Clemson Carbon Footprint
Researchers:
Universities are essentially mini-cities and emit a lot of greenhouse gases during their operation, from a variety of activities, generally categorized into three scopes. Scope 1 emissions come from activities that the university has direct control over, such as university-owned facilities or vehicles. Scope 2 emissions come from generation of purchased electricity. Scope 3 emissions come from other activities, such as staff and faculty travel, or commuting.
In this project, we calculated the carbon footprint of Clemson's main campus over the course of 2014 activities. The results show that total greenhouse gases emissions were close to 100,000 metric tonnes, with most coming from Scope 2. There were also large Scope 1 and Scope 3 emissions coming from steam generation, and travel (including commuting), respectively.
It is hoped that Clemson can use this information for planning and decision-making in reaching the goals outlined in the Sustainability Action Plan 2006.