Clean Air-Cool Planet Climate Action Toolkit


1 - Inventory



Data Collection

Data collection can be the most challenging phase of the inventory process. It will require thorough detective work and collaboration with many people and departments on campus. Common examples of data sources are the Physical Plant department, Campus Planning Office, and the local utilities. The procedural outline in the Appendix of the Calculator has more information on data sources.

Sample Data Collection Journal

12/14/00 - Contacted the Director of Transportation - was told the supervisor of garage maintenance would have the information. Contacted the supervisor of garage maintenance - was told that he forwards all of that information to the facilities business office.

1/11/01 - Was contacted by the facilities business office - was told they did not have that information and that the State Department of Transportation handles the fuel distribution and should have the data. Contacted the DOT - was told they keep no historical records but University Department of Transportation should.

2/7/01 - Received email from Director of Transportation suggesting I contact a specific person at the State DOT. Contacted the State DOT and was sent a file containing data from each vehicle fueling event (about 400 pages long) for the year 2000. Also learned that there used to be a University position that was charged with summarizing the vehicle data and reporting it to the state, but that this position had been eliminated in 1998.

3/1/01 - Received a message from the supervisor of garage maintenance that he had found the reports in an old file cabinet. Photocopied reports. Discovered that they estimated fuel use at half the amount estimated by the annual report received from the State DOT. The Director of Transportation was unable to explain the discrepancy. Used these reports, as they were relatively steady over the 4 years recorded (i.e. there would not have been a doubling of fuel use over 2 years).

4/18/01 - Was contacted by the Director of Transportation and asked if I had found out the annual fuel consumption, average fuel efficiency, or up-to-date fleet size. He needed them for a report he was working on. I gave him what I had.

One critical element of data collection is the maintenance of a detailed journal of every telephone call, inquiry, and successful information acquisition throughout the collection process. Keeping such a journal, complete with a list of who was contacted, when they were contacted, and what their response was, provides a resource to consult if questions arise about emissions and data down the road. Sometimes communication gets complicated (see example at right) and without a record it is easy to forget who has been talked to and when they were supposed to respond. Deadlines are important, as is a commitment to follow-through and a willingness to be persistent in your requests. Much of the collection work is about relationship-building—creating relationships that will not only yield the information you want for the inventory, but may also provide you with staff, administrative, and community allies down the road.

In some cases, data may simply not be available for given source. If all of the information is not available, or the resources needed to gather it are not available, you can simply gather complete data for as far back as possible. It is better to have solid numbers for back to 1995 than weak estimates back to 1990. In these cases, make note of the data gaps in the final report. The need to improve record keeping of a campus's energy usage could well be illuminated by a project like this, so noting significant gaps could help support making this a recommended action step.

There is no set formula for this process as all universities are set up differently and you will undoubtedly come upon unknown challenges as you navigate the institutional bureaucracy. For example, at one school finding the information regarding electric consumption and fuel consumption from heating was easy because the Energy Manager had already performed some of the same analysis and had previously compiled historical information. On the other hand, finding information on university fleet fuel consumption at the same university was much more difficult and unreliable. Be creative and be patient; the process may be imperfect but the results will be worth it.