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Carbon Footprint Estimation in a University Campus: Evaluation and Insights

2019; Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute; Volume: 12; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3390/su12010181

2071-1050

Pablo Paño Yáñez, Arijit Sinha, Marcia Vásquez,

Environmental Impact and Sustainability

Background: The University of Talca (UT), since 2012, has been annually tracking the carbon footprint (CF) based on the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol for all its five campuses. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the trajectory for determining the CF on campuses and identify the stressors. Methods: GHG protocol separates emissions into three scopes—1) direct; 2) indirect; 3) other indirect emissions. This study reports the emissions on the Talca campuses that are related to Scopes 1 through 3. The data is closely studied to draw inferences on the factors most affecting CF and recommend improvements. Results: The estimation of the CF in Scope 1 and Scope 2 were 2 0.03 tCO2e and 0.25 tCO2e per person per year, respectively. Results show Scope 3, which measures indirect emissions generated by activities like transportation of people, produced the highest contribution of 0.41 tCO2e per person to the UT’s CF in 2016. Conclusions: The study strongly suggested that transportation of students and faculty to and from the campus is one of the main stressors. The study of the main campus of Talca to quantify the CF is of immense value to institutions of higher educations as it provides a guideline and a comparative metric for other institutions.