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

Antonio Guerrero-Lucendo (), Fuensanta García-Orenes, Jose Navarro-Pedreño () and David Alba-Hidalgo
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Antonio Guerrero-Lucendo: Environmental and Sustainable Development Area, Miguel Hernandez University of Elche, Avda. de la Universidad s/n, 03202 Elche, Spain
Fuensanta García-Orenes: Department of Agrochemistry and Environment, Miguel Hernandez University of Elche, Avda. de la Universidad s/n, 03202 Elche, Spain
Jose Navarro-Pedreño: Department of Agrochemistry and Environment, Miguel Hernandez University of Elche, Avda. de la Universidad s/n, 03202 Elche, Spain
David Alba-Hidalgo: Specific Didactics Department, Faculty of Education, Autonomous University of Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 17, 1-24

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: carbon footprint; sustainability; greenhouse gas; climate change; higher educational institutions; university; environmental performance; benchmarking (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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