Student Research
Michigan Athletics Scope 3 Analysis and NCAA Power 5 Landscape Assessment
As the University of Michigan and other universities set net zero goals, a key area of focus is integrating sustainability within athletics. College sports are evolving at an unprecedented pace, from conference realignments and expanded football playoffs to NIL deals and massive new broadcasting agreements. This accelerated growth will raise emissions, as a recent study suggests that some conference realignments could nearly double emissions in football, underscoring the importance of proactive sustainability measures. This report details the third iteration of a research project, sponsored by the Erb Institute at the University of Michigan, that aims to enhance sustainability within Michigan (U-M) Athletics.
The 2023-2024 project team consisted of five Erb undergraduate fellows: Ashley Dukellis, Natalie DeSarbo, Ella Simon, Rohan Shah and Andrew van Baal. Erb Fellows alumni CY Cheng and Zachary Marmet as well as Professor Sara Soderstrom served as advisors for these student leaders.
The previous 2022-2023 project team assessed Scope 1 and 2 emissions from the U-M Athletic Department, and in their final report, they identified which Scope 3 categories were material to U-M Athletics and outlined the data collection process for each category.
Leveraging the prior groundwork, this 2023-2024 project team carried out a Scope 3 emissions assessment for U-M Athletics and a landscape assessment of athletics sustainability initiatives within the broader Power 5 (Big 10, SEC, ACC, Big 12 and PAC-12) conferences.
The team estimated Scope 3 emissions from three categories—waste, business travel, and purchased goods and services—using the GHG Protocol. The data pointed to purchased goods and services as the largest emitter, followed by business travel and waste emissions. Discussions with key personnel, paired with our findings, underscored the need for better data management and tracking within these Scope 3 categories, establishing partnerships between U-M Athletics and external stakeholders to advance sustainability, and strengthened collaboration between the Office of Campus Sustainability and U-M Athletics.
The team conducted a landscape analysis of the universities within the Power 5 conferences over seven different categories:
- Are there university-wide sustainability goals?
- Is the university reporting to AASHE Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS)?
- Are there university-wide sustainability personnel?
- Are there athletic-department-specific sustainability goals?
- Are there university-wide GHG emissions data?
- Are there student-athlete or athletic-department-driven initiatives?
- Are there athletic department waste initiatives?
Each university was ranked from 0 to 3 for each category with category-specific targets, and earned a final averaged score of 0 to 3. This assessment indicated a need for U-M to align sustainability initiatives sponsored by U-M Athletics with those of key competitors (such as Ohio State University and the Big 10).
The team had two high-level recommendations for U-M. The first recommendation is to support a student-led, student-athlete/Erb Undergraduate Fellows student organization focused on advancing sustainability within U-M Athletics. The second is to create dedicated personnel within U-M Athletics to focus on department-level sustainability.
