Australia’s top-ranked universities are embracing greater responsibility for their environmental footprint, focusing on plans to reduce their net carbon footprint.
The University of Melbourne will install enough solar panels to power 650 homes and upgrade lighting, ventilation and heating systems to generate enough power to power another 820 homes. He said the savings have already resulted in net zero emissions from electricity use.
Meanwhile, the company expanded its estimates to include “Scope 3” emissions from facilities it does not own or control, primarily through outside activities such as consulting, business travel, and employee commuting. Acknowledged accountability for a vastly expanded range of greenhouse gases. and advertising.
This more than quadrupled emissions in the inventory, from about 38,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2-e) in 2021 to over 165,000 tonnes in 2022.
A summary of the calculations is in Melbourne 2022 Sustainability Report, has just been released. Chief operating officer Paul Aksap said that while the previous year’s report included some scope 3 emissions, Melbourne has spent around A$1 billion (£540 million) on capital works. ) has expanded the scope of activities included. , services, products and travel.
“We want to be transparent about the emissions we manage or drive,” Aksup said. “It is important … to make sure that we fully understand our impact and set the right goals and actions. We are passionate about leading sustainability. , serves as a testing ground where we can try out innovative solutions and provide examples for others to follow.”
In theory, the new approach reverses many of the advances universities have made on net emissions. After hovering around 200,000 tCO2-e in the first few years of Melbourne’s sustainability report, it plummeted to 141,000 tCO2-e in 2020. This is mainly due to reduced electricity usage and travel due to campus and border closures due to COVID-19, which has since fallen to 37,500tCO2-e in 2021. The university has purchased carbon credits from hydropower, biomass power and native forest restoration projects in Australia, China, Indonesia and Thailand.
Progress continues in 2022, with Melbourne procuring almost two-thirds of its electricity primarily through purchase agreements with wind farms. Nonetheless, net emissions soared as universities factored in a range of new activities, including construction and repair, including energy embedded in professional services, computing, office supplies, and building materials.
The university has piloted a method to estimate the “advanced carbon” of construction projects, using a “life cycle analysis” done on the main campus building project. But most of our scope 3 emissions are based on money spent.
In this approach, professional services such as consulting firms are responsible for more emissions than any other category of university activity, including on-campus electricity consumption.
The same applies to UNSW Sydney, where “purchased goods and services” contribute around 89,000 tCO2-e, according to the university’s 2021 Sustainability Report. The number of investments is also a close second, with him at 81,000.
Melbourne has also committed to including its investment portfolio in its Scope 3 emissions reporting, aiming to be carbon neutral by 2025 and ‘climate positive’ by 2030.
Calculations are almost as difficult as goals. The City of Melbourne said the figure was an estimate but was working to refine the figure based more on activity rather than spending.
“As a very large institution, this is a daunting task,” said Axup.
john.ross@timeshighereducation.com
