Comparing total campus footprints is often more of an indicator of size than of environmental impact. Normalizing your results can facilitate comparisons with other campuses and help you understand how your institution may fit into the larger picture. Please note that normalization comparisons can still not be taken without some context, and a suite of comparison metrics is preferable to a single comparison metric. For example, normalizing your food footprint by the number of meals served helps explain your environmental impact per meal. However, campuses can differ for factors other than their food choices, such as the percent of students who eat on campus and the distribution of meal-serving locations (e.g., dining halls) and retail locations.
SIMAP currently supports the following normalizations, which can be applied on the Results tab:
Per operating dollar (research budget, energy budget, total budget)
This normalization divides your footprint by your operating dollars. There are further options to divide by your research budget, energy budget, and total budget. To view this normalization on the results page, you need to first enter your budget information on the budgets page.
Per gross square foot (research gross square foot, total gross square foot)
This normalization divides your footprint by your buliding square footage. There are further options to normalize by your research gross square footage and total square footage. To view this normalization on the results page, you need to first enter your square footage information on the physical spaces page.
Per population (full time equivalent students, full time equivalent staff, full time equivalent faculty, weighted users)
This normalization divides your footprint by your campus population. There are further options to normalize by your full time equivalent students and weighted campus users. To view this normalization on the results page, you need to first enter your population information on the populations page.
Climate (heating degree days, cooling degree days, total degree days)
Degree days are a useful metric that allow for heating and cooling energy consumption and emissions to be normalized over the weather data. Heating and cooling energy consumption with their associated emissions are assumed to be directly correlated to the prevailing weather. As such, improvements in building performance, changes in energy needs, and changes in heating and cooling emissions may be fairly evaluated with the weather in mind. More information on degree days.
Purchasing/other (meals served)
This normalization divides your footprint by the number of meals served. This is a useful normalization for comparing your campus' food footprint to other campuses. However, keep in mind that campuses serve different proportions of their food by meal (e.g., at dining halls) versus by purchase (e.g., at stores on campus). To view this normalization on the results page, you need to first enter your number of meals served on the populations page.