The carbon footprint of a public university campus in Mexico City

Mendoza-Flores, Rubén; Quintero-Ramírez, Rodolfo; Ortíz, Irmene

doi:10.1080/17583004.2019.1642042

Cited by 40 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…This order of magnitude has been confirmed by earlier studies: for example, the carbon emissions per staff and student amounted to around 1-3 Mt CO 2 /capita and year among 20 British HEIs, with an upward trend between 2005/06 and 2009/10 [21]. In a recent review, Mendoza-Flores et al [40] reported 0.29-6.51 (average: 1.80) Mt CO 2 /capita and year among 15 universities worldwide covering the years 2007-2017, however, that is without the corrections and amendments, we are applying in this study. Li et al [30] published unusually high CF numbers in terms of Mt CO 2 e/person and year, ranging from 3.84 (China) to 7-10 (Japan, Europe), arriving at 20 Mt CO 2 e/ person and year in USA, which cannot be explained by the fact that they related the CF to students alone.…”

Section: Resulting University Carbon Footprints and Their Interpretationsupporting

confidence: 63%

Carbon footprinting of universities worldwide: Part I—objective comparison by standardized metrics

2021

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Background Universities, as innovation drivers in science and technology worldwide, should be leading the Great Transformation towards a carbon–neutral society and many have indeed picked up the challenge. However, only a small number of universities worldwide are collecting and publishing their carbon footprints, and some of them have defined zero emission targets. Unfortunately, there is limited consistency between the reported carbon footprints (CFs) because of different analysis methods, different impact measures, and different target definitions by the respective universities. Results Comprehensive CF data of 20 universities from around the globe were collected and analysed. Essential factors contributing to the university CF were identified. For the first time, CF data from universities were not only compared. The CF data were also evaluated, partly corrected, and augmented by missing contributions, to improve the consistency and comparability. The CF performance of each university in the respective year is thus homogenized, and measured by means of two metrics: CO2e emissions per capita and per m2 of constructed area. Both metrics vary by one order of magnitude across the different universities in this study. However, we identified ten universities reaching a per capita carbon footprint of lower than or close to 1.0 Mt (metric tons) CO2e/person and year (normalized by the number of people associated with the university), independent from the university’s size. In addition to the aforementioned two metrics, we suggested a new metric expressing the economic efficiency in terms of the CF per $ expenditures and year. We next aggregated the results for all three impact measures, arriving at an overall carbon performance for the respective universities, which we found to be independent of geographical latitude. Instead the per capita measure correlates with the national per capita CFs, and it reaches on average 23% of the national impacts per capita. The three top performing universities are located in Switzerland, Chile, and Germany. Conclusion The usual reporting of CO2 emissions is categorized into Scopes 1–3 following the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting Standard which makes comparison across universities challenging. In this study, we attempted to standardize the CF metrics, allowing us to objectively compare the CF at several universities. From this study, we observed that, almost 30 years after the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro (1992), the results are still limited. Only one zero emission university was identified, and hence, the transformation should speed up globally.

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Section: Resulting University Carbon Footprints and Their Interpretationsupporting

confidence: 63%

Carbon footprinting of universities worldwide: Part I—objective comparison by standardized metrics

2021

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“…Some studies do not report the reference source of the emission factors (7 %) and none of them report the specific list of emission factors that are applied. Some studies used emission factors provided by official government sources, for example, Butt ( 2012 ) from New Zealand, Criollo et al ( 2019 ) from UK, Mendoza-Flores et al ( 2019 ) from Mexico, Ridhosari and Rahman ( 2020 ) from Indonesia or Rodríguez-Andara et al ( 2020 ) from Spain. Most of them are based on relevant sources, such as IPCC, DEFRA or EPA.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbon footprint in Higher Education Institutions: a literature review and prospects for future research

Valls-Val

Bovea

2021

Clean Techn Environ Policy

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Graphic abstract Higher Education Institutions (HEI) or universities, as organisations engaged in education, research and community services, play an important role in promoting sustainable development. Therefore, they are increasingly linked to the initiative of calculating their carbon footprint (CF), which is a tool to assess sustainability from the perspective of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The aim of this study is to carry out a systematic review of the current situation of CF assessment in academic institutions by analysing different key elements, such as the time period, methodologies and practises, calculation tools, emission sources, emission factors and reduction plans. The review protocol considered articles published until March 2021. Of the articles reviewed, 35 are aimed specifically at calculating the CF of HEI, while the remaining articles consist of review, activity-specific CF assessment or GHG emission reduction articles. Clear differences have been identified when results are compared for the normalised CF (average of 2.67 t CO 2 e/student, ranging from 0.06 to 10.94) or the percentage of carbon offsetting, only considered in 14% of the studies and ranging from 0.09 to 18%. The main reason for this is the lack of standardisation as regards the time metric (year, semester), functional unit (student, employee, area) and data collection boundary (scope 1, 2, 3), the emissions sources and emission factors, mainly for scope 3 (water consumption and treatment, waste treatment, office, ICT and laboratory consumables, commuting and travel, construction materials, canteens, etc.), and the inclusion or not of the effect of carbon offset projects to offset the CF (aim of the project and absorption sources and factors). However, despite the differences, a reduction over time is clearly observed. Therefore, CF in HEI requires further improvements and solutions to a number of challenges, including the definition of representative emission sources, the creation of a robust emission factor database and the development of tools/methodologies that cover all the needs of this type of organisation.

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“…While purchased electricity in Scope 2 appeared as a hot spot in national universities, it was observed that Scope 3 and transportation were hot spots in studies in different countries. Alvarez et al (2014), Flores et al (2019), and Yañez et al (2020 reported that transportation and commuting in Scope 3 were crucial emission factors. Therefore, it was found that some points should be paid attention to make comparisons.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Alvarez et al (2014), calculated the carbon footprint (CF) of the School of Forestry Engineering in 2010 and the results showed that the CF was 2147 tons CO2e, of which 59.0% corresponds to scope 3 emissions. Flores et al (2019) studied the CF of the Cuajimalpa campus of the Autonomous Metropolitan University. The CF of the campus was calculated as 3000 tons of CO2 equivalent (CO2e).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbon Footprint Analysis of Ege University within the Scope of Environmental Sustainability

Dağlioğlu¹

2021

Commagene Journal of Biology

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Universities play a leading role in promoting sustainability in society. Besides their technical roles, they have important social responsibilities and should be a leader for their stakeholders. Therefore, there is an important need to manage and reduce carbon emissions in universities to ensure environmental sustainability. Ege University (EU) has the vision of being a sustainable campus. In this context, in order to reduce carbon emissions, a carbon footprint study has been carried out primarily to determine carbon emission resources. The life cycle assessment (LCA) tool was used to analyze the Ege University carbon footprint. The study was based on the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard and ISO14064/1-2 standards. In the study, the EU campus was evaluated as the main campus and the medical faculty campus. Total carbon emissions of Ege University in 2016 were analyzed as a total of 40.608 tCO2e within the Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3. As a result of the study, it was revealed that 37% of total emission was caused by constant and mobile combustion, 39% from electricity usage, and 24% from travel and staff transportation. In the discussion, it was emphasized that EU should turn to energy conservation and efficiency, awareness activities, and renewable energy resources in its short, medium, and long term plans in order to reduce carbon emissions.

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The carbon footprint of a public university campus in Mexico City

Cited by 40 publications

References 12 publications

Carbon footprinting of universities worldwide: Part I—objective comparison by standardized metrics

Carbon footprinting of universities worldwide: Part I—objective comparison by standardized metrics

Carbon footprint in Higher Education Institutions: a literature review and prospects for future research

Carbon Footprint Analysis of Ege University within the Scope of Environmental Sustainability

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