Campus Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory

This project uses the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment framework; a greenhouse gas emissions assessment is required by all signatories to the commitment. Research of this kind is a major undertaking. This project requires a team of students working on it as a class project throughout the semester. It could also be accomplished by an individual student as part of an independent study over a year.

The four largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions from a school are likely: electricity consumption, on-campus combustion of fossil fuels for heat and cooling, commuter transportation, and air travel. If the size of the task is as issue, have the students concentrate in these areas.

American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment is a high-visibility effort to address global warming by garnering institutional commitments to neutralize greenhouse gas emissions, and to accelerate the research and educational efforts of higher education to equip society to re-stabilize the earth's climate.

Clean Air-Cool Planet developed the greenhouse gas calculator available for download. Their tool has is widely used by colleges and universities.

The difficulty of compiling the data depends on the type and accessibility of records. Collecting data on an academic or fiscal year may be more reasonable, depending on how the college keeps data. For a more complete idea of this project used in an environmental studies senior seminar, read the course syllabus (Acrobat (PDF) 26kB Aug19 08).

Course Procedure:

• Have Students Brainstorm the Campus Links to Global Warming
• Have Students Pick Topics or Subtopics for Individual or Group Research
• Have/Needs Assessment (Birnbaum, 2004): Have students discuss:
  • What they know about their topic?
  • What they need to know about their topic?
• Develop Research Plan
• Have students assign tasks to group members
• What are the intermediary steps of the project?
Includ deadlines and timelines for project completion.
• Keep Good Records Have students log all telephone and email communcations with staff in one notebook. Keep hard copy data in file folders and organize data on a spreadsheet.
• Progress Report . One third of the way through the course, have student report on their activities to date. For individual student projects, have students meet with faculty each week to report.
• Report Findings. Have students report findings orally and written. Invite campus decision-makers to review the presentations.

• Learn more here about assessment theory and techniques
• Assessment Rubrics:
• Student Peer Assessment Rubric for Group Work (Microsoft Word 37kB May20 05) When students work in groups, use this seven item rubric to rate other team members on such items as work ethic, participation in discussion, and ability to meet deadlines (from Gallery Walk).
• Instructor Evaluation Rubric for Written Reports (Microsoft Word 40kB Jul5 07)a fairly detailed eleven part rubric for evaluating the quality of students' oral reports from (from Gallery Walk).
• Oral Report Evaluation Rubric (Microsoft Word 56kB Jul6 07)
  (from Gallery Walk)

Lewis and Clark College became the first college in the U.S. to meet the provisions of the Kyoto Protocol. Lewis and Clark student-developed guidelines are the basis for this project.

National Wildlife Federation Campus Ecology Program is a good source of information on energy related projects on campuses in the United States. Energy resources.

The University of Iowa, The University of Minnesota, The University of Oklahoma, and Tufts University all are full members of the Chicago Climate Exchange. Members have made a voluntary, legally binding commitment to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases by four percent below the average of their 1998-2001 baseline by 2006.

In 1999 Tufts University committed to meeting or beating the Kyoto Protocol greenhouse gas reduction goal. Tufts University Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory for 1990 and 1998 (2001).

The State of New Jersey adopted a Greenhouse Gas Action Plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 3.5 %. Fifty-six colleges and universities were part of this project.

The course syllabus (Acrobat (PDF) 26kB Aug19 08) for an environmental studies senior seminar using this project co-taught by Suzanne Savanick and Chris Wells at Macalester College, Spring 2008.