Carbon Footprint Assessment in Higher Education Institutions: A case study of Lahore College for women university

Carbon Footprint Assessment in Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

Urbanization and climate change are inextricably interlinked therefore unplanned development causes extreme weather patterns. In most world conferences and meetings, low carbon, and planned cities are the major topics as cities include a range of sectors, i.e., academic institutions. The educational institution design implies various opportunities to reduce carbon emissions from buildings and consumption matter during academic hours. The energy performance of a building depends on its design and quality of construction. As the locally available national building codes have no standard assessment procedure for the estimation of energy consumption therefore a UK-based methodology was adopted for the analysis of the Carbon Footprint (CF) of an educational building, the main campus. The assessment of Greenhouse gas emissions mainly CO₂ through energy consumption is a first step towards energy management and quantifiable carbon emission reduction. The IT department has the highest energy consumption 131537.3KWh/year as well as CO2 emission 69583.2 Kg/year. The carbon dioxide emission increases as the energy consumption of each department increases. Lahore College for Women University (LCWU) was selected for carbon rating. The energy consumption from each department depends on several factors like Ventilation Rate, Environment Impact Rating, and Environment Impact Rating Bands were assigned according to their specific amount of carbon emission. In addition, university routes buses and personal vehicles of staff and faculty were also included as carbon-contributing factors. GIS database was prepared for the assessment of carbon emissions of the institution with its graphical representation.