Willamette’s Footprint: Natural Gas
Natural Gas at Willamette
The Heat’s On: Willamette’s Heating System
92.87% of Willamette’s interior space (1,140,789 ft2 of a the total campus building area of 1,228,374 ft2) is heated by a network of natural gas burning boilers. (Buildings not heated by natural gas are the Atkinson Graduate School of Management, Collins Science Center, the Executive Building, and the Roy S. “Spec” Keene Stadium). Considering natural gas’s position as the dominant campus heating fuel, this analysis will focus on its use and impacts.
Willamette’s heating system is characterized by a large central boiler, which provides low-pressure steam to the following buildings/complexes:
- Matthews Hall/Belknap Hall
- Smullin Hall/Walton Hall
- Kresge Theater
- The Mary Stuart Rogers Music Center (Boiler Picture)
- Smith Auditorium
- Doney Hall
- Lausanne Hall
- The Mark O. Hatfield Library
- Lestle J. Sparks Center
- Eaton Hall
- Waller Hall
The remainder of campus is serviced by building specific heating plants or shared boilers.
Turning Up the Heat: Calculating the Footprint of Heating Consumption
Natural gas consumption is measured in therms. One therm is roughly 1000 BTUs or “approximately the energy equivalent of burning 100 cubic feet of natural gas at standard temperature and pressure.” For more information on therms as a unit of measure, please see wikipedia.
Aggregate natural gas consumption (in therms) is compiled by the Willamette physical plant.
Each therm of natural gas generates 11.71 lbs. of CO2 (see the Bonneville Environmental Foundation’s “Carbon Calculator” for details).
Average U.S. forest sequesters 6,684.5 lbs. CO2/acre/year (see the Willamette University Ecological Footprint prepared by Prof. Sivers-Boyce’s Environmental Economics class – link to footprint text document – )
From this series of conversions, natural gas impact can be measured by the amount of forestland required to sequester the CO2 generated by Willamette natural gas boilers.
Checking the Thermostat: Graphing Willamette’s Natural Gas Consumption
The following graphs plot Willamette’s natural gas consumption and expenditures over the past five academic years.
Projected over the 1,140,789 ft2 of campus building space heated by natural gas, in the 2004/2005 academic year, Willamette spent $0.47/ft2, consuming 0.57 therms/ft2.
Willamette’s natural gas consumption in 2004/2005 contributed 7,590,890.40 lbs. of CO2 to the atmosphere (or 20.61 lbs. of CO2/ft2).
Using the average U.S. forest sequestration rate of 6,684.5 lbs. CO2/acre/year, it would take 1,135.596 acres to absorb the impact of Willamette’s natural gas consumption. This calculates to roughly .0001 acre/ft2 of heated campus space.
Consumption and expenditure data were provided by the Willamette University Physical Plant.