As the State of Florida’s main land grant institution, UF owns and leases sites, facilities, and other assets distributed throughout the state in all 67 counties. Accurately and exhaustively inventorying all owned assets for an institution of this size is not feasible under past and present institutional information management abilities.

Like most institutions, the vast majority of our major assets and operations reside at one main campus. In UF'’s case, this campus is located in the City of Gainesville within Alachua County, Florida. Though this single site houses approximately 47% of all owned buildings, it accounts for over 80% of the total owned gross square footage statewide (see synopsis below).

As a result of the spatial proximity and concentrated density of the buildings on this site and the significance of the commuter component associated with the site’s tens of thousands of faculty, staff, and students, UF has chosen its main campus (Site 0001) as the boundary for this version of the GHGE Inventory.

In the future, UF will aim to improve and expand its enterprise information management systems to include energy, water, and climate data for assets beyond Site 0001. It is hoped this will include a comprehensive look at both sources and sinks in the UF GHGE Inventory ledger, especially in the context of UF’s extensive conservation land holdings and land management practices across Florida.

ACUPCC Boundary for UF GHGE Inventory v1.2 (Site 0001)

Sites: One Total
o 0001 – UF Main Campus

Acres:
o As of FY 2004/2005 (Baseline): 1,902 acres
o As of FY 2008/2009: 1,902 acres

Buildings:
o As of FY 2004/2005 (Baseline): 898 buildings at 17,436,606 gross square feet
o As of FY 2008/2009: 919 buildings at 20,019,096 gross square feet

Associated Faculty, Staff, & Students
o As of FY 2004/2005 (Baseline): 12,126 total employees and 48,765 students
o As of FY 2008/2009: 12,439 total employees and 52,112 students

Average Climate Impact:
o As of FY 2004/2005 (Baseline): 21.1 MtCO2e per gross square foot
o As of FY 2008/2009: 17.5 MtCO2e per gross square foot

As part of our first priority action to foster organizational leadership and lasting institutional culture change, UF spent FY 2008/2009 transitioning from an externally subcontracted GHGE inventory process to an internally motivated and directed process, which will include institution-wide energy and climate information management and strategic planning. With this evolving transition, UF has begun to reap the rewards of improved stakeholder buy-in and resource sharing toward the common goal of improving energy efficiency, mitigating the UF carbon footprint, and reducing operational costs.

Throughout the process of conducting a more refined in-house GHGE inventory for the last five fiscal years (FY 2004/2005 through FY 2008/2009), UF has identified multiple areas where energy, water, and climate information flows can be improved. To facilitate improving data at the source and to improve transparency of institutional opportunities and constraints, time-interval performance, and success stories, UF has centralized the GHGE inventory recording and reporting into one commonly accessible platform, the UF Space Tracking and Reporting System (STARS).

UF STARS: Home of the GHGE Inventory

The UF Space Tracking and Reporting System (STARS) is an enterprise-scale Oracle database with a web enabled graphical user interface. STARS integrates and communicates with a wide variety of other critical UF units and data sources including those from Facilities Planning and Construction, Physical Plant, Transportation and Parking Services, the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS), the GIS-based campus map and others. The scope, scale, and flexibility of this key UF platform are a natural fit for tracking the UF carbon footprint. As such, it has been selected to house all historical and future UF GHGE inventories, as well as ultimately to provide energy, water, and GHGE reduction actions and progress.

Additionally, STARS will filter UF’s institutional infrastructure assets according to the boundary and baseline detailed herewith and agreed upon by key institutional stakeholders. Housing the GHGE inventory in this system offers the following benefits over using a third-party contractor or generic carbon calculator tool:

o Utilizes UF’s internal talent and assist with institutional “buy-in”
o Creates permanence and adaptability
o Fosters cross-campus information sharing
o Eases accessibility & reporting
o Develops a foundation upon which dynamic tools and services can grow

Sources for the coefficients used include the EPA and Clean Air Cool Planet.

De minimis sources are still being compiled and integrated into the five inventories from Fiscal Year 2004/2005 through Fiscal Year 2008/2009.

Office of Sustainability staff worked with campus stakeholders to collect and verify the data necessary.

No information provided

Some sources considered de minimis, with plans to define in more detail in future inventories.

Some requested information was not available using current campus data, primarily in the realm of transportation. Averaging and extrapolation were used to represent airline travel or commuter mileage when necessary. Erring on the high side, assumptions were made that all commuters drove to campus 5 days a week and that all airline tickets were round-trip. Driving distance and flight destinations were averaged between individuals in the same category to represent flawed data.

No information provided

No information provided

No information provided

No information provided