Do’s and Don’ts in Climate Impact Assessment of University Campuses: Towards Responsible, Transparent and Comprehensive Reporting

Eckard Helmers ()
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Eckard Helmers: Department of Environmental Planning and Technology, Umwelt-Campus, University of Applied Sciences Trier, P.O. Box 1380, 55761 Birkenfeld, Germany

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 21, 1-24

Abstract: With the commitment of more and more universities to decrease greenhouse gas emissions, standardizing the modeling is now becoming urgent. To date, published climate-relevant emissions can be based on completely different and incomparable accounting methods, as shown with results between 6 and 2696 t CO 2 e for the use phase of the same campus. This article aims to identify, compare, and evaluate the different modeling approaches behind this. For this purpose, this article proposes basic attributes of emissions modeling and reporting. Of the three established approaches to emissions accounting, sector logic (territorial carbon accounting) produces the lowest figures. Reporting in accordance with the greenhouse gas protocol, which has become established worldwide, can also shift the responsibility outside the institutional consumer. Life-cycle assessment, instead, essentially includes provision costs triggered by the consumer. The different modeling approaches also overlap with different coverage of emission sources, for which a standard set is being proposed. Such emissions modeling should finally lead to the determination of university-specific climate performances, i.e., the CO 2 e emissions per capita and per m 2 of gross floor area. Infrastructure and procurement expenses must be recorded in addition and converted to an annual average.

Keywords: GHG emissions; universities; higher education institutions; carbon footprinting; Umwelt Campus Birkenfeld; greenhouse gas protocol; life-cycle assessment (LCA); embodied emissions; climate performance; sustainable university; territorial carbon accounting; sector logic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
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