Details
Original language | English |
---|---|
Article number | 139649 |
Journal | Journal of cleaner production |
Volume | 430 |
Early online date | 9 Nov 2023 |
Publication status | Published - 10 Dec 2023 |
Abstract
Against the backdrop of climate change and resource depletion, sustainability and sustainable development has been brought in the focus of industries and organisations. To quantify the environmental impacts of products and organisations the methodology of life cycle assessment (LCA) is applied area-wide in many different sectors. The higher education sector in particular has an important role to play in sustainable development due to the multiplier role by educating the academic employees of the future. Additionally, higher education institutions (HEIs) are a relevant sector by themselves due to their size and number of employees as well as their impact on innovation and future technologies. Therefore, HEIs should be at the forefront of assessing and reducing their environmental impact. In contrast to this an analysis of the available LCAs of HEIs shows significant limitations with regards to availability of assessments as well as guidelines on assessment methodologies. To contribute to closing this gap and increase the availability of LCA information for HEIs, a guideline is developed based on current LCA standards, which contains assistance regarding the goal and scope definition, life cycle inventory and life cycle impact assessment. The guideline is applied in a case study for Leibniz Universität Hannover (LUH), one of the nine leading technical universities in Germany. Results of the case study show that the major contributors for the impact of the LUH are the transport activities, infrastructure and energy supply. In 13 of the 16 assessed impact categories, transport activities account for the largest share of potential environmental impacts, ranging from about 43% to 82%. However, the results of the case study must be considered with care as primary data availability from the LUH has been limited and therefore must be extended in the future.
Keywords
- Case study, Higher education institutions, LCA, Method, University
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Energy(all)
- Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
- Environmental Science(all)
- General Environmental Science
- Business, Management and Accounting(all)
- Strategy and Management
- Engineering(all)
- Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Sustainable Development Goals
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In: Journal of cleaner production, Vol. 430, 139649, 10.12.2023.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Life cycle assessment of higher education institutions
T2 - method and case study
AU - Jürgens, Meret
AU - Hartmann, Kristin
AU - Endres, Hans Josef
AU - Spierling, Sebastian
N1 - Funding Information: The authors would like to thank the Green Office of Leibniz Universität Hannover as well as the Studentenwerk Hannover for providing life cycle inventory data for the case study. Additionally, the authors would like to thank Alois Kaufmann for providing the icon graphics used for some of the figures.
PY - 2023/12/10
Y1 - 2023/12/10
N2 - Against the backdrop of climate change and resource depletion, sustainability and sustainable development has been brought in the focus of industries and organisations. To quantify the environmental impacts of products and organisations the methodology of life cycle assessment (LCA) is applied area-wide in many different sectors. The higher education sector in particular has an important role to play in sustainable development due to the multiplier role by educating the academic employees of the future. Additionally, higher education institutions (HEIs) are a relevant sector by themselves due to their size and number of employees as well as their impact on innovation and future technologies. Therefore, HEIs should be at the forefront of assessing and reducing their environmental impact. In contrast to this an analysis of the available LCAs of HEIs shows significant limitations with regards to availability of assessments as well as guidelines on assessment methodologies. To contribute to closing this gap and increase the availability of LCA information for HEIs, a guideline is developed based on current LCA standards, which contains assistance regarding the goal and scope definition, life cycle inventory and life cycle impact assessment. The guideline is applied in a case study for Leibniz Universität Hannover (LUH), one of the nine leading technical universities in Germany. Results of the case study show that the major contributors for the impact of the LUH are the transport activities, infrastructure and energy supply. In 13 of the 16 assessed impact categories, transport activities account for the largest share of potential environmental impacts, ranging from about 43% to 82%. However, the results of the case study must be considered with care as primary data availability from the LUH has been limited and therefore must be extended in the future.
AB - Against the backdrop of climate change and resource depletion, sustainability and sustainable development has been brought in the focus of industries and organisations. To quantify the environmental impacts of products and organisations the methodology of life cycle assessment (LCA) is applied area-wide in many different sectors. The higher education sector in particular has an important role to play in sustainable development due to the multiplier role by educating the academic employees of the future. Additionally, higher education institutions (HEIs) are a relevant sector by themselves due to their size and number of employees as well as their impact on innovation and future technologies. Therefore, HEIs should be at the forefront of assessing and reducing their environmental impact. In contrast to this an analysis of the available LCAs of HEIs shows significant limitations with regards to availability of assessments as well as guidelines on assessment methodologies. To contribute to closing this gap and increase the availability of LCA information for HEIs, a guideline is developed based on current LCA standards, which contains assistance regarding the goal and scope definition, life cycle inventory and life cycle impact assessment. The guideline is applied in a case study for Leibniz Universität Hannover (LUH), one of the nine leading technical universities in Germany. Results of the case study show that the major contributors for the impact of the LUH are the transport activities, infrastructure and energy supply. In 13 of the 16 assessed impact categories, transport activities account for the largest share of potential environmental impacts, ranging from about 43% to 82%. However, the results of the case study must be considered with care as primary data availability from the LUH has been limited and therefore must be extended in the future.
KW - Case study
KW - Higher education institutions
KW - LCA
KW - Method
KW - University
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85176919945&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.139649
DO - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.139649
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85176919945
VL - 430
JO - Journal of cleaner production
JF - Journal of cleaner production
SN - 0959-6526
M1 - 139649
ER -