Solid waste at Colby is collected every week. Each year, Colby produces about 0.34 tons of trash per community member (faculty, staff, and students).

Methods

This study compiled and analyzed 15 years of institutional emissions data obtained from the business office, physical plant department records, and outside contractors to assess the impact that Colby College has on global climate change. This audit incorporates the following emissions sectors:

• Purchased electricity:
  • kWh purchased each year
  • Emissions factor was adjusted during months of the green electricity contract.
• On-campus stationary sources
  • Residual (#5-6) and Distillate Oils (#1-4) bought to power the steam plant that heats the buildings
  • Divided into co-generation and non-cogeneration use, based on whether the oil was used to produce electricity in our co-generation plant
  • Propane purchased to heat construction projects
• Transportation
  • Gallons of gasoline and diesel used by the campus vehicle fleet
  • Estimates, based on a survey, of faculty, staff, and off-campus student commuting miles
• Solid waste
  • Tons of waste collected on campus, based on current amount of waste per building and adjusted to the buildings that were present each year
  • Landfilled waste, no methane recovery.
• Refrigerants
  • From reports of refrigerants replaced
  • Carbon dioxide equivalence factor found for each refrigerant
  
  Using software from Clean Air Cool Planet, we converted use and consumption figures for each sector into carbon dioxide equivalencies for each of the six anthropogenic greenhouse gasses.