Decarbonising university campuses: A global review of emission trends and key hotspots

Universities play a pivotal role in addressing significant global challenges, such as climate change, through scientific innovation and technological advancement. Nevertheless, a critical examination of the universities’ greenhouse gas emissions is imperative to achieve net-zero targets. The past decade has seen a significant rise in university carbon footprints (CF) reporting. Despite these advancements, a global overview of university CF remains elusive. To address this gap, this study systematically reviews the CF of 113 universities at a global level across six regions to analyse emission patterns and identify the universities’ carbon hotspots. The findings show an average annual emission of 139,718 tCO 2 e and per capita emissions of 4.20 tCO 2 e among the analysed universities. Following the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard guidance, scopes 1, 2 and 3 emissions account for 22.2%, 26.1% and 51.7%, respectively in the total CF. The study identified substantial contributions of scope 1 stationary emissions in North America, high scope 2 electricity-related emissions in Asia and Africa, and primarily scope 3 emissions related to travel and procurement of goods and services in South America, Europe and Oceania. To offset these emissions, universities are implementing mitigation measures, such as electrification of campus operations, on-campus renewable energy generation, low-carbon procurement and promoting sustainable transportation modes. Nonetheless further efforts are required to comprehensively monitor and report scope 3 emissions and associated mitigation measures. This study offers explicit insights into universities’ CF and identifies carbon hotspots at a regional and global scale, providing evidence on how universities are decarbonising their campuses to achieve net-zero emission targets.