Analyzing Green Behavior and the Rational Use of Water in Portuguese Higher Education Campi

Ana M. Barreiros (), Anabela Durão, Ana Galvão, Cristina Matos, Dina Mateus (), Ivo Araújo, Luís Neves, Mário Matos and Sandra Mourato
Additional contact information
Ana M. Barreiros: Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa, Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa, Rua Conselheiro Emídio Navarro 1, 1959-007 Lisboa, Portugal
Anabela Durão: Polytechnic Institute of Beja, Campus do IPBeja, Rua Pedro Soares, 7800-295 Beja, Portugal
Ana Galvão: CERIS—Civil Engineering Research and Innovation for Sustainability, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
Cristina Matos: Escola de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Quinta de Prados, 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal
Dina Mateus: Techn&Art—Centre for Technology, Restoration and Art Enhancement, Instituto Politécnico de Tomar, Estrada da Serra, 2300-313 Tomar, Portugal
Ivo Araújo: proMetheus, Unidade de Investigação em Materiais, Energia e Ambiente para a Sustentabilidade, Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo, Rua da Escola Industrial e Comercial de Nun’Alvares, 4900-347 Viana do Castelo, Portugal
Luís Neves: School of Technology and Management, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, 2411-901 Leiria, Portugal
Mário Matos: Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
Sandra Mourato: School of Technology and Management, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, 2411-901 Leiria, Portugal

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 4, 1-16

Abstract: In the forthcoming years Portugal expects to be an increasingly hot and dry country dealing with the risk of water scarcity. According to the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere data, annual precipitation values have decreased 20 mm/decade. On the other hand, it is also verified that the periods of rain occur in a shorter interval, although more intensively. Water scarcity is one of the major challenges reflected in the UN 6th Sustainable Development Goal. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), as places of responsibility in preparing future leaders, must have strong sustainability policies, namely through the implementation of water efficiency measures on their campi. The main aim of this work was to evaluate water consumption and the good practices that the different HEIs have implemented on their campi to improve and promote green and sustainable behaviors, and to calculate water efficiency indicators associated with each HEI. The data were collected through a survey completed by eight HEIs distributed throughout the country. The results show that some institutions have already been implementing measures for water efficiency and have developed some activities with the academic and surrounding community. The range of values calculated for the indicators is large and there is not a strong correlation between them. Per capita consumption values vary between 1.8 and 23.5 L/(person·day), the differences being explained mostly by campus characteristics, namely: green areas; water sources for irrigation; age of buildings; and the existence of facilities on campus such as residences and sports facilities. Nevertheless, the consumption per capita values are generally lower than those found in the literature for equivalent institutions. Given the growing concern with water scarcity, sharing this kind of information among institutions may contribute to improving water efficiency.

Keywords: higher education institutions; SDG; sustainability; water efficiency; water use (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/4/3035/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/4/3035/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:4:p:3035-:d:1060927

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().