Carbon footprinting of universities worldwide part II: first quantification of complete embodied impacts of two campuses in Germany and Singapore
Universities, as innovation drivers in science and technology worldwide, should attempt to become carbon-neutral institutions and should lead this transformation. Many universities have picked up the challenge and quantified their carbon footprints; however, up-to-date quantification is limited to u...
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
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2022
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/163394 |
| _version_ | 1811680784171401216 |
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| author | Helmers, Eckard Chang, Chia Chien Dauwels, Justin |
| author2 | Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N) |
| author_facet | Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N) Helmers, Eckard Chang, Chia Chien Dauwels, Justin |
| author_sort | Helmers, Eckard |
| collection | NTU |
| description | Universities, as innovation drivers in science and technology worldwide, should attempt to become carbon-neutral institutions and should lead this transformation. Many universities have picked up the challenge and quantified their carbon footprints; however, up-to-date quantification is limited to use-phase emissions. So far, data on embodied impacts of university campus infrastructure are missing, which prevents us from evaluating their life cycle costs. In this paper, we quantify the embodied impacts of two university campuses of very different sizes and climate zones: the Umwelt Campus Birkenfeld (UCB), Germany, and the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. We also quantify the effects of switching to full renewable energy supply on the carbon footprint of a university campus based on the example of UCB. The embodied impacts amount to 13.7 (UCB) and 26.2 (NTU) kg CO2e/m2•y, respectively, equivalent to 59.2% (UCB), and 29.8% (NTU), respectively, of the building lifecycle impacts. As a consequence, embodied impacts can be dominating; thus, they should be quantified and reported. When adding additional use-phase impacts caused by the universities on top of the building lifecycle impacts (e.g., mobility impacts), both institutions happen to exhibit very similar emissions with 124.5–126.3 kg CO2e/m2•y despite their different sizes, structures, and locations. Embodied impacts comprise 11.0–20.8% of the total impacts at the two universities. In conclusion, efficient reduction in university carbon footprints requires a holistic approach, considering all impacts caused on and by a campus including upstream effects. |
| first_indexed | 2024-10-01T03:30:33Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | ntu-10356/163394 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-10-01T03:30:33Z |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/1633942022-12-10T23:31:13Z Carbon footprinting of universities worldwide part II: first quantification of complete embodied impacts of two campuses in Germany and Singapore Helmers, Eckard Chang, Chia Chien Dauwels, Justin Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N) Engineering::Environmental engineering Carbon Footprinting University Sustainability Universities, as innovation drivers in science and technology worldwide, should attempt to become carbon-neutral institutions and should lead this transformation. Many universities have picked up the challenge and quantified their carbon footprints; however, up-to-date quantification is limited to use-phase emissions. So far, data on embodied impacts of university campus infrastructure are missing, which prevents us from evaluating their life cycle costs. In this paper, we quantify the embodied impacts of two university campuses of very different sizes and climate zones: the Umwelt Campus Birkenfeld (UCB), Germany, and the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. We also quantify the effects of switching to full renewable energy supply on the carbon footprint of a university campus based on the example of UCB. The embodied impacts amount to 13.7 (UCB) and 26.2 (NTU) kg CO2e/m2•y, respectively, equivalent to 59.2% (UCB), and 29.8% (NTU), respectively, of the building lifecycle impacts. As a consequence, embodied impacts can be dominating; thus, they should be quantified and reported. When adding additional use-phase impacts caused by the universities on top of the building lifecycle impacts (e.g., mobility impacts), both institutions happen to exhibit very similar emissions with 124.5–126.3 kg CO2e/m2•y despite their different sizes, structures, and locations. Embodied impacts comprise 11.0–20.8% of the total impacts at the two universities. In conclusion, efficient reduction in university carbon footprints requires a holistic approach, considering all impacts caused on and by a campus including upstream effects. Nanyang Technological University Published version The project received funding from Nanyang Technological University Singapore. 2022-12-05T07:11:08Z 2022-12-05T07:11:08Z 2022 Journal Article Helmers, E., Chang, C. C. & Dauwels, J. (2022). Carbon footprinting of universities worldwide part II: first quantification of complete embodied impacts of two campuses in Germany and Singapore. Sustainability (Switzerland), 14(7), 3865-. https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su14073865 2071-1050 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/163394 10.3390/su14073865 2-s2.0-85127609212 7 14 3865 en Sustainability (Switzerland) © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). application/pdf |
| spellingShingle | Engineering::Environmental engineering Carbon Footprinting University Sustainability Helmers, Eckard Chang, Chia Chien Dauwels, Justin Carbon footprinting of universities worldwide part II: first quantification of complete embodied impacts of two campuses in Germany and Singapore |
| title | Carbon footprinting of universities worldwide part II: first quantification of complete embodied impacts of two campuses in Germany and Singapore |
| title_full | Carbon footprinting of universities worldwide part II: first quantification of complete embodied impacts of two campuses in Germany and Singapore |
| title_fullStr | Carbon footprinting of universities worldwide part II: first quantification of complete embodied impacts of two campuses in Germany and Singapore |
| title_full_unstemmed | Carbon footprinting of universities worldwide part II: first quantification of complete embodied impacts of two campuses in Germany and Singapore |
| title_short | Carbon footprinting of universities worldwide part II: first quantification of complete embodied impacts of two campuses in Germany and Singapore |
| title_sort | carbon footprinting of universities worldwide part ii first quantification of complete embodied impacts of two campuses in germany and singapore |
| topic | Engineering::Environmental engineering Carbon Footprinting University Sustainability |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/163394 |
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