Since this credit is intended to recognize institutions that are actively supporting the development and use of clean and renewable energy, neither the electric grid mix for the region in which the institution is located nor the grid mix reported by the electric utility that serves the institution (i.e., the utility’s standard or default product) count for this credit.
The following renewable systems are eligible for this credit:
Concentrated solar thermal
Geothermal systems that generate electricity
Low-impact hydroelectric power
Solar photovoltaic
Wave and tidal power
Wind
Biofuels from the following sources are eligible:
Agricultural crops
Agricultural waste
Animal waste
Landfill gas
Untreated wood waste
Other organic waste
Technologies that reduce the amount of energy used but do not generate renewable energy do not count for this credit (e.g., daylighting, passive solar design, ground-source heat pumps). The benefits of such strategies, as well as the improved efficiencies achieved through using cogeneration technologies, are captured by the Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Building Energy Consumption credits.
Transportation fuels, which are covered by the Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Campus Fleet credits, are not included.
This metric is looking for the percentage of electricity used by the institution that is generated from other sources:
For Wikirate researchers:
Institutions who report to the STARS program are listed on the STARS Participants & Reports website.
Use the institution Index, CTRL F, or Command F to search for the institution you want to research
By clicking on the hyperlinked name of the institution, you will be redirected to the page where all their STARS reports are listed. You can select either the most recent report, or one of the older reports to start tracking their performance over time.
NB: While the values in the reports might apply to different points in time (performance year, baseline year, most recent, etc.), the submission date of the report should be listed as the “year” on Wikirate. This is to ensure that reports of the same submission year can be compared. Any time specific information for the individual values should be included in the comment to that specific metric value.
To narrow down your search, navigate the reports’ index using the Reporting Category - Institutional Characteristics - and Credit Category - Institutional Characteristics - to finally select the Credit Title: Operational Characteristics.
You should now be on the report page that discloses the percentage of electricity used by the institution that is generated from other sources. To locate the exact value you can search the page using CTRL F or Command F with keywords like energy source and other sources.
Always check the metric question and methodology for the unit of measure or currency - researchers may need to carry out calculations or conversions before entering the final metric value
Add comments to include details of simple or complex calculations or conversions made to determine the metric value and document any relevant contextual information, like:
A description of the other sources of electricity
Further guidance on how to research values is available here, including detailed guidance on adding, editing and checking metric values.
STARS compliance guidance for institutions:
Timeframe
Institutions should report the most recent data available from within the three years prior to the anticipated date of submission. Institutions may choose the annual start and end dates that work best with the data they have (e.g., fiscal or calendar year), as long as data are reported from a consecutive 12-month period.
Sampling and Data Standards
Report all on-site, stationary energy that was consumed by the institution (as the institution is defined in the overall STARS institutional boundary). Transportation fuels are excluded. Reporting on a sample or subset of energy generation and consumption is not allowed for this credit.
All reported energy figures should be based on site energy (the amount of energy consumed on campus) rather than source energy (the amount of energy consumed on campus plus the energy used off-site to generate and transport the energy to the institution).
Institutions that convert fuel on-site (e.g., on-campus cogeneration facilities and boilers) should report only the amount of fuel purchased/converted toward the total energy consumption figure, not the resulting heat, steam, hot/chilled water or electricity.
To aggregate energy consumption data from multiple sources, figures should be converted into MMBtu (one million British thermal units—a standard measure of energy) using the following equivalents:
—insert conversion table ——
A unit conversion tool that includes more detailed conversion factors (e.g., for liquid fuels) is available in the online STARS Reporting Tool (.xls)."