Sustainability

At Stanford

work at Stanford includes advancing sustainable operational practices for our campus, developing solutions to slow climate change and mitigate its effects, and engaging in the research and education that will result in improved understanding and future leadership to address the causes and effects of a warming planet. We undertake these efforts because we acknowledge the imperative.”

– Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne and Provost Persis Drell

Stanford remains steadfastly committed to its endeavor to lead by example in sustainability, and continues to reduce its environmental footprint while engaging the campus community to save resources and contribute to our imperative to address climate change. Our 2016-2017 performance underscores this commitment.

85.7%

The highest score of any institution to-date,
earning Stanford a Platinum rating through the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS) of the national Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).

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The university has undertaken major initiatives to reduce energy and water use, apply stringent environmental standards to all new buildings, encourage sustainable living, promote low-impact transportation, conserve natural resources, and decrease waste. Responsible growth is both a priority and a tool for shaping the university’s long-range strategic planning in support of the academic mission. The suite of efficiency and conservation programs implemented by the Department of Sustainability and Energy Management and its partners across campus illustrates the breadth of our commitment to reducing the footprint of every individual on campus. We continue to analyze the effectiveness of these sustainability programs and identify opportunities for further improvement.

Interdisciplinary Research and Sustainability Curricula

Stanford has long been a leader in cutting-edge research and innovative teaching on energy, natural resources, and environmental sustainability. Driven by a pioneering, entrepreneurial spirit and historic dedication to public service, Stanford is well positioned to find multi-disciplinary solutions to complex environmental challenges, creating a more livable planet and educating generations of scientific and policy leaders dedicated to the cause.

Over the years, the academic programs and initiatives in sustainability have achieved remarkable breadth, contributing to Stanford’s international reputation for solving major environmental and energy-related challenges. Today, hundreds of laboratories, research centers, and student organizations at Stanford work to solve the most urgent challenges facing humanity, from food security and clean water to global warming and clean energy.

Across all seven schools at Stanford
sustainability-related efforts in 2016 include:

Greening of the Energy Supply

Stanford has taken bold steps to tackle climate change, perhaps the greatest environmental and socioeconomic challenge of our time, through one of the most innovative capital projects on campus to date. Stanford’s Energy and Climate Action Plan uses a comprehensive, long-term approach to reduce campus greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, finding a balance between the critical needs of climate action and energy production and the requirements inherent in operating a large university.

Stanford transformed its energy system through Stanford Energy System Innovations (SESI), transitioning the campus energy supply system from one based on fossil fuels, to an innovative electric heat recovery system, which results in a 68% reduction in total campus greenhouse gas emissions from peak levels by the end of 2017, and has earned international acclaim. Although developed independently by Stanford from 2009 to 2011, SESI may be the first large-scale example in the world of the technology roadmap for building heating and cooling recommended by the International Energy Agency, which the United Nations Environment Programme discussed in a comprehensive report on district-level implementation.

Publically Reported Historical GHG Emissions

This chart depicts Stanford’s publicly reported and third-party verified Scope 1 and 2 emissions over time, which capture emissions associated with Stanford’s building energy consumption, fleet fuel usage, and process and fugitive emissions. It does not include indirect Scope 3 emissions associated from commuters and air travel. You can see these total emissions captured in the next chart.

2016 Emissions Inventory

156,469

Total Metric Tons of CO₂

This chart depicts the breakdown of Stanford’s total 2016 emissions. It includes Stanford University’s third-party-verified, publicly reported Scope 1 and 2 emissions, as well as emissions associated with Stanford Hospital and Clinics (SHC) as a result of the heating and cooling they purchased from Stanford’s Central Energy Facility and Scope 3 emissions from driving commuters and business air travel. Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions associated with Stanford operations total 156,469 metric tons of CO2 in 2016.

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Publically Reported Historical GHG Emissions

2016 Emissions Inventory

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2016-17 Highlights

View SESI news and awards coverage

Expanded Water Conservation

Stanford’s Water Resources and Civil Infrastructure group proactively manages available resources in multiple water systems to meet university needs while preserving ecological systems and vital resources for future generations.

In the face of the recent, long-term drought the university expanded its sustainable water practices and conservation efforts, which reduced potable water consumption by 49% since 2001, thanks to considerable savings gained from Stanford Energy System Innovations (SESI) and notable efforts from all major campus water users. Over the course of three years of the worst drought on record, the Stanford community pulled together and saved over 800 million gallons of domestic and non-potable water.

While the drought officially ended with the wettest year on record in 2017, water conservation remains a critical way of life in California, and the university will continue to encourage sustainable water use as dry summers and cyclical droughts persist.

Water Consumption Trends

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2016-17 Highlights

Leadership in Building Design and Construction

The built environment at Stanford remains one of the exciting opportunities for sustainability. Stanford designs and creates buildings that provide healthy, productive learning environments while achieving optimal performance in daily operations. The Department of Project Management (DPM) oversees major construction on campus.

The university has embraced a new method of benchmarking that allows for a more holistic, and also more rigorous, method for designing high-performance buildings. The university follows whole-building energy performance targets—adding standards above the increasingly stringent California Title 24— derived specifically for each new building coming online that contributes to the overall campus inventory. In this way, each building is evaluated based on its own best possible performance as well as maintaining or improving the campus average of LEED Gold equivalency.

Strategies That Help Contribute
to Energy Efficiency in New Construction

2016-17 Highlights

Robust Energy Efficiency Programs

The Facilities Energy Management (FEM) team coordinates with facilities stakeholders across campus to reduce energy use in existing buildings and incorporate energy efficiency best practices into all new buildings. FEM manages multiple programs that offer technical and financial assistance to facility managers, department leads, and building occupants to encourage implementation of energy efficiency projects, and the group works to ensure high-performance opportunities are being realized and maintained as designed.

As of 2017, Stanford has reduced energy intensity on campus 25% from a 2000 baseline. While a significant portion of this reduction is due to implementation of the Stanford Energy System Innovations (SESI) project, demand-side management—through programs like the Whole Building Energy Retrofit Program (WBERP) and Energy Retrofit Program (ERP) — accounts for nearly 10% of the savings, for a cumulative savings of over $13 million since the baseline year. In 2016, a new initiative launched to develop, test, and implement data technologies that can help solidify a “Smart Campus” infrastructure, which will maximize efficiencies in operations and maintenance and reduce costs, with enhanced analytical opportunities.

Historical Energy Consumption

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2016-17 Highlights

Expanded Alternative Transportation Options

Stanford’s Transportation Demand Management (TDM) program plays a critical role in the university’s sustainability goals, and is one of the most comprehensive in the country. The program actively works to reduce commuter emissions and encourage alternative transportation.

Operated through Parking and Transportation Services (P&TS), the TDM program aims to reduce university-related traffic impacts, emissions, and parking demand. In 2016, less than half of university employees drove alone to work on a regular basis. This represents a 33% decrease since 2002, the year that the TDM program began. Stanford has consistently met its goals for “no new net commute trips” since 2000.

Alternative Transportation in 2016 by the Numbers

Drive-Alone Rate

Year

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2016-17 Highlights

Sustainability Enhancements in Food and Living

Residential & Dining Enterprises (R&DE) is home to 13,000 students and serves 18,000 meals per day, and considers sustainability a core value and way of life across all aspects of operations. R&DE influences generations of students to lead sustainable lifestyles, not only on campus but in their future communities.

A key component of R&DE’s work includes collaborations with students and staff to foster behavior change, reduce energy and water consumption, minimize waste production, and integrate long-term sustainable thinking into how it operates. R&DE prioritizes local, organic, humanely raised, fairly traded food and options from family-owned farms and sustainable fisheries.

2016-17 Culture of Excellence

2016-17 Highlights

Higher Landfill Diversion Rate

Stanford’s waste reduction, recycling, composting, and solid waste program serves all academic and athletic areas, Residential & Dining Enterprises (R&DE), Faculty Staff Housing, Stanford University Medical Center, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, and all associated construction sites. Managing the campus’ reusable resources and minimizing waste is a crucial component of creating a more sustainable Stanford.

Efforts to minimize campus waste have significantly reduced the total amount of material Stanford sends to landfill: 8,945 tons in 2016, for a diversion rate of 64%, compared to its peak of 14,000 tons in 1998. The university continually improves and expands recycling and composting collection activities, identifies new markets for waste materials and recyclables, and raises awareness so that reducing, reusing, recycling, and composting become an ingrained set of behaviors.

Historical Waste Minimization

2016 Waste Diversion

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Historical Waste Minimization

2016 Waste Diversion

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New 2016-17 Bin Installations to Reduce Waste

2016-17 Highlights

Behavioral Sustainability

A critical component to reducing the university’s environmental footprint is engaging the community in sustainable practices. Formed in 2008, Stanford’s Office of Sustainability serves as the hub of Stanford’s sustainability programs, dubbed Sustainable Stanford.

Action-oriented programmatic initiatives led by the office help make sustainability both more tangible and more visible at Stanford. To support the multitude of campus operational efforts, individuals are asked to get involved with being “Cardinal Green.” Targeted programs focus on areas where individuals can have a significant impact, such as office and IT equipment, laboratories, and events. The My Cardinal Green program launched this year to provide a platform to encourage individual action and connect users to the plethora of resources across campus, rewarding completed sustainability efforts.

Sustainability

85.7%

Interdisciplinary Research and Sustainability Curricula

Across all seven schools at Stanford
sustainability-related efforts in 2016 include: