Kansas Department of Transportation's Enterprise Energy and Carbon Accounting and Utility Usage Research Phase 1B: Embodied and Operational Energy and Carbon in Buildings and Vehicles

摘要

Many organizations have become concerned about the environmental impact of their facilities and operations. In order to lessen environmental impact, quantitative assessment of practice based on improvements from a baseline condition is needed. The Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) has determined that the establishment of a carbon footprint baseline for its building and vehicle fleets will aid in prioritizing limited renovation funds and purchasing decisions. The procedure for establishing the embodied and operational carbon footprint baseline for KDOT building utility use is documented. A methodology for estimating the energy and carbon emissions for building energy use with some unavailable data also was developed, and presented as tools (that are not attached to this report). While the Kansas State University report (K-TRAN: KSU-11-1) highlights the numbers of carbon emissions for buildings, this report from KU highlights three points: (1) the energy and carbon performance of KDOT buildings are much compared to the rest of the country (using the Energy Information Administration or EIA database), except for those buildings where laboratories are located; (2) the embodied carbon consumed by KDOT can be reduced using the table that this project develops; and (3) the energy and carbon performance from KDOT vehicles are generally acceptable, but the research team sees opportunities to correct the current trend of reliance on diesel (due to regional climate).