Life cycle assessment of higher education institutions

method and case study

verfasst von

Meret Jürgens, Kristin Hartmann, Hans Josef Endres, Sebastian Spierling

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.

Organisationseinheit(en)

Institut für Kunststoff- und Kreislauftechnik

Typ

Artikel

Journal

Journal of cleaner production

Band

430

ISSN

0959-6526

Publikationsdatum

10.12.2023

Publikationsstatus

Veröffentlicht

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Erneuerbare Energien, Nachhaltigkeit und Umwelt, Umweltwissenschaften (insg.), Strategie und Management, Wirtschaftsingenieurwesen und Fertigungstechnik

Ziele für nachhaltige Entwicklung

SDG 7 – Erschwingliche und saubere Energie, SDG 12 – Verantwortungsvoller Konsum und Produktion, SDG 13 – Klimaschutzmaßnahmen

Elektronische Version(en)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.139649 (Zugang: Geschlossen)