Assessment and development of greenhouse gas emissions management for non-technical academic faculties in Thai higher educational institutions using Monte Carlo-based uncertainty analysis

This case report presents the first documented greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventory for a non-technical academic faculty in Thailand, addressing a critical gap in institutional carbon accounting where humanities-oriented units have remained systematically underrepresented. The Faculty of Liberal Arts at Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi (RMUTT) was assessed over 12 months under ISO 14064-1 and the GHG Protocol, covering Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions. Annual emissions totalled 266.5 ± 21.3 tCO₂e (95% CI: 245.2–287.8 tCO₂e), with Scope 2 electricity accounting for 79.7% of the footprint. Among Scope 1 sources, refrigerant leakage—particularly R22—dominated direct emissions owing to its high global warming potential. Monthly emissions exhibited marked seasonal variation (15.43–37.36 tCO₂e), strongly correlated with ambient temperature (Pearson's r = 0.71, p < 0.01). Emission intensity of 0.093 tCO₂e per capita was 70–94% below technical faculty counterparts, confirming that non-technical faculties occupy a distinctly low-emission institutional tier. Monte Carlo simulation (10,000 iterations) yielded total uncertainty of ± 8.0% (95% CI: 224.8–308.2 tCO₂e), with electricity consumption and R22 leakage as dominant variance sources. The findings establish a replicable, ISO 14064-1-compliant framework for faculty-level GHG accounting, directly supporting carbon neutrality planning across Thai and regional higher education institutions.