A list of major resources consumed by the university was developed and data collected for them. These included: office paper; fuels for the district heating plant; fuels used by the motor pool and support vehicles for grounds maintenance; purchased electrical power; and food & related supplies for campus dining services. In some cases, these data were provided for a series of years, permitting trends to be tracked and comparisons made with other factors (such as student enrollment or gross building sizes). Other data were only made available for one year. A summary of available data are presented in Table 1.

Office Paper
Data from Central Purchasing was provided for all office paper acquired and distributed to academic and administrative units across campus. This may be assumed to approach closely 100% of all office paper used during a fiscal year; small quantities may be acquired from off-campus vendors by individual units on an as-needed basis, and some privately-acquired paper may be brought to campus by faculty, staff, and students. For purposes of this study, only office paper acquired via Central Purchasing is calculated into the MFA.

Thirteen sizes, colors, and fiber-content categories of office paper were reported as acquired by Central Purchasing during FY 2002-2003, totaling 95,973 reams of paper, a 10.7% increase over the previous year. 77.6% of this total was for one category of paper – 8.5” x 11” white multi-purpose paper with no recycled fiber content (16.6% of the total was in one of eight categories of paper with some recycled content). A sampling of paper reams and their cardboard cartons was weighed; it was found that 0.05 lbs./ream is in the form of outer wrapping, that an empty box with lid weighs 1.05 lbs., and that a box with 10 reams non-recycled content weighs 52.05 lbs. (51.85 lbs. for 30% recycled content). On this basis, it is estimated that the university had a material input of office paper totaling 245.5 short tons plus 5.1 short tons of associated cardboard boxes for FY 2002-2003.

Data were supplied by International Paper, the sole distributor of office paper to Ball State University, to estimate the “upstream” environmental impacts associated with the paper consumed in one year. Impacts are identified for the following: number of trees cut; Btus of biofuels and other fuels; chemicals, fillers, water, and toxins released; CO2 and SO2 emitted to the atmosphere; and solid waste generated. These data are summarized in Table 2. No estimates were made for fuels consumed in shipping and delivery, as records of shipments received were unavailable. Disposal of paper – either via recycling, landfilling, long term storage (on- or off-campus) – has not been fully analyzed due to inadequacy of data. A survey was conducted of paper use behavior by office administrators, faculty, and a sampling of students, but results did not yield reliable data to assess the downstream effects of office paper flows.

Table 2. Material Inputs and Environmental Impacts for Office Paper

Fuels for Heating the Campus
The campus utilizes a district heating plant that supplies low-pressure steam through a labyrinth of tunnels that crisscross the campus to provide heating to almost all buildings on campus (a residential apartment complex and the facilities management complex are not included due to their remove from the main campus). Additionally, steam is sold to a regional hospital located across the street from the district heating plant; data were not available to estimate what percentage of total steam is distributed off-campus. In aggregate, the district heating plant is the single largest emitter of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in Delaware County, Indiana.
The chief fuel used to produce steam for district heating at Ball State University is bituminous coal from southern Indiana; supplemental fuels include natural gas and a very limited amount of fuel oil. Records were provided for thirteen years, beginning with FY 1991-1992. For purposes of comparison with other resource flows, data for FY 2002-2003 are considered in this analysis.
Approximately 29,188 short tons of coal generated 683,000 MBtu of steam, while 231 Mcf of natural gas generated 231,000 MBtu of steam. 1,206 barrels of fuel oil generated 0.07 MBtu of steam. Using a calculator developed at Pennsylvania State University to estimate GHGs (Steuer, 2004), these fuel inputs resulted in a net output of 67,358 metric tons of CO2 equivalent (MTCO2E). Data were unavailable to estimate the motor fuels consumed to transport coal and fuel oil to campus and their associated emissions or other environmental impacts.

Electricity
Ball State University purchases its electrical power from Indiana-Michigan Power, a division of American Electric Power. Although the AEP system is diversified in its production of electricity, more than 98% of electricity generated and consumed in Indiana is produced using coal. For this analysis, inputs of coal were assumed to account for 100% of the generation of electricity consumed on campus. Although data were available for thirteen fiscal years, beginning with FY 1991-1992; for purposes of comparison with other resource flows, data for FY 2002-2003 are considered in this analysis. Data provided for FY 2002-2003 were reported as 341,000 MBtu; using a conversion factor of 3,416 Btu/KWh, this suggests that Ball State University consumed 99,824,356 KWh. Using the Penn State calculator (Steuer, 2004), this represents an estimated 167,291 MTCO2E in GHGs.

Motor Fuels
Data for motor fuels was supplied by Transportation Office for five fiscal years, beginning with FY 2000-2001; for purposes of comparison with other resource flows, data for FY 2002-2003 are considered in this analysis. In that year, 155,918 gallons of unleaded gasoline and 36,067.5 gallons of diesel fuel were consumed. Beginning in February, 2003, all diesel fuel was a 20% blend of biodiesel; however, differences in GHG emissions between diesel and biodiesel were not known and thereby the two fuels are treated the same for GHGs using the Penn State calculator (Steuer, 2004). On this basis, it is estimated that GHGs emitted due to motor fuels totaled 1,531 MTCO2E during FY 2002-2003.
The total movement of private vehicles – used by faculty, staff, and students, plus those of visitors and delivery/maintenance vendors – that go onto and off campus in the business of the university’s operations is not known. Clearly it may be assumed that the emissions and other impacts of this transportation are significant. Currently, studies are being developed to estimate these impacts.

Food & Beverages
The last category of resource flows is represented by the throughputs of food, beverages, and associated materials purchased by Dining Services. Data were supplied for FY 2003-2004 only; therefore, this analysis is not directly comparable with data for other resources reported above.
Data for food and other products were reported for a wide range of materials, including paper & plastic ware (plates, cups, flatware), cleaning supplies, and office supplies; the data were supplied in the form of monetary value of purchases ($). Using the Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment (EIOLCA) model developed by the Carnegie Mellon University Green Design Initiative (2005), these values in dollars were used to calculate the following upstream impacts: electricity; energy & fuels; conventional pollutants; fatalities; GHGs; ores; hazardous wastes generated and toxins released; and water consumed. The EIOLCA model uses producer’s costs rather than purchaser’s costs; therefore, data supplied by Dining Services were multiplied by a factor of 55% to estimate producer’s costs. Data are summarized in Table 3.
Comparing the emissions of GHGs with other resources reported above, it is seen that the generation of materials consumed in the provision of food and beverages in the Residence Halls amounts to 3,518 MTCO2E for FY 2003-2004. Although not directly comparable with other resources analyzed, this amount is approximately double the impacts generated from motor fuels used in the campus fleet. Currently, data are unavailable to estimate transportation impacts associated with delivery of these supplies to campus, as are data to estimate impacts associated with disposal of food waste. These wastes are not composted and only a limited amount of paper and plastic wastes are recycled; it may be assumed that all food waste is therefore hauled to landfill.