Background: The University of Talca (UT), since 2012, has been annually tracking the carbon footprint (CF) based on the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol for all its five campuses. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the trajectory for determining the CF on campuses and identify the stressors. Methods: GHG protocol separates emissions into three scopes—1) direct; 2) indirect; 3) other indirect emissions. This study reports the emissions on the Talca campuses that are related to Scopes 1 through 3. The data is closely studied to draw inferences on the factors most affecting CF and recommend improvements. Results: The estimation of the CF in Scope 1 and Scope 2 were 2 0.03 tCO2e and 0.25 tCO2e per person per year, respectively. Results show Scope 3, which measures indirect emissions generated by activities like transportation of people, produced the highest contribution of 0.41 tCO2e per person to the UT’s CF in 2016. Conclusions: The study strongly suggested that transportation of students and faculty to and from the campus is one of the main stressors. The study of the main campus of Talca to quantify the CF is of immense value to institutions of higher educations as it provides a guideline and a comparative metric for other institutions.

The carbon footprint (CF) evaluates the overall amount of greenhouse gas emissions and removals associated with a product or activity across its life cycle. Today, the CF assessment has the potential to be a key measurement for increasing sustainable agricultural production. In addition, the export-oriented fruit sector has been challenged to quantify and reduce their CF. Worldwide there are scant peer-review studies that examine the CF of stone fruits (Prunus genus). The scarcity is most evident in sweet cherries, which is the third most exported stone fruit in the world in terms of value (after almonds and peaches). Chile is the largest southern hemisphere producer and exporter of sweet cherry fruit. Within this context, the present study is one of the first assessments of the CF of conventional sweet cherry production. This work considers Chilean agricultural practices and identifies key influencing factors (hotspots). It takes into account the following agricultural inputs: mineral fertilizers, pesticides, diesel consumption for agricultural operations, machinery, and electricity for irrigation. The results indicate that the average CF of the Chilean sweet cherry production is 0.41 kg CO 2 -eq/kg of harvested fruit, with a 95% confidence interval between 0.36 and 0.47 kg CO 2 -eq/kg. This value is higher than those for other stone fruits reported by the literature. Diesel and fertilizers are the most important contributors to the CF of sweet cherry cultivation. Improvement scenarios are evaluated for the hotspots in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the production of this fruit. This study provides quantitative environmental criteria associated with global warming concerns to the stakeholders in the fruit sector and to the agricultural policymakers.

The use of Eucalyptus nitens has diversified the Chilean lumber industry in unprecedented ways. However, growth-induced strains cause splitting and warping. The objective of this investigation was to determine the effect of the heat treatment applied to logs of Eucalyptus nitens on the reduction of growth stresses and improvement of quality in sawn wood. Logs were extracted at different heights of the tree for 15-yr and 20yr-old tress. The sawmill process was allowed to obtain radial, mixed, and tangential plane pieces, at two thicknesses (25 and 50 mm). The evaluation of MC and warping was according to Chilean National Standards. The results obtained in this research suggest that by applying the heat treatment to Eucalyptus nitens logs, a significant reduction in growth strains can be achieved. Heat treatment also increased the quality of the pieces in terms of bow, crooking, and twisting. Therefore, there are substantial benefits of using heat treatments to reduce defects caused by growth strains and thus increase the quality of the wood and reduce its warp.

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Transport is one of the activities that generates the highest CO 2 eq emissions. In the particular case of Chile, it is the second economic activity that generates the greatest environmental impact. The safe and efficient transport of products in domestic and foreign markets is often carried out with the help of pallets made of various materials, such as wood or plastic, which goes hand in hand with different environmental performance in their production. That is why it is important to know the carbon footprint of these products. The objectives of this study are to compare the value of the carbon footprint generated by the local production of wooden and plastic pallets and to evaluate the variations in its quantification using different software. For this purpose, the Chilean market is taken as a reference. This study follows the main guidelines of ISO standards as a reference framework. The functional unit is 1 pallet produced and the system boundary is from cradle to gate. The results show that wood and plastic pallets have an average carbon footprint of 4,12 kg CO 2 eq and 38,85 kg CO 2 eq respectively. The difference between the two pallets is mainly due to the environmental load of the raw materials. The causes of the variation in the estimation of the carbon footprint with different software are specifically based on the databases with which they can work. The ratio of 1:9 between the carbon footprint of wooden pallets concerning plastic pallets provides important data for decision making.