ANN ARBOR, MI – Ann Arbor Public Schools is the first school district in Michigan to release a report quantifying the direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions the district produces, according to Emile Lauzzana, the district’s executive director of environmental sustainability.
AAPS released the report Tuesday, June 27, documenting 13 years of utility data for electricity, natural gas, water and other sources of carbon emissions and carbon removal among its 3.5 million square feet of property.
Tracking Scope 1 emissions of natural gas, diesel, gasoline and site carbon offsets; Scope 2 emissions of electricity; and Scope 3 emissions of water, AAPS has seen a 10% reduction in total emissions since 2010, according to the report.
In 2022, greenhouse gas emissions sources in the district were 57% from electricity, 39% from natural gas, 4% from diesel fuel and less than 1% from water and gasoline, according to the report. During that time, the more than 700 acres the district owns and maintains removed 2,200 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere – equivalent to 6% of the district total emissions during the 2021-22 school year, the report states.
In total, AAPS emitted the equivalent of 32,018 metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2021-22, which is more than a 10% reduction from the 35,630 metric tons it emitted in 2010, the baseline year of the study, the report states, adding the district saw its lowest total greenhouse gas emissions during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, when AAPS emitted 20,848 metric tons of carbon dioxide.
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There was a slight uptick in carbon emissions last school year as the district began to have more regular in-person classes after the pandemic, Lauzzana said. Additionally, he attributed the increase to buildings’ more heavy reliance on ventilation to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
Documenting greenhouse gas emissions in the district is a step forward in measuring progress toward achieving its carbon emissions goals, Lauzzana said.
“You can’t fix what you can’t measure,” Lauzzana said. “Knowing what our baseline is and what our current carbon emissions are will help us to meet the carbon neutrality goals in the environmental sustainability framework that the board adopted.”
The report is part of the district’s Environmental Sustainability Framework adopted by the Ann Arbor School Board in December 2022 and is organized into three sections — responsible operations, maintenance and construction; environmental education and climate literacy; and healthy and sustainable school campuses.
Like the environmental sustainability plans of the city of Ann Arbor and University of Michigan, AAPS’ framework provides target dates to eliminate greenhouse gasses, as follows:
- Eliminate Scope I (direct) emissions by 2035
- Eliminate Scope II (indirect, purchased electricity for own use) emissions by 2024
- In 2023-24, develop purchasing and construction guidelines that reflect the district’s commitments to reducing scope III (indirect, production of purchased materials) emissions and begin piloting the new guidelines in 2024.
It’s encouraging to see that AAPS has reduced its emissions since the baseline year of the study, considering that the district has seen a small increase in both its overall square footage and in enrollment since 2010, Lauzzana said.
“Even with growth, we’ve been able to reduce our emissions,” Lauzzana said. “I would attribute a lot of that to installing more efficient lighting systems and updating some of our heating and cooling systems with more efficient equipment.”
Detailed reports on each of the school district’s buildings also provide some illuminate data, Lauzzana said. At Thurston Elementary School, for example, the site’s abundance of natural woods and water helps it offset as much carbon as the school building emits, essentially making the school carbon neutral.
A big part of the district’s efforts to be more environmentally sustainable has been its concentration on installing solar and geothermal power at some of its buildings via funds from its 2019 $1 billion capital bond.
In 2021-22, solar energy produced by AAPS avoided 367 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, accounting for 1% of the district’s total emissions. By the end of the 2023-24 school year, that figure is expected to grow to 6%, the district noted.
“With the addition of solar, we can head in the direction of carbon neutrality a lot easier at those sites, than if we continue to rely on natural gas,” Lauzzana said. “It helps us quantify the emissions associated with burning natural gas and the extent to which we can offset that with clean, renewable electricity.”
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