoline/diesel purchases, electrical consumption, and
wastewater for the main APU campus were collected from vendor files in the
accounting and finance office. Data pertaining to the Kellogg campus was collected
from several different sources including: accounting and finance (historical
electrical and natural gas use, fertilizer purchases), office of the CFO (most recent
electrical and natural gas use), and Kellogg campus staff/faculty (animals). Air travel
was collected from the accounting and finance office records. Building square
footage was collected from the maintenance office. Student population data was
collected from the registrar’s office. Residential student data was collected from the
campus life staff. Staff and faculty population data was collected from human
resources. Endowment size was collected from the office of the CFO. Heating degreedays and cooling degree-days were collected from http://www.degreedays.net/ for
the Anchorage area.
Scope 1 Emissions
Scope 1 emissions account for stationary combustion that occurs on campus,
mobile emissions from university owned vehicles, and agricultural emissions. The
only stationary combustion that occurs on campus is of natural gas for heating. As
expected for Alaska, use is much higher in the winter months than it is in the
summer months. There have recently been and will continue to be retrofits to
buildings on campus geared towards lowering these emissions, which include new
boilers and temperature controls.
Mobile emissions are due to the combustion of gasoline and diesel fuel by
university owned vehicles. The university currently owns 8 vans, 5 trucks, 3 cars, 2
SUVs, 2 snowmachines, and 1 tractor (see breakdown below). Many courses travel
throughout the state during the semester and rely on the university vans and trucks
for transportation. Clubs and student activities often use the vans for their trips as
well. With Alaska being the largest state, trips vary from an hour each way up to 10+
hours each way depending on conditions and the destination. The university
vehicles are a very important part of academics as well as recreation.
Agriculture emissions are due to animals owned by the university that live at
the Kellogg campus in Palmer. The university currently owns 5 chickens, 1 goat, and
1 pig.
CO2 (kg)
CH4 (kg)
On-Campus
2,030,706.8
181.5
Stationary
Direct
30,915.1
5.7
Transportation
Agriculture
0
21.8
Total
2,061,621.9
209.0
Table 1. Breakdown of scope 1 emissions
Year
1967
1993
1993
1996
1998
N2O (kg)
3.6
eCO2 (metric
tonnes)
2,036.3
1.9
31.6
1.6
7.1
1.0
2,067.9
Make/Model
Chevrolet ST
Chevy Cheyenne (Stakes)
Chevy Cheyenne (Stakes)
Snowmachine – Bombardier
Dodge Dakota
1999
GMC Savana G 3500
1999
Chevy Suburban
2000
GMC Sierra
2001
Suzuki Grand Vitara
2001
Chevy Express Van
2002
Ford F250 Diesel Truck
2004
Chevy Express Van 4WD (11 pass.)
2006
Audi A4
2006
GMC Savana Van (8 pass.)
2006
Snowmachine – Bombardier
2009
Ford Econoline Wagon
2011
Sprinter
2012
Toyota Sienna
2014
Chevy Suburban
2014
Chevy Express Van
2014
Tractor (AK Tractor 357 – 0776)
Table 2. All current university owned vehicles.
Scope 2 Emissions
Scope 2 emissions account for GHGs emitted off campus that the university is
still responsible for. In APU’s case, the only item in scope 2 is electrical consumption.
These emissions are directly influenced by APU, but they are emitted off campus at
the power plant. APU purchases electricity from Anchorage Municipal Light and
Power who is one of the main suppliers throughout Anchorage (among a few
others). Most electricity generated in the Anchorage area is from combined cycle
natural gas. Energy efficiency upgrades and retrofits have been and will continue to
take place on campus. Lighting efficiency has been upgraded in several buildings on
campus. The university is also in the process of installing controls in major buildings
around campus to run fans and other electrical components on a schedule rather
than running continuously. These retrofits are geared towards lowering the amount
of electricity consumed by the university.
CO2 (kg)
CH4 (kg)
Purchased
1,318,586.0
19.8
Electricity
Table 3. Breakdown of scope 2 emissions.
N2O (kg)
16.6
eCO2 (metric
tonnes)
1,324.0
Scope 3 Emissions
Scope 3 emissions account for other emissions related to university
operations other than scope 1 and 2. In this assessment, scope 3 included
commuting, university funded air travel, wastewater, and student travel to/from
home.
To collect data on the commuting habits of students, staff, and faculty a short
survey was sent out to the entire university population using surveymonkey.com.
The survey was advertised through university email and fliers around campus. It
received over 90 responses. Students, staff, and faculty all take part in a diverse
array of options for commuting to campus including biking, walking, driving,
carpooling, and riding the bus (see table below). The statistics were broken down
into categories for the CA-CP calculator that estimated values for the entire
university based on the survey results (see calculator for breakdown).
CO2 (kg)
CH4 (kg)
Staff/Faculty
97,066.5
20.3
Commuting
Student
252,927.5
52.2
Commuting
Table 4. Breakdown of commuting emissions.
N2O (kg)
6.8
eCO2 (metric
tonnes)
99.6
17.5
259.4
APU funds travel for students, staff, and faculty for a variety of reasons
including training, research, presentations, etc. All of this is kept track through the
accounting office in spreadsheets. This section accounted for the air miles traveled
by these individuals (see table below).
CO2 (kg)
CH4 (kg)
N2O (kg)
Directly
318,381.2
3.2
3.6
Financed Air
Travel
Table 5. Breakdown of directly financed air travel.
eCO2 (metric
tonnes)
319.5
Wastewater is metered as it leaves campus and heads towards the Asplund
Wastewater treatment plant. The treatment plant has a special permit from the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that allows them to only apply primary
treatment to the water, which is not common. The CA-CP calculator did not have a
section for this type of treatment, but the closest option was the aerobic treatment
section, which encompasses secondary treatment methods. This may have slightly
over estimated the emissions. In the big picture, wastewater had the smallest
contribution to university emissions (see table below).
CO2 (kg)
CH4 (kg)
Wastewater
0
0
Table 6. Breakdown of wastewater emissions.
N2O (kg)
5.7
eCO2 (metric
tonnes)
1.7
Student travel to/from home was also a part of the commuting survey sent
out to the entire university. A percentage was calculated by taking the number of
students who responded with a destination and number of times they travel there
per year divided by the total number of student responses. This percentage was
multiplied by the total number of full time students, which was multiplied by the
average number of miles traveled round trip (see table below).
CO2 (kg)
CH4 (kg)
N2O (kg)
eCO2 (metric
tonnes)
515.9
Student Travel 513,504.2
9.8
7.2
to/from Home
Table 7. Breakdown of student travel to/from home emissions.
Normalization and Contextual Data
All data collected on student, staff, and faculty populations was from the beginning
of the fall 2013 semester (see table below). It is important to note that these
numbers tend to vary throughout the year.
Gross sq. Total
Residential Full-time
ft. of
student
students
commuter
building
enrollment
students
space
(FTE)
244,015
471
115
166
Table 8. Building space and population data.
Part-time Full-time
commuter faculty
students
Full-time
staff
298
62
47
Limitations
This is the first greenhouse gas report for Alaska Pacific University, which means
commuter data could only be gathered for the currently population of students,
staff, and faculty. The data collected was applied to the fiscal year 2014 population
to estimate commuter emissions. This is the only report that will estimate
commuter emissions for a previous year, as long as the survey is admitted annually.
Now when the fiscal year 2015 report can be put together after July 1, 2015, this
data will still be applicable.
Solid waste is the biggest limitation of this report. APU pays a flat fee for solid waste,
not by weight. It is possible to estimate how much solid waste the university
produces by adding up the volumes of all of the bins picked up by Solid Waste, how
frequently they are picked up, and EPA’s estimates of solid waste weight based on
volume. The results show an unreasonably high estimate of solid waste compared to
other universities. This is a component that someone working on a future report
should work to quantify for APU specifically. One thing to note is that according to
the CA-CP Campus Carbon Calculator, since the Anchorage landfill captures methane
and uses it to generate electricity, solid waste actually reduces scope 3 emissions
(-0.03 MTeCO2 per short ton of solid waste).
When calculating university funded travel, students, staff, and faculty were
sometimes all lumped together making it difficult to separate travel into students
and staff/faculty. This is only in the CA-CP Campus Carbon Calculator, but when
reporting to the ACUPCC, all university funded travel is lumped together.
Time did not allow for calculation of carbon sequestration to be calculated. This will
be a pretty big task to correctly quantify and would make a great project for a
student in the future.
Context
Alaska Pacific University is located in Anchorage, Alaska, which is quite different
than many other places in the U.S. Temperatures generally stay below freezing
throughout the winter. The cooler climate is strongly reflected by the number of
heating vs. cooling degree-days (9,305 heating degree-days vs. 83 cooling degreedays). This shows the importance of heating and natural gas use for everyone in the
Anchorage area. Natural gas is a very common fossil fuel used around the Anchorage
area because of its local abundance. Natural gas use tends to increases as winter
approaches and decreases throughout the spring.
Alaska is by far the largest state in the U.S., which generally means that classes,
student activities, the ski team, etc. travel a long ways by van (sometimes up to 10+
hours each way depending on the destination, road conditions, and time of year).
The university vans are vital for the types of courses offered, for the ski team to
travel to races, and for students to fully enjoy what Alaska has to offer.
Many students attend APU from out of state and travel home at least once if not
multiple times per year. Alaska is not attached to the continental U.S., which means
that students travel further distances home than most other college students
(Anchorage to Seattle is over 1,400 miles, Anchorage to Miami is about 4,000 miles).
Acknowledgements
Thank you to everyone who helped with this project, to Debbie Roll for getting me in
contact with everyone, to Cheryl, Rachel, and Brenda for digging through the
archives to help find a majority of the data, to Kathleen Wyrick for staff and faculty
data, to Michelle Wheeler for student data, to Ben Hahn for student data, to Deb and
Laura for university and farm data, to Carl Tobin for assisting in the IRB process, to
Robin and Mallory for distributing the commuting/travel survey, to Angela Gravitt
for setting up meetings, and to President Don Bantz for the opportunity to take part
in this project.
Work Cited
American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment. (n.d.). Instructions
for Submitting a Greenhouse Gas Report. Retreived from http://rs.
acupcc.org/instructions/ghg/
Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility. (n.d.). John M. Asplund Wastewater
Treatment Facility. Retrieved from https://www.awwu.biz/website
/about_us/AwwuInfoFrame.htm
Bizee Degree Days. (2015). Custom Degree Day Data [Data File]. Retrieved from
http://www.degreedays.net/
Distancesfrom.com. (n.d.). Flight Distance Calculator [Data File]. Retreived from
http://www.distancesfrom.com/
HZ Travel Tools. (n.d.). Distance Calculator. Retrieved from http://www.
happyzebra.com/distance-calculator/
United States Energy Information Administration. (2015). Alaska Price of Natural
Gas Sold to Commercial Consumers [Data File]. Retrieved from http://www.
eia.gov/dnav/ng/hist/n3020ak3m.htm
United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2013). Standard Volume-toWeight Conversion Factors [Data File]. Retrieved from http://www.epa.gov
/osw/conserve/tools/recmeas/docs/guide_b.pdf
University of New Hampshire. (2014). Clean Air – Cool Planet Campus Carbon
Calculator (version 7.0) [Software]. Available from http://www.
sustainableunh.unh.edu/node/8342/done?sid=1339&token=3fccbecf09469
105de79c2325f6f9d31
Web Flyer. (n.d.). Mileage Calculator. Retrieved from http://www.webflyer.com/
travel/mileage_calculator/