Assessment of Carbon Footprint of a Campus with Sustainability Initiatives

Artun E.

GAZI UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, cilt.34, sa.3, ss.652-663, 2021 (ESCI) identifier identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 34 Sayı: 3
  • Basım Tarihi: 2021
  • Doi Numarası: 10.35378/gujs.726553
  • Dergi Adı: GAZI UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, Aerospace Database, Aquatic Science & Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA), Communication Abstracts, Compendex, Metadex, Civil Engineering Abstracts, TR DİZİN (ULAKBİM)
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.652-663
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Carbon footprint, Carbon emissions, Sustainability, TRACKING
  • Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Carbon footprint of a 10-year old university campus is estimated using IPCC Tier 1 Methodology. Key sources and sinks that cause carbon emissions were identified. Electricity, fuel, food and paper consumption were considered as the key items that would increase the emissions. Trees and recycling practices were considered as the key items that would reduce the emissions. Through communication with campus staff and data collection, annual consumption/production data were compiled in a spreadsheet application that uses these data to estimate the amount of carbon that is emitted per year. It was demonstrated that there has been a reduction in the carbon emissions between 2011 and 2017 due to the sustainability initiatives that were launched during that time in the campus. To analyze future years and address the uncertainty in the data, the spreadsheet allows to perform a probabilistic estimation through Monte Carlo simulation and analysis.