The UMD Office of Sustainability is working on a greenhouse gas inventory (GHG) for our campus, in order to determine our carbon footprint.    The GHG inventory determines the amounts and sources of greenhouse gas emissions attributable to our existence and operation.  Once all greenhouse gases are calculated, we translate them into a carbon dioxide equivalent for their global warming potential.  When all the sources are added up, the final amount of carbon dioxide equivalent emitted by our campus is called our carbon footprint.   

There are three steps in the process.  First, is gathering raw data. Our campus operates like a small city, and all potential emissions must be included in the calculator. A wide variety of data is collected, including purchased electricity, on-campus energy production (heating plant), transportation (from student, staff, and faculty commuting, air travel, and emissions from our campus fleet), agriculture (fertilization), solid waste (incinerated and landfill), and refrigerants and other chemicals.

Next, the GHG emissions are calculated from the raw data using one of several calculator tools available.  The tool most commonly used for campuses is the Clean Air Cool Planet Campus Carbon Calculator.  This calculator is based on workbooks by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for national inventories and the methodologies and calculators of the GHG Protocol (from World Resources Institute and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development).  UMD will use the Clean Air Cool Plant tool for our inventory calculations.

Finally, the data will be summarized to compare emissions sources and determine our largest sources of global warming pollutants.  Results from the greenhouse gas inventory will provide UMD with a baseline to work from.   Once we know what the biggest sources of greenhouse gases are, reduction strategies can be planned and implemented.