Visualization of energy and water consumption and GHG emissions: A case study of a Canadian University Campus

Abdelalim, Aly; O’Brien, William; Shi, Zixiao

doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2015.09.058

Cited by 36 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 25 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The most detailed study available so far reported individual CFs for 42 buildings of Carleton university campus in Canada [37], ranging from 10 to 200 kg CO 2 e/m 2 , and from 0.01 to 7.4 Mt CO 2 e/capita and year, respectively, which is quite similar to the ranges which we observed in our international comparison ( Fig. 3 a + b).…”

Section: Resulting University Carbon Footprints and Their Interpretationsupporting

confidence: 85%

Carbon footprinting of universities worldwide: Part I—objective comparison by standardized metrics

2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Universities, as innovation drivers in science and technology worldwide, should be leading the Great Transformation towards a carbon–neutral society and many have indeed picked up the challenge. However, only a small number of universities worldwide are collecting and publishing their carbon footprints, and some of them have defined zero emission targets. Unfortunately, there is limited consistency between the reported carbon footprints (CFs) because of different analysis methods, different impact measures, and different target definitions by the respective universities. Results Comprehensive CF data of 20 universities from around the globe were collected and analysed. Essential factors contributing to the university CF were identified. For the first time, CF data from universities were not only compared. The CF data were also evaluated, partly corrected, and augmented by missing contributions, to improve the consistency and comparability. The CF performance of each university in the respective year is thus homogenized, and measured by means of two metrics: CO2e emissions per capita and per m2 of constructed area. Both metrics vary by one order of magnitude across the different universities in this study. However, we identified ten universities reaching a per capita carbon footprint of lower than or close to 1.0 Mt (metric tons) CO2e/person and year (normalized by the number of people associated with the university), independent from the university’s size. In addition to the aforementioned two metrics, we suggested a new metric expressing the economic efficiency in terms of the CF per $ expenditures and year. We next aggregated the results for all three impact measures, arriving at an overall carbon performance for the respective universities, which we found to be independent of geographical latitude. Instead the per capita measure correlates with the national per capita CFs, and it reaches on average 23% of the national impacts per capita. The three top performing universities are located in Switzerland, Chile, and Germany. Conclusion The usual reporting of CO2 emissions is categorized into Scopes 1–3 following the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting Standard which makes comparison across universities challenging. In this study, we attempted to standardize the CF metrics, allowing us to objectively compare the CF at several universities. From this study, we observed that, almost 30 years after the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro (1992), the results are still limited. Only one zero emission university was identified, and hence, the transformation should speed up globally.

show abstract

Section: Resulting University Carbon Footprints and Their Interpretationsupporting

confidence: 85%

Carbon footprinting of universities worldwide: Part I—objective comparison by standardized metrics

2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Moreover, it is important to identify opportunities to establish refurbishment interventions or adequate standards, since a large portion of resources consumption and waste production takes place in buildings (Bertone et al, 2018;D€ orr et al, 2013). Energy and water consumption are two of the most important variables/parameters to be measured (Abdelalim et al, 2015;Batlle et al, 2020;Bonnet et al, 2002). It is important to know/measure the consumption pattern of both when evaluating building's performance and forecasting the viability of potential improvement measures.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Methodology for estimating energy and water consumption patterns in university buildings: case study, Federal University of Roraima (UFRR)

Almeida

Sousa

Silva

2021

Heliyon

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Knowing water and energy consumption patterns sets the baseline for understanding their drivers and assessing the performance of potential measures to increase efficiency and/or reliability. These patterns can vary substantially depending on the building characteristics, on the building users and use, on the cultural, social, economic, environmental context in which the building is located, among many other factors. This article presents a general methodological framework for characterizing water and energy consumption patterns in buildings based on the evaluation of the characteristics of the equipments and appliances, as well as the type of users and the activities developed in each type of room. This allows estimating water and energy use, by end use per square meter and by roomtype. The methodological framework proposed was applied to the buildings of the Paricarana Campus of Federal University of Roraima (UFRR), Brazil, providing one of the few examples in the literature reporting water and energy consumption in university buildings in tropical climates. Universities, in most cases, represent large water and energy consumers with distinctive consumption drivers and patterns which have received limited attention when compared to other types of buildings (e.g., residential). The findings have shown that teaching rooms and administration rooms are the main consumers, representing 48% and 49% of the institution's energy and water consumption, respectively. Air conditioning is the biggest energy consumption (63%), while personal use represents 72% of the total water consumption in a building. The toilets represent a large water consumption in a university building (46.40%). Comparing different building uses, the central library is the highest consumer, due to the longest operating time and the highest occupational density. The methodological proposal intends to be a useful tool to support managers and decision-makers to understand the dynamics of consumption and then propose effective practices to reduce water and energy uses, as well as providing reference data for comparison with other educational institutions.

show abstract

“…In the academic field, calculating the environmental impacts of a university started to consider beyond a single building and it began to emphasize operational stage calculations. For example, Aly Abdelalim calculated 45 educational buildings carbon emissions in Canadian universities (Abdelalim et al, 2015). Chia Chien Chang studied Nanyang Technological University's (NTU) 22 academic buildings, with a study showing that energy consumption in the operational stage is between 63% and 95%, while the remaining 5%-37% is from embodied energy.…”

Section: Review Of Carbon Footprinting Of Colleges and Universitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Study and Assessment of the Carbon Footprint of Tianjin University’s Weijin Road and Peiyangyuan Campuses, China

zayit

Song

Ghengare

et al. 2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundA living University campus is like a model city; its energy and carbon auditing can also model how energy and carbon can be studied and analyzed in a city. China’s colleges and universities face grave problems, now and in the future - from declining quality of campus environments to deteriorating building performance, antiquated facilities, and inefficient energy and resources consumption. While research and discussion exists on improving existing university buildings’ energy performance and evaluation standards - much of that research focuses on energy savings, rather than on greenhouse gas emissions reductions. Calculation of campus carbon emissions is the first step for transforming and planning each existing university to carbon neutral campus. Some researchers of campus carbon emissions in China have made calculations, which, although as yet unpublished, create an initial framework for carbon-neutral campus plan targets. The present research gives an overview of universities’ drive towards sustainability in China and in other countries. The paper then details carbon footprint accounting steps, quantifying major carbon emission sources and carbon sequestration by vegetation inside the Tianjin University’s Weijin Road and Peiyangyuan Campuses. Results from China’s universities are compared with international results in the scientific literature. In this paper, based on this data, we suggest strategies and show preliminary target settings for how to transform Weijin Road into a carbon-neutral campus. ResultsAnnual carbon emissions for 2019 of the Weijin Road campus were 58,172.68 tonnes, (2.60 tonnes per person), and Peiyangyuan campus, 55,213.75 tonnes (2.46 tonnes per person). The largest sources of the two campuses’ greenhouse gas emissions were electricity and gas; Weijin Road campus; electricity = 61.42%, gas = 20.73%, and Peiyangyuan campus electricity = 69.32%, gas = 11.60%. Carbon sequestered in the two campuses by vegetation are 11,257.34 tonnes and 27,856.51 tonnes respectively. The renewable energy contribution to carbon reduction in Peiyangyuan campus is 50.85 tonnes.ConclusionPer person carbon emissions of Tianjin University’s two campuses are below the average for some US campuses, but are also greater than some in European countries. Research may investigate methods used by successful campuses towards becoming carbon neutral.

show abstract

Visualization of energy and water consumption and GHG emissions: A case study of a Canadian University Campus

Cited by 36 publications

References 25 publications

Carbon footprinting of universities worldwide: Part I—objective comparison by standardized metrics

Carbon footprinting of universities worldwide: Part I—objective comparison by standardized metrics

Methodology for estimating energy and water consumption patterns in university buildings: case study, Federal University of Roraima (UFRR)

A Study and Assessment of the Carbon Footprint of Tianjin University’s Weijin Road and Peiyangyuan Campuses, China

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About