An analysis of energy efficiency in multicampi higher education institutions and a novel environmental labeling proposal

Abstract

The expansion of Brazilian higher education institutions (HEIs) organized in multicampi structures brought a significant complexity to the academic and administrative management. In this context, environmental management strategies become quite relevant, especially when considering the low effectiveness of the Brazilian Labeling Program (BLP) for the classification of buildings in practice. The main objective of the present paper is to evaluate the BLP efficacy as applied to HEI buildings, aiming to develop a new environmental labeling model for multicampi HEIs. For this purpose, the BLP was applied to the labeling of Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Piauí (IFPI), employing data obtained from electricity bills between 2016 and 2018. The energy diagnosis was performed considering distinct indicators,performance indexes, levels and rankings of relative energy efficiency, from which energy efficiency labels could be developed. The results allow the verification of the low efficiency of the BLP, especially in the environmental labeling of HEIs. From the detailed analysis of bills, it is possible to develop environmental labels inspired by the BLP, resulting in a different approach. A novel type-II environmental labeling methodology is then introduced based on the breakdown of electricity bills and statistical methods.