Carbon footprint assessment tool for universities: CO2UNV

Valls-Val, Karen; Bovea, Marı́a D.

doi:10.1016/j.spc.2021.11.020

Cited by 25 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…In some cases, they are very detailed studies, but pertaining to a single university, such as Abdelalim et al [ 22 ], which reported individual CFs for 42 buildings on the Carleton University campus in Canada. Globally, there are also few reviews of HEIs CFs, e.g., Helmers et al [ 23 ] and Valls-Val and Bovea [ 24 ] who studied and compared with corrections and amendments the CFs of 20 and 35 universities worldwide, respectively. At the Spanish level, there are several publications of articles about university CF in recent years, such as for the Polytechnic University of Valencia [ 14 ], the School of Forestry Engineering of the Polytechnic University of Madrid [ 25 ], the University of Castilla-La Mancha [ 26 ], the University of the Basque Country [ 27 ], the Miguel Hernández University of Elche [ 28 ], and the Jaime I University [ 24 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Globally, there are also few reviews of HEIs CFs, e.g., Helmers et al [ 23 ] and Valls-Val and Bovea [ 24 ] who studied and compared with corrections and amendments the CFs of 20 and 35 universities worldwide, respectively. At the Spanish level, there are several publications of articles about university CF in recent years, such as for the Polytechnic University of Valencia [ 14 ], the School of Forestry Engineering of the Polytechnic University of Madrid [ 25 ], the University of Castilla-La Mancha [ 26 ], the University of the Basque Country [ 27 ], the Miguel Hernández University of Elche [ 28 ], and the Jaime I University [ 24 ]. Prior to these, the literature review provides broader studies focused on the calculation of the so-called “Ecological Footprint” [ 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 ], which provides indicators aggregated into a single index, where the result is biased by the criteria applied in the evaluation [ 33 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In most of the cases universities use their own calculation methods and do not use specific tools, or if they use tools, there is no consensus on which one to use from the wide variety available [ 24 ], so comparisons with previous literature are limited [ 26 ]. Consequently, there appears a lack of standardization due to the use of different emission factors, as well as a lack of normalized results due to the selection of different functional units (students, employees, areas, budgets, etc.)…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

General Mapping of the Environmental Performance in Climate Change Mitigation of Spanish Universities through a Standardized Carbon Footprint Calculation Tool

Guerrero-Lucendo

García‐Orenes

Pedreño

et al. 2022

IJERPH

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Higher education institutions (HEIs) can be considered role models of small cities that contribute to the fight against climate change. Therefore, assessing their own carbon footprints (CFs) and drawing conclusions gives significance to this study. In this study, 77 CFs from 14 HEIs were obtained through a tool developed by the Spanish Government. They were analyzed along with different variables and recalculated using the same standardized activity ratios. As a result, a general mapping of the environmental performance in climate change mitigation of Spanish universities has been obtained. Although there is an overall decrease in total CF (72.7%), direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (Scope 1) remain stable, while the decrease is due to the reduction of emissions caused by electricity consumption (Scope 2) through the use electricity suppliers that guarantee the energy provided is generated from renewable sources. A lack of consensus in the definition of “student” and “employee”, used for the activity ratios, causes large variations in the relative CF values. For worldwide benchmarking of HEIs’ climate change performance, CF can be a valid indicator only if they: (1) include standardized Scope 1 and 2 emission sources, (2) use the same emission factors, and (3) calculate activity ratios from standardized functional units.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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General Mapping of the Environmental Performance in Climate Change Mitigation of Spanish Universities through a Standardized Carbon Footprint Calculation Tool

Guerrero-Lucendo

García‐Orenes

Pedreño

et al. 2022

IJERPH

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“…The tools. including the most significant emission sources of the universities, using Spanish emission factors, allowed users to introduce new emission sources, use their own emission factors, and calculate CO 2 absorptions from their own offset projects [31]. In particular, the research demonstrated that in the literature there were no findings on calculation tools able to consider Scopes 1, 2, and 3 and, consequently, the tools defined had been able to calculate the CF of universities, including all the emission sources that are characteristically found in education centers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How to Assess the Carbon Footprint of a Large University? The Case Study of University of Bologna’s Multicampus Organization

et al. 2022

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University campuses represent a heterogeneous ecosystem as to social, economic, energetic, and personal travel planning with a huge impact on hosting cities and territories. Sustainable policies are thus fundamental to reduce this impact and to adopt ecological behaviors. The measures for any University Sustainability Plan should be evaluated in terms of GHG emissions, as well as the overall impact of the university itself. Carbon footprint (CF) calculation is a relevant Decision Support tool that allows university organizations to measure and communicate the environmental effects of their activities. The aim of this paper is to present a carbon footprint methodology specifically designed to calculate the carbon footprint of large universities. The methodology was applied to calculate the CF of the University of Bologna by following international standards—i.e., the GHG protocol, the ISO 14064, and the ISO/TR 14069 guide—to understand the environmental impact caused by greenhouse gas emissions from direct and indirect university activities. The study was conducted upon the data available in 2020 and then was compared to the 2018 data, with the aim to recognize if the effect of the pandemic could have altered the results. In 2020, the University of Bologna emitted 16,467 tCO2e which became 15,753 tCO2e considering the offset and avoided emission provided by the internal production of energy from renewable sources. Comparison between 2020 and 2018 shows how, in 2018, most of the emissions came from transportation, representing 74% of the total emissions, while in 2020 almost 50% of total emissions derived by IT procurements. The case application demonstrates the way with which the methodology may be applied to assess environmental impact for complex university campuses.

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“…Therefore these studies present methodologies that are not designed to estimate a comprehensive carbon footprint for a wide variety of research laboratories over multiple years. To the best of our knowledge, two softwares have been developed for assessments at the university level, but they do not specifically address research activities : SIMAP ® 1 and CO2UNV [Valls-Val and Bovea, 2022].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An open-source tool to assess the carbon footprint of research

Mariette

Blanchard

Berné

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Research institutions are bound to contribute to greenhouse gas emission (GHG) reduction efforts for several reasons. First, part of the scientific community’s research deals with climate change issues. Second, scientists contribute to students’ education : they must be consistent and role models. Third the literature on the carbon footprint of researchers points to the high level of some individual footprints. In a quest for consistency and role models, scientists, teams of scientists or universities have started to quantify their carbon footprints and debate on reduction options. Indeed, measuring the carbon footprint of research activities requires tools designed to tackle its specific features. In this paper, we present an open-source web application, GES 1point5, developed by an interdisciplinary team of scientists from several research labs in France. GES 1point5 is specifically designed to estimate the carbon footprint of research activities in France. It operates at the scale of research labs, i.e., laboratoires, which are the social structures around which research is organized in France and the smallest decision making entities in the French research system. The application allows French research labs to compute their own carbon footprint along a standardized, open protocol. The data collected in a rapidly growing network of labs will be used as part of the Labos 1point5 project to estimate France’s research carbon footprint. At the time of submitting this manuscript, 89 research labs had engaged with GES 1point5 to estimate their greenhouse gas emissions. We expect that an international adoption of GES 1point5 (adapted to fit domestic specifics) could contribute to establishing a global understanding of the drivers of the research carbon footprint worldwide and the levers to decrease it.Availability and implementationGES 1point5 is available online for French research labs at http://labos1point5.org/ges-1point5 and source code can be downloaded from the GitLab platform at https://framagit.org/labos1point5/l1p5-vuejs.

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Carbon footprint assessment tool for universities: CO2UNV

Cited by 25 publications

References 36 publications

General Mapping of the Environmental Performance in Climate Change Mitigation of Spanish Universities through a Standardized Carbon Footprint Calculation Tool

General Mapping of the Environmental Performance in Climate Change Mitigation of Spanish Universities through a Standardized Carbon Footprint Calculation Tool

How to Assess the Carbon Footprint of a Large University? The Case Study of University of Bologna’s Multicampus Organization

An open-source tool to assess the carbon footprint of research

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