Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Universities: Chances and Challenges on the Way to Greenhouse Gas Neutrality

Abstract

Universities contribute to the goal of climate neutrality with their research, but also emit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by means of their operations. The aim of this paper is to assess the GHG emissions of a university as an institution, identify the main sources of emissions and analyse chances and challenges on the way to become a climate neutral university. The analysis is based on the GHG balance of Esslingen University developed according to the standards of the GHG protocol. While many academic institutions in Europe issue climate reports, they often do not or only partly include scope 3 emissions and therefore underestimate the emissions. With its broad accounting approach, this paper extends the knowledge about the emission sources of a university, but also shows the limitations of areas such as procurement, which lack data for an exact quantification of the emissions. Three main sources of emissions can be identified: commuting, procurement and buildings (electricity and heating). The main obstacles to implement the changes on part of the university are budget limitations, limited influence on the part of the university as well as staff shortages.