Looking for Help with the
Campus Carbon Calculator™?
If you are looking for some guidance on your campus carbon inventory and reduction plan, you've come to the right place. Here are four resources to support your admirable efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on your campus.
- USERS GUIDE: First, consult the Version 6 User's Guide and read the sections pertaining to your question or problem area. If you did not download the User's Guide, return to this page and find the link at the bottom of the page.
- FAQ: If you still have questions, read the Frequently Asked Questions below. These questions come from users who have emailed us over the last few years. Click on the general topic and read the questions and answers presented there.
- WEBINARS: Sign up for one of our webinars or question hours by clicking here. These low-cost training sessions will help your efforts no matter what your skill or experience level may be.
- CONTACT US: If you are still having problems and need assistance, you can contact the Campus Team by email or phone.
Email us: calculator@cleanair-coolplanet.org
Call our help line: 603.422.6464
Ext. 112
We are interested in using the Clean Air-Cool Planet Tool Kit and Campus Carbon Calculator™ to inventory our carbon emissions. Please let me know how to sign up for this.
You can download the Calculator and User’s Guide free at http://www.cleanair-coolplanet.org/toolkit/inv-calculator.php. That section of our website has background info on the inventory process as well.
How many colleges have used the CA-CP software?
Somewhere between 600 and 1600 schools have used or are using it. It’s available for free download, and we don’t follow up directly with everyone who downloads it. But we have heard from and/or worked with more than 600 schools that have downloaded it that we know are using it, and we assume that some portion of those who downloaded but that we haven’t heard from directly are using it as well.
Is there a user's guide to the Campus Carbon Calculator™?
Yes! When you downloaded the calculator from the CA-CP website, there was a separate link to download the user guide. If you did not access it when you downloaded the calculator, you can find it by clicking on the Campus Carbon Calculator button to the left.
When I open the Campus Carbon Calculator™ tool, I am always prompted with an Excel pop-up window which asks if I want to enable macros, and that macros can harm my computer. Why is this and what should I do?
The pop-up is there because some computer viruses are written in macros; Excel's security features are only looking after the best interests of the user with this prompt. In this case, you should click to enable the macros. If you disable them, some features of the calculator will not work and could cause some problems. The macros in the Campus Carbon Calculator™ do not contain viruses and will not cause harm to your system.
If you have been working with macros disabled, and some features do not appear to be working, save your work, close the Campus Carbon Calculator™ and re-open it with macros enabled. This should help the user-friendly features of this tool to function properly.
If you would like to see a list of the macros to know if they could be the source of your problems, select Tools>Macro>Macros from the menu bar or press Alt+F8.
My school does not have data recorded for some of the data input fields in the calculator. Will this effect the emissions calculations?
Yes and no. The tool calculates emissions based on the data you enter into it, so you will only be calculating emissions based on the data you are able to enter. In particular, some smaller colleges and universities may not have many of the energy features the calculator is capable of working with. In the end, the more you are able to enter for your institution, the more complete your inventory will be.
My school does not have historical records which go back to 1990. What should I do?
Unfortunately some schools may not have found it in their interest to maintain historical records of previous energy use data. If gaps exist in your data, you should include what you can and reference the first complete energy year for your institution's baseline. In any event, be sure to document data gaps in your inventory write-up to highlight the need for more successful record keeping in years to come.
My institution does not keep track of air travel. How important is it that I include
this data?
GHG emissions from air travel are a very significant source for all institutions, although it may not be an area of emissions easily influenced by greenhouse gas reduction efforts. While this part of the inventory is probably going to be most useful when your institution adopts a policy of keeping air travel records, you are most likely to get a good estimate of air travel by conducting a survey from a representative body of population from your institution or contacting your schools primary travel agents. You can also track down a lot of information by asking to see receipts from the respective accountants.
In the ‘Offsets' section of the inputs, how do I calculate the carbon sequestered by forest preservation?
The IPCC has a list of coefficients for calculating carbon sequestration at www.grida.no/climate/ipcc/land_use/007.htm. From there, you can calculate the amount of C sequestered by various ecosystem types in the different climatic regions in North America. Because it is a fairly common practice to purchase lands in tropical climates (outside of the U.S.) where C sequestration is high, it is important to know what type of land is acquired. You can continue to use the same source of land year after year, as the forest preservation figures represent annual C storage. Caution: the units used by the IPCC here are short tons, so be sure to convert to tonnes, (a.k.a. metric tons).
I can't find the unit conversions I need in the "EF_Constants" worksheet of the calculator. Where can I find an accurate conversion factor for entering data in the units the calculator is set up to handle?
Most chemistry and physics textbooks have tables of common conversion factors. A very easy to use online resource for converting units can be found at http://www.onlineconversion.com.
Can you refer me to any thing that will help me translate the type of emission
into the specific ghg's produced? i.e. Airmiles = CO2,MH4 and N2, Fertilzer = ???
and so on.
The information is already in the Calculator, in the sheets S_CO2, S_CH4, and S_N20. Or if you are looking for the emissions rates for each individual activity (i.e. CO2 per air mile or per lb of fertilizer, the answer is on the EF sheets that correspond to the relevant input section (so for fertilizers it would be EF_Agriculture, etc.)
Have any other colleges you have worked with been located in Cities also
conducting inventories. If so, do you think it may be a problem using 2 different software systems?
Increasingly, yes, we have worked with schools in communities that have done inventories using ICLEI’s or others’ tools (we collaborate closely with ICLEI, and are working on bringing our tools in even closer alignment moving forward.) I don’t think this is a problem. It’s not ideal, but as long as the inventory reports are thorough and cite methodologies and emissions factors, the two inventories can still be taken in context and worked with.
I am working for a college in California in our first year of reporting to CCAR and
I wondered how your Campus Carbon Calculator complies. I have looked at the
Excel display of the calculator and it looks very automated, which is nice, but do
you know if the emission factors are the same ones that CCAR requires?
The short answer is that we have similar emissions factors to CCAR in some instances, different in others, and the Calculator also includes GHG sources that CCAR doesn't. However, my understanding regarding CCAR is that, like other programs based on the GHG Protocol, they do allow you to register emissions done with other calculation tools, and don't "require" emissions factors so much as sound, GHG Protocol-based methods for deriving emissions factors - which the Calculator has.
Did the CACP calculator go through a peer review process? I read on your web
page that was originally started by a class at Middlebury. How did you decide
that this was the calculator that you wanted to market?
Actually, while our online toolkit was largely inspired by earlier work at Middlebury, the Campus Carbon Calculator itself came out of a partnership with the University of New Hampshire in 2000 and 2001. A graduate student at UNH developed the Calculator, partly in order to complete that University's first ghg inventory, working under the auspices of Clean Air-Cool Planet, with the understanding that we could then offer it as a resource to other schools. Since that first version was completed in 2001, the Calculator has gone through four revisions, all based on feedback obtained from peer-review and use by (first) our partner campuses in the Northeast, and (then, over the past two years) hundreds of schools across the US and Canada. It has also been thoroughly reviewed by Julian Dautremont-Smith of AASHE, and is recommended in the implementation guide of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment them as the best, most vetted, most comprehensive tool of its kind for campus carbon accounting. We are constantly working to revise and improve it based on user feedback and evolving accounting standards (more on that below.)
What do you believe sets your calculator aside from the others available (such
as Penn State's, the World Research Institutes's, and Tuft's methods)?
I'm not really thinking about it as a competition, but I can tell you a little bit about the relationships between the Calculator and the other tools you mention. First off, we work very collaboratively with the World Resources Institute, and have participated in a process of joint review with them regarding our respective ghg accounting resources. We are in constant dialogue with them regarding best practice accounting standards and have worked very hard to try to ensure that our tool is in line with the guidance presented in their "Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard." We have done inventory training workshops with them on a number of occasions, in which we have endorsed the authority of the standards they've developed in the overall carbon marketplace, and they have endorsed our Calculator as a tool and our expertise as a resource that is more tailored to the unique campus environment than their tools are. Many of our users have found it convenient to have one tool that combines all of the likely sources of campus emissions into one workbook, which the WRI calculation tools do not. Which is not to say that one is better than the other - it just depends what you want. As far as the tools developed at Penn State and Tufts, they are both good tools. But they have not been subject to the same "road-testing" from a large number of different campuses, they have not undergone the same level of outside scrutiny, and they do not offer the same level of user support that we do for our tool. Plus, with so many schools using the CA-CP Calc, you get the benefit of knowing that your results are more likely to be comparable, methodologically speaking, to peer institutions than if you use one of these. (BTW, we have good relationships with both schools, and both have also used our tool at various times to measure their emissions.)
How did you choose the equations used to calculate GHG emissions equivalents?
I am sure that there must have been a high range and a low range for a lot of indicators, what methodology did you use for your calculations (IPCC guidelines? World Research Institute)?
Our methodology has always been based on the standards and guidance provided by the IPCC (if you look at the Calculator and User's Guide, it will point this out), and as noted over the past couple of years we've worked hard to incorporate any additional standards set out by the GHG Protocol Initiative as well. We continue to be in dialogue with the opinion-leaders, decision-makers and stakeholders within the carbon accounting industry to refine our methodologies as standards continue to evolve. It's not perfect (if such a thing exists on this front), but we are striving hard to remain educated, informed and responsive in regard to these issues and to incorporate "best practices" as they emerge.
Would you consider these scope III emissions?
No, they're actually Scope 1, if they're the institution's property.
I was planning on recommending a baseline inventory for the most recent year
that data is available & then recommending a schedule for regular inventories.
Can the CA-CP software be used for baseline inventory, rather than for going
all the way back to 1990?
Yes, the CA-CP calculator can go back as far as 1990, but it certainly doesn’t have to. It will simply calculate results for any data that you enter; drawing boundaries is ultimately up to the user.
The calculator has slots for data going back to 1990. Do all the back years need
to be populated for the calculator to work or can we just enter data for the current year? We haven’t gotten very far along yet, but some of our folks are a little
scared that they will have to dig back 10 years for data. The instruction mention
that a few good years is better than bad data going back to 1990, but I couldn’t
find how many years were needed for the program to run correctly.
It will just calculate emissions for any activity data you enter, so if you only have one year, or one source, it will still give you a total. (In other words, there is no minimum.)
For the operating and energy budget numbers does the toolkit require the
budgeted amount or the amount actually expensed for a specific year? I realize
it does say budget, but I just wanted to confirm as we often exceeded our
budgeted amount etc.
It’s really looking for what you spent…
What is meant by "Research Dollars" in the budget section?
"Research Dollars" is simply the amount of money your institution receives in research grants from external sources. It is a convenient measure to use in showing your school's emissions, especially when institutions have operating budgets highly dependent on research grants.
Is electricity use tracked on a calendar year basis, or fiscal year basis?
Your campus energy office may keep this data on a month to month basis, or over the period of a fiscal year. Use the fiscal year period for this data.
Is the energy budget comprised of both electricity and natural gas?
Yes.
I hit a little snag with one aspect of the "Direct Emissions" calculator, specifically
with emissions factor for natural gas. For one of our campuses, they gave us natural gas in gallons but when I look at the emissions factor tab on the calculator, I'm only given the option to choose therms or cubic feet.
It's actually unusual for natural gas to be measured in gallons since it's not generally a liquid fuel - so I'd just double check that the data they're giving you is correct, first. That said, if you look at the "conversion factors" tab (right-most tab) in the direct emissions spreadsheet, you'll see that there are volume conversions available for going to/from gallons, cubic meters and cubic feet.
How do I change the graphing features to show the new data that has been
entered?
Actually, the graphing features should automatically show the new data. What happens is, as you change the input data, the result data automatically renews itself, and so do the graphs. If this is not the case, then check to see if you changed the source data used by the pre-configured excel charts. If you changed the source data for the charts, or edited their format in certain ways, you will need to reformat the source data by right clicking over the graph and re-referencing the data from which each graph originates.
How can I import the graphs into my document, is there some way to copy/paste
or save as?
If you unprotect the graph sheets, you should be able to copy and paste them.
You get the message: “The cell or chart you are trying to change is protected and therefore read only.”
In order to reduce accidental changes to the spreadsheets, they have all been ‘protected’ against change (except the input cells). If you are sure that you want to change a protected cell (or alter a graph), put the arrow over ‘Protection’ in the tools menu and choose ‘Unprotect Sheet.” Be sure to turn protection back on after you make the change to eliminate any accidental changes.
You See: “###” where you think there should be numbers
There is a number that is too big to fit within the column – make the column bigger by dragging one of its borders wider (at the top by the row of letters). You may need to disable protection (see above).
You see: labels on a graph are jumbled on top of one another and unreadable.
Double click slowly on the label that needs to be moved, when a box has appeared around it, drag it to the desired position. You may need to turn off protection (see above) to alter the graph.
You see: labels on graphs that do not apply to your institution:
You can simply click slowly on the label that does not apply (i.e. if your school has no animals) and press delete when the label is highlighted. This deletion is permanent, so be sure the label is not needed.
How do I enter multiple fertilizers with different concentrations of nitrogen in the calculator (v5)? I don't know how to enter it, as there is only one box for fertilizer and %Nitrogen, but we have 4 different types.
You do a weighted average of the nitrogen content.
I'm still getting weird #value! after I customized our fuel mix in the summary
page ? Is it because I only customized 2007, and left the others blank?
If you’re calculating total emissions for other years but only have a custom fuel mix entered for 2007, the calculator will not know what to use as an emissions factor for electricity for those other years. So if it has the #value error for every year except 2007, that is why. If you mean that you entered custom fuel mix data for 2007 but you get the #value error for that year too – then I guess I need to take a look at the spreadsheet to figure out what’s going on.
The way our school is situated, it is about 4 miles to the nearest town, and there
is no public transportation running up near our campus. So, the University has a shuttle system, which most of the faculty/staff/students use. There is no spot
on the commuter input worksheet to account for a shuttle service. Would this
fall under the University fleet worksheet? Is that were these carbon emissions
would be accounted for? Also, in terms of getting a sense of how far people are traveling, I'm only getting distance data from those faculty/staff members that
drive to work...is this ok? Our University shuttles only run from two different places...so people either bus to the shuttle stop or walk there.
Yes, the shuttles would fall under the university fleet designation, and yes, it’s fine to just look at driving distance, since the only other commuting transport mechanisms are those shuttles that you will be accounting for as part of the fleet.
A refrigerant my school uses is not listed in the calculator. Where can I find the appropriate GWP value?
Some of the most common values can be found on the IPCC website at http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc/emission/123.htm and if you do not see your specific refrigerant in that list, then a good Google should do the trick.
I need to add refrigerants that aren't on the list, but Excel keeps on telling me
that the worksheet is locked. Do you know how to fix this?
Refrigerants: go to Tools -> Protection -> Unprotect sheet.
What are these refrigeration values? Are they the total amounts used on campus
or the amount lost through use?
You are trying to capture fugitive emissions from the use of these chemicals, so you're basically looking at what gets refilled.
We are a rather small tribal college without a walk-in freezer, but we do have
several soda machines and refrigerators. How do you suggest we incorporate
those items into the green house gas inventory model? Are they already
accounted for in the electricity usage section?
Some campuses will have chillers or lab equipment that leaks refrigerants or other chemicals. They will know because a facilities person will have to refill the refrigerant from time to time. It sounds as though this doesn't apply in your case, however (or if it does, it is in quantities so small as to be virtually inconsequential.) You're correct, the power for the refrigerator, soda machine, etc. is all electric and so already captured elsewhere. So you should be good to go...
My school leaked 400 lbs. of HCFC-123 over the past year. I tried inputing this
into the calculator, but that particular gas is not present as any default option
nor as an "other" option. And despite a mouse over text box that says to "click
on the link at the bottom of the column" to add the chemical to the list, there is
no chemical. Please advise,
If you go to http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc/emission/123.htm you will see listings for the Global Warming Potentials for many refrigerants and chemicals. The GWP is all you need. For HCFC-123 it lists a GWP of 93. So what you can do is enter your 400 lbs in the "Other" column, and then go to the worksheet labeled "EF_Refrigerants." In column K, which will be under the heading "Other" (or "HCFC 123" if you changed the heading on the input sheet; recommended, so future users will understand what numbers have been entered), and will be labeled GWP, enter the GWP of "93" in K9-K39. (You may have to unprotect this sheet before you can enter anything - go to "Tools" and then "Protection" and select "Unprotect sheet.") Once you've entered the GWP only - do nothing with column L, it should be calculated automatically - emissions from the HCFC-123 should be included in your refrigerant total.
We only report releases/losses of refrigerants, correct?
You are absolutely correct; you are only measuring “fugitive” emissions of refrigerants – which essentially means you’re reporting quantities of refrigerant that had to be refilled. These usually end up being inconsistent from year to year, and a relatively small portion of your overall GHG emissions.
Our college owns about 10 houses off campus for various visiting faculty
members to live in. Should this space, including electric and oil costs (which
we pay for), be counted as part of our footprint, or would that be the individual footprint of the faculty members since it is off campus?
The answer to your question depends on how you are drawing your boundaries.
There are two basic ways to approach setting those types of "geographical" parameters, called organizational boundaries: ownership, or control. The rules of thumb in selecting which to go with are generally 1) to choose those which give you the most comprehensive and actionable results possible, and 2) to be consistent throughout the inventory process in applying them.
So for example, at Clean Air-Cool Planet, we lease the office space we occupy. If we were to draw boundaries based on the "ownership" model, therefore, we would have very little included in our inventory. Since we want results that are honest, comprehensive and actionable, we thus draw our boundaries based on "control." Which means that we are looking for all direct and indirect emissions associated with the spaces that we, operationally speaking, control.
Another type of entity might be in a different situation; it might be more transparent and complete to take an "ownership" approach. The key is to then be consistent in applying those boundaries - which means to some degree having to make choices based on the availability of data (i.e., if you want to choose the ownership approach and include the faculty/student housing, is it going to be feasible for you to get access to energy consumption and other emissions data associated with those?) If the data can be made available, you should indeed include emissions from these facilities, note explicitly in your report that you did so, and make sure you're counting them in your total square footage as well.
In the total building space calculation should I include the research building
space as well?
Yes, do include research space in the total.
What is the definition that is being used for research space? As I am sure is true
at most universities, we have some buildings that conduct research as well as academic teaching etc. Is there a certain percentage of the space that should be dedicated to research in order to consider it a “research space”?
Research space basically refers to lab spaces or other areas where energy- or emissions-intensive work might be going on.
In the "Physical Size" section of the input worksheet, what is meant by, "Total
Building Space" and "Total Research Space"?
Typically campus planners/development officers will keep records of square foot space which may include many details you would not normally consider in assessing building space, such as wall, stair and window space. We recommend using gross square foot data here. Your institution may also own facilities off campus which it maintains. In general, you should include data for as many institutional facilities as possible. However, if your institution is renting out building space, include this gross square footage only if your institution is paying the utility bills. FYI, building space is meant to be tracked on the basis of fiscal years.
Our big issue right now is how to handle our 26,000 acres of forest land. What
are other schools with large land holdings doing with that component?
There is a huge amount of variation in how schools are handling this, largely because there is some controversy as to whether measuring and reporting it as a sink gives a false impression regarding a school's carbon footprint (that it is lower than it is.) The reported emissions should really just be anthropogenic.
On the other hand, many want to calculate their land-based "sunk" carbon as a tool in being able to communicate the value of keeping campus land holdings undeveloped.
The Calculator gives you a space to note it, but it doesn't actually help you measure it, as you've probably noted.
In many cases, only reforestation projects are reported as part of the actual inventory. And most have not included land-related carbon sinks in their first go-round unless there has already been some previous work trying to calculate the associated carbon sink of forest lands.
Our school contracts with Sodexho to supply food service and work in the
Physical Plant Department. Should these Sodexho employees be included in the number of staff on campus?
The answer to your question is yes, do count the Sodexho employees.
Should we include casual and temporary employment for faculty and staff?
Only if it is a substantial proportion of your overall staffing.
Our campus cogenerates its steam using natural gas and wood chips. Our director
of plant energy doesn't seem to think we have any sort of measurement as to the
total amount of steam produced, we only know how much wood chips or nat. gas
it took. Is it necessary to know the amount of steam produced if we are already accounting for the nat. gas and wood chips consumed?
You do not need to know the amount of steam produced to determine your total emissions, but IF your plant does cogeneration, it may very well be important information if you want to be able to determine appropriate "distribution" of your emissions between thermal load vs. power load.
There has been some discussion in our steering meetings regarding commuter
travel. Some of our stakeholders have suggested that we need to include student travel from home to campus (meaning if they live in a different part of the state
and make a long trip once at the beginning of the semester and once at the end)
or personal travel from campus to home. I have looked through the files, calculator,
and user's guide and cannot find a clarification on this. Before we
continue we'd like to have an "official ruling" if you will.
Typically, schools do not count the type of travel you are talking about in their inventories.
I tried to input my commuter data but it reads do not enter here. As a result of
how I calculated the data, I came up with a number of miles traveled per year.
Will it mess up my calculation if I insert my mileage calculation directly into
the input sheet instead of the commuter input sheet?
You should be able to enter the mileage total into the input sheet without screwing anything up.
We are forming a survey to send out to our faculty and staff about their
commuter habits. I know that the guide for the calculator provides some
reasoning on why the two are divided, but the 2 faculty members here I am
working with on this survey seem to think it's unnecessary and makes things
more confusing. What is your take on this? Would it be awful to just get all the
data and place it into one input section? What were the definitions on the two
that were used on the calculator?
All that commuter input sheet is trying to do is offer one potential model for getting to quantities of fuel consumed per category of commuter. To do that, it tries to get at total miles (or passenger miles) traveled and then uses default national fuel efficiency averages. If you've come up with a different way to get to total miles for each group of commuters (and/or each mode of travel), my advice would be to just ignore all of the columns except for the ones that say "Distance" for each relevant mode of travel and commuter category. If you have a customized spreadsheet that gets at Distance in a different manner, all you have to do is link the totals in your spreadsheet to the relevant "Distance" columns (e.g., K, R, Y, AG, AQ, etc.) on the "Input_Commuter" sheet in the Calculator, replacing the formulas that are in those cells currently.
As to the second problem of wanting to be able to break the categories of "faculty" "staff" or "students" into subcategories, the easiest thing would probably be (again) to total all of the miles and link them to the appropriate Distance columns in each category (allowing calculation of the total emissions for faculty/staff commuters and student commuters) and then use your data to determine what percentage of those total emissions to allocate to each subcategory.
In other words, copy your subcategorized spreadsheet/s into the Calculator; do as suggested above, linking a total of miles or passenger miles ("Distance") for each category of commuter and relevant mode of travel listed on the "Input_Commuter" sheet; add a field to your spreadsheet calculating what percentage of the Distance that each subcategory contributes to its category (i.e. faculty/staff, students); then add a field or fields (depending on if you want to look just at eCO2 or at individual GHGs as well) that multiply those percentages by the total emissions to get a number for each.
I've been contemplating on doing a survey for faculty and staff (since very few students commute) and I was wondering if you had advice on how to go about it. Also- for trips/day, etc...is that a raw number or an average?
Yes, all of the commuter data inputs will be averages.
As for a faculty/staff survey, you might work with the school's HR or business services department to see what existing mechanisms there are to get info to/from staff and faculty in an efficient manner (it might be hard copies in faculty mailboxes; survey monkey and an email distributed via intranet or sent from someone in the administration; etc, etc.) If nothing else you could distribute through the various staff offices and faculty departments, but HR might have a better (easier, simpler) idea. Or you might get some input from staff or faculty allies as to the best distribution channels.
As for the survey itself, I would make a point of explaining clearly and succinctly why you are asking, and then make the survey itself QUICK and easy. I'd be happy to look over any survey you develop and offer comments before you distribute, if that would be useful. You want to ask about mode of travel, frequency of travel, length of trip. You might also ask about fuel economy of vehicles, and/or whether there are any incentives (or disincentives) that would make it more likely folks would carpool, use public transport, or take other measures (relevant to your campus and community) to reduce their commute-related fuel consumption.
We are having difficulties estimating the frequency of students/faculty trip back
and forth to campus how do advise us to proceed on these two issues?
In terms of commuter habits, the ideal thing would be to do a survey. If you have a parking or transportation office on campus, you might consider working with them (if you're not already); they may have already done some modeling around how often folks are coming to/from campus.
Indications on the user's guide suggest that the miles/trip for commuting data is for ROUND TRIP miles. Do we understand correctly?
Yes, the Calculator is looking for round trip commuter miles.
I wasn’t sure if anyone has run into a similar problem that I am having collecting transportation data for my university. I know that I am going to have to separate
the Gasoline Fleet and the Diesel Fleet but I am having trouble finding the cost per unit. I know that the cost per unit will eventually tell me how many gallons were of
each but I was wondering what resource I can use to find out how much gas and
diesel fuel were using not just how much it costs the university. Also with Air
travel, I was planning on putting that under Diesel fleet but this time I only
know how much was given for the trip and where the trip was taken to.
You can find a resource that will allow you to come up with a defensible price per gallon (of gasoline and diesel) here: http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_pri_gnd_a_epmr_pte_cpgal_w.htm. As you noted, dividing the total of what was spent by the prices should give you a number of gallons.
Air travel has a separate category (not diesel) on the input sheet (unless your school has an aviation program and you are talking about flights in university-owned aircraft?) You could use a site like this one (http://www.airtimetable.com/Air_mile_calculator.htm), for example, to use the information you have regarding destinations to come up with a number of air miles traveled, which is what the Calculator asks for.
In the campus calculator, under "offsets," composting was one of the categories.
We were a bit confused about this and wanted to inquire about how exactly composting works to offset carbon. Does this have to do mostly with eliminating
the need for landfill space and transportation of trash?
Composting does divert organic waste from the landfill which potentially avoids methane, but the calculation the tool does looks at the potential of composting to actually sequester GHGs in the compost/soil. That said, the totals are not subtracted from your scope 1, 2 or 3 or total emissions; it’s just in there as a nice-to-know.
From quickly scanning the description only, it appears that there is not a way
to include water-pumping related electricity (GHG due to water use). Have other campuses included this- it’s such a large contributor to emissions….
Hmm, electricity from water-pumping is a new question. If it’s done on-site, it will be captured in the institution’s overall electricity-related GHGs. If it’s done off-site, there isn’t a place specifically allocated to enter that info, but the GHGs from such could easily be calculated and noted if you had access to that information from your utility/provider.
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