Adams 12 Five Star Schools (Adams 12), serving Adams and Broomfield counties in Colorado, completed its first GHG inventory in 2017. The goals laid out in the Adams 12 Five Star Schools 2017-2020 Sustainability Management Plan, offer good guidance on where to begin addressing emissions reduction opportunities.

The GHG Inventory Brief provides a high-level overview of the GHG emissions resulting from school district operations during the 2017 calendar year. The GHG inventory includes the following emission sources: energy use in buildings, school district transportation activities, waste, wastewater production, refrigerants used for cooling buildings, and emissions occurring as a result of the consumption of food, paper, and fertilizer in school district operations. Additionally, opportunities to reduce the GHG emissions and overall environmental impact from school district operations are included in this report in order to help guide future sustainability planning efforts by Adams 12. 

The key findings include: 

• Total 2017 emissions from Adams 12 operations across 60 buildings (55 campuses and five support facilities) were 44,596 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (mt CO2 e). 
• Nearly half of all emissions (49 percent) were from the use of electricity in buildings, while natural gas used to heat the buildings accounted for nearly 18 percent of emissions. 
• The district avoided putting an additional 2,250 mt CO2 e into the atmosphere through the use and purchase of solar energy. Solar energy provided 10 percent of the electricity for the district in 2017, with rooftop solar providing 0.28 percent of electricity and the remainder coming from community solar subscriptions. 
• Through recycling, Adams 12 diverted 17 percent of total waste produced at the district, leading to lifetime GHG reductions of 1,746 mt CO2 e. 
• Emissions per student were 1.18 mt CO2 e/student in 2017. 
• Improving the energy efficiency for Adams 12 buildings offers a great opportunity for emissions reductions, as the majority of the district’s emissions (65 percent) come from building energy use. Improving the energy efficiency for Adams 12 buildings offers a great opportunity for emissions reductions, as the majority of the district’s emissions (65 percent) come from building energy use. 

The greatest opportunity for emissions reductions for Adams 12 comes from increasing building energy efficiency, procuring greater shares of electricity from renewable energy, improving the school district’s vehicle fleet efficiency, and making more sustainable purchasing decisions. The goals laid out in the Adams 12 Five Star Schools 2017-2020 Sustainability Management Plan, offer good guidance on where to begin addressing emissions reduction opportunities. 

During the 2016-2017 Fiscal Year, a Sustainability Planning Committee was convened to produce the first sustainability plan for Adams 12 Five Star Schools–the sixth largest school district in the state of Colorado. The committee was a diverse group of more than 30 Five Star employees and community members that met on multiple occasions to develop a sustainability vision statement, and set goals around the plan’s four focus areas: energy, water, waste and student and community engagement. The outcome of this undertaking, the sustainability management plan (SMP), will guide the Five Star District’s development and integration of sustainable practices into the district’s culture over the next three years. 

Check out the GHG Inventory and Sustainability Management Plan, below:

https://www.adams12.org/facilities/greenhouse-gas-inventory-brief

https://www.adams12.org/facilities/energy-and-sustainability