Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Report for CU-Boulder Shows Improvement and Decrease In Overall Footprint

The University of Colorado at Boulder Environmental Center, in cooperation with University of Colorado at Boulder Facilities Management and Xcel Energy, Inc., has released a greenhouse gas emissions inventory for the calendar year 2009.

 

Despite adding 1.5 million square feet of new building space since 2005, carbon emissions have flat-lined; there has been essentially no growth in carbon emissions over this period due to increased, aggressive efforts to reduce emissions overall. CU’s total energy consumption has declined since 2005 by 23 percent while the building footprint has increased 14 percent.

 

Carbon emissions’ from commuting, air travel, and solid waste have all declined since 2005. Each of CU’s carbon emission categories is significantly below median emissions from peer campuses nationwide.

 

These achievements are outstanding and show that CU is committed to cutting carbon emissions and energy costs, while serving a growing population and increasing research capacity. These achievements are the result of a robust and aggressive energy conservation program, the construction of its state-of-the-art green buildings, renovations of existing buildings to strict green standards, and progressively greener electricity from Xcel.

 

Going forward, CU is on track to meet most, if not all, of the Governor’s conservation goals for 2010. These include:

o     20% less energy

o     20% less water use

o     20% less paper use

o     25% less fuel use

o     A zero-waste program in all buildings.

 

CU filed its carbon emissions report per its commitment under the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment.