A Technical Update on Environmental Reporting for the University of Michigan Ann Arbor Campus: The U-M Environmental Data Repository

Abstract

Environmental Reporting for University of Michigan Ann Arbor Campus: The U-M Environmental Data Repository (Report Number CSS05-11) resulted from a project conducted by Sarah Deslauriers, Colin McMillan and David Spitzley in 2005 in response to the Environmental Task Force Advisory Report (2004) urging the University to track and report environmental performance in a on-going and systematic basis. As a result, the Environmental Data Repository (EDR) was developed. It is a Microsoft Excel-based software program that facilitates data collection, computation and tracking of the eight key environmental performance indicators and more than 50 operational metrics recommended by the Advisory Report.

This UM environmental reporting is to be conducted annually to track the UM environmental performance over time. Such information can be distributed to the UM community to inform the University's daily decision-making processes and to demonstrate the University's commitment to sustainability issues. The project was resumed in May 2006 with the following goals:

1) Collect the same set of environmental-related data for calendar/fiscal year 2005 as was reported for 2004, so that data are consistent and can be compared with each other. 2) Review data collection sources. 3) Examine the applicability of EDR model to 2005 data, and update the model to accommodate changes in data sources and formats. 4) Explore the possibility of collecting additional environmental attributes from departments across the campus. 5) Develop factsheets to facilitate environmental performance communication among the UM populations, in order to make an impact in decision-making processes.

With support from operations departments across the campus, we were able to collect most of the necessary environmental data for calendar/fiscal year 2005.