The natural gas data is from the 2018-2019 school year. From the graph above, we learn that the Main School Building produces the largest amount of emissions, around 55% of the total. The break up of emissions by building allows us to see where the majority of emissions are from, which allows us to take steps in order to make reductions.

Electricity

The chart above compares the greenhouse gas emissions produced from electricity and natural gas. However, Seattle City Light buys carbon offsets, so technically, electricity in Seattle is carbon neutral. For this reason the emissions from electricity is not included in the full inventory results. Although SCL is carbon neutral, it is still important to be aware of our electricity usage and make efforts to reduce our consumption because the creation of electricity still produces greenhouse gas emissions, even if SCL buys carbon offsets, and it is important to be a model to other schools to reduce their electricity consumption.

The SCL fuel mix to generate electricity is:

• Hydro: 88%

• Nuclear: 5%

• Wind: 4%

• Coal: 1%

• Natural Gas: 1%

• Biogas 1%

This is largely renewable energy, a much more sustainable fuel mix than many other US states. For example, Pennsylvania's fuel mix for electricity is made up of 35% nuclear energy, 32% coal, and 26% natural gas, and 3.81% renewable energy sources. If a school the size of NWS in Pennsylvania uses the same amount of natural gas as NWS, the emissions would be much larger because Seattle has over 90% renewable energy and Pennsylvania has only 3.8% (or 38.5% if you include nuclear energy).