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Measuring Carbon Footprint of an Indian University Using Life Cycle

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DOI: 10.1016/j.procir.2017.11.111

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Procedia CIRP 69 (2018) 475 – 480

25th CIRP Life Cycle Engineering (LCE) Conference, 30 April ± 2 May 2018, Copenhagen, Denmark

Measuring carbon footprint of an Indian university using life cycle

assessment
Kuldip Singh Sangwana*,Vikrant Bhakara, Vinti Arorab, Prem Solankib
a
Birla Institute of technology and Science, Pilani, India-333031
b
former students of Birla Institute of technology and Science, Pilani, India-333031

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 9929095384; E-mail address: kss@pilani.bits-pilani.ac.in

Abstract

This paper presents carbon footprint of Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani (BITS Pilani), Pilani campus, India using
the life cycle analysis (LCA). The direct emissions of university owned facilities, indirect energy emissions of purchased electricity,
heat or steam, and other indirect emissions, which are the outcomes of university activities but controlled by other organizations
have been considered for the greenhouse gas emissions. Various emissions are modelled in Umberto NXT Universal software
using ISO 14064 standards. It has been found that the contribution of indirect emissions is 99%. This study highlights the need of
formulating policies to reduce such emissions. The results have been compared with the other university results available in the
literature.
© 201
© 2017The The Authors.
Authors. Published
Published by Elsevier
by Elsevier B.V.
B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 25th CIRP Life Cycle Engineering (LCE) Conference.
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 25th CIRP Life Cycle Engineering (LCE) Conference

Keywords: Carbon Footprint, Direct and indirect emissions, BITS Pilani university campus, Life cycle analysis

1. Introduction Few research papers are available in literature, which deal

The biggest carbon dioxide (CO2) emitting nations, as per
2008 data, are China followed by the United States of America
and India [1]. Despite having no obligation, as a developing
country, to tackle emissions, India is developing
comprehensive policies across the economies covering both
mitigation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and adaptation.
The Climate Change Bill-2012 (India) [2] focuses on the
reduction of targeted GHG emissions in India. It also aims to
provide carbon budgeting and trading schemes. The Indian
national committee on climate change [3] advises the
government bodies on all matters related to the emission of
GHG from different sectors, such as, industry, transport,
education and power. India has targeted to reduce GHG
emissions of its gross domestic product upto 35% during 2005-
2030 as per the Paris climate change agreement, against its old
commitment of reducing upto 25% [4].
with the GHG emissions by different sectors in India [5-8].
Technical education is an important sector for GHG studies for
two reasons. First, there are 10362 (2016-17 data [9]) technical
education institutes in India and each of these institutes
contributes significantly to GHG emissions. Second, more than
3.7 million students are enrolled in these institutions and
generating awareness among these students about GHG
emissions in early stages of their education is expected to make
them climate champions in future [9]. This is the motivation for
this study. According to Klein-Banai [10], higher education
institutes can take leadership role by estimating their emissions,
developing climate change plans, and identifying reduction
potentials. Although, across the globe these kind of initiatives
have been taken by several universities like: Universities of
Leeds, UK [11]; University of Illinois, Chicago (UIC)[12];
University of cape town (UCT) South Africa [13]; Norwegian
University of Technology and Science (NTNU)[14]; De

2212-8271 © 201 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 25th CIRP Life Cycle Engineering (LCE) Conference
doi:10.1016/j.procir.2017.11.111
476 Kuldip Singh Sangwan et al. / Procedia CIRP 69 (2018) 475 – 480
Montfort University, UK [15]; Yale University (Yale Uni.),
USA [16]; etc. But in case of Indian institutes of higher
education, this kind of initiative is yet to be undertaken. The
present study is conducted to measure carbon footprint of an
Indian university campus, which can be a base model for other
institutes of higher education to follow. Jabbour [17] also
opines that universities have considerable impact on the
environment in terms of GHG emissions. Thus, it is important
to monitor and evaluate the GHG emissions of the higher
educational institutes to achieve the goal towards sustainable
development. If you do not assess, you will not know. If you do
not know, you cannot control. If you cannot control, you cannot
improve. The objective of this study is to improve (reduce) the
carbon footprint of Indian universities.
2. Existing studies on GHG quantification and monitoring
Several universities across the world have assessed their
GHG emissions. However, only few of them have provided
quantitative data which can be easily compared. Six such
university studies are reviewed here. Most of these studies use
ISO 14064 standard for assessment. The meaning and scope
classification under ISO 14064 are given in Fig. 1.
2.1. Universities of Leeds, UK
An environmentally extended input output (EEIO) analysis
has been used to estimate the carbon footprint (CF) of
procurements, capital goods, waste, energy, leased assets,
transport, purchased goods and services. Repeated semi
structured interviews were conducted with the procurement
staff of university to get the required data. Scope 3 emissions
are around 51% of the total emissions, whereas Scope 1 and
scope 2 are 18% and 31% respectively [11].
2.2. University of Illinois, Chicago (UIC)
In the estimation of GHG emissions from 2004 to 2008, it
was found that in 2008 the most impacting emissions were due
to building (83%) followed by commuting (16%), and waste
(1%). The power plant, with cogeneration facility, generated
63% of the total GHG emissions followed by purchased
electricity (17%). UIC also utilized the GHG protocol defined
by World Resource Institute (WRI)/ World Business Council
for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)(WRI), 2004) [12].
2.3. University of Cape Town (UCT) South Africa
This assessment is divided in three parts, campus energy
emissions, transport emissions, and goods & services
emissions. In this study, if the data specific to South Africa was
unavailable then Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) emissions factors and relevant literature were used to
estimate the CF. Electricity used in whole university accounts
for 81% of the total CF emissions. The carbon footprint per
student is 3.2 tons CO2-eq for the defined scope [13].
2.4. Norwegian University of Technology and Science
(NTNU)
This study analyzes the carbon footprint of NTNU using
EEIO methodology. Data for EEIO modeling is taken from the
institute records and it is divided into 120 EEIO sectors.
Equipment and services are contributing 19% each in the total
CF. Consumables and services are contributing 11% and 5%
respectively followed by travel which is 16%, and other
emissions are approximately 10%. Further, the department
wise comparison was made and it was found that the faculty of
humanities and social sciences generates less CF than the
faculty of engineering [14].
2.5. De Montfort University, UK
This study is based on GHG protocol of World Resource
Institute (WRI)/World Business Council for Sustainable
Development (WBCSD). Direct and indirect emissions from
fossil fuel are considered in scope 1 and 2, indirect emissions
from procurement, travelling, commuting and other sources are
considered in scope 3 of the protocol. Scope 3 contributes 79%
in the total CF, where the major contributor was procurement
(48%), which contributes 38% of the total emissions. The scope
definition used in this study is similar to ISO 14064-I (ISO,
2006), for GHG emissions quantification, reporting and
removal at organizational level [15].
2.6. Yale University (Yale Uni.), USA
The study of Yale University incorporates the economic
input - output- LCA (EIO-LCA) for quantifying the GHG
emissions in three scopes. Direct emissions were considered in
scope 1, university fleet and electricity were considered in
scope 2, and other indirect emissions (i.e. air travel,
commuting, etc.) were accounted in scope 3 of the study. The
energy purchase (36%), construction (27%), air travel (2.4%),
food and beverages (1.5%), engineering services (1.4%),
laboratory supplies (1.1%) and software (1%) were found to
generate 70% of the total CF [16].
3. Materials and methods
In this study, GHG protocol of ISO 14064 [18] is utilized
for estimation of the total CO2 emissions with three scope
definitions. Each scope is further subdivided into different
categories as shown in Fig. 1. An LCA approach is used to
quantify the emissions using Umberto NXT universal software
[19] and Ecoinvent v3.0 database [20]. The study collected data
from various sources within the university campus for the
academic year 2014-2015 (August 2014 to July 2015). Offline
survey among the students, non-teaching staff, and faculty
members was conducted to collect data for travel, commuting,
and food habits. 187 students, 47 faculty members, and 60 non-
teaching staff responded to these surveys. Other consumption
and procurement data was collected from various
organizational authorities within the institute. The data for food
emissions has been taken from a published article on carbon
emissions of Indian food items by Pathak et al. [5]. The detailed
 Kuldip Singh Sangwan et al. / Procedia CIRP 69 (2018) 475 – 480 477

explanation of data collection is provided in Table 1 and section
3.4. The ISO 14064 & LCA methodology used for the study is
given next.
3.1. BITS Pilani, Pilani campus
BITS Pilani, Pilani campus is situated in the semi-arid
region of north-west India. The summer temperatures reach up
to 50°C between May and July, while winter temperatures
reach sub-zero levels. The nearest airport is 200 km in New
Delhi and the nearest railway station is 23 km. University
inhabitants often have to make road journeys for personal and
business travels. The average population of the campus for the
study time was 5699 consisting 3,452 students, 316 teaching
staff and 588 non-teaching staff, and rest are PhD students,
family members, and guests. The total campus area is 328 acres
(400 ha); its developed area is 49 acres (20 ha), of which
60,769 square meters (15.016 acres) is used for the academic
buildings. The campus has 11,245 square meters
(121,040 sq. ft.) of classrooms and 7,069 square meters
(76,090 sq. ft.) of laboratories. The institute has fourteen
hostels for male students and one large hostel for female
students.
3.2. Goal and scope definition
The present study aims to estimate the GHG emissions of
the BITS Pilani university campus for the academic year 2014-
2015 (August 2014 to July 2015).
Direct emissions ± Emissions from facilities
Scope 1 within its organizational boundaries
Energy indirect emissions ± Emissions from the
Scope 2 imported electricity, heat or steam consumed by
the organization
the basis of ISO 14064 standard. Data for inventory analysis
were collected in different phases.
In first phase an offline survey was conducted across the
campus to collect the commuting and business travel data. In
this survey, data were collect from students, teaching staff, and
non-teaching by conducting semi-structured interviews.
Procurement data of the campus were collected using the
records of central purchasing unit (CPU). In the record sheets
of CPU, data were segregated in chemicals, electric and
electronic components, reprography (printing and media unit of
the campus), glassware, electrical components, and capital
goods categories. In the record sheets of chemicals 1894 entries
were found but after careful examination of the data it was
found that similar chemicals purchased from different vendors
are recorded as different chemicals. This duplicity was
removed and finally 129 separate chemicals were used for the
inventory. Similarly, duplicity was removed in other categories
also. The total items modeled in LCA are: 24 electronics
components, 15 computers and peripheral, 31 capitals goods
items, 55 items from maintenance store, and 83 items from
central workshop. Inventory analyses data of refrigerant
consumption (used in air-conditioner, water cooler and
refrigerators) were taken from purchase records of the estate
maintenance unit of the campus. The above explained
inventory analysis covers most of the scope 3 model. For the
inventory analysis of water use and its treatment under scope
3, data were taken from an existing study carried out in the
campus [21]. A study for estimation of waste generated in
various departments and buildings is carried out. Various
wastes generated within the campus including organic, metal,
glass, paper, and plastics were segregated from the collection
trucks to measure the quantity of each type, and this process is
repeated for 5 to 6 times in summer as well as in winter for
more accuracy in estimation. The data collection sources are
provided in Table 1 of the study.

Table 1. Inventory analysis data and sources of acquisitions

Other indirect emissions ± Emissions from
commuting and business travel, transportation of Category Subcategory Data source
materials, people or waste; waste generated by Scope 1
Scope 3 the organization but managed by another
Fuel used for fleet and other Petrol and Diesel Transportation
organization; production and distribution of
services and EMU*
energy products, other than electricity, steam
and heat, consumed by the organization; Scope 2
purchased raw or primary materials. Imported electricity EMU
Scope 3
Annual waste Organic, metal, glass, etc. EMU
Fig. 1. Definition of various scopes under the standard ISO-14064
Annual computer accessories Printer, scanner, flash drive, CPU#
cartridges, etc.
Scope 1 of the study deals with the direct emissions of GHG Capital goods Computers, furniture, CPU
from institute owned facilities. Scope 2 of the study is indirect machines, lab HTXLSPHQW¶V etc.
GHG emissions from the generation of imported electricity, Annual chemicals purchased Bio, pharmacy, chemistry labs CPU
heat or steam, and scope 3 of the study contains other indirect etc.
GHG emissions (other than scope 2 emissions) which is a Annual electronics and Electronic and electrical lab CPU
electrical products purchased components
outcome of an organization's activities that are controlled by
Annual commuting and Workshop, conference, Offline survey
other organizations. business travel industry visit, & commuting
Annual refrigerants Refrigerants for air EMU
3.3. Inventory analysis conditioners and refrigerators
Annual workshop Projects, training, & work Workshop
The inventory data has been collected using a bottom-up procurements order materials store
approach by identifying the possible sources of emissions on Annual water consumption Drinking, treatment and Offline survey
irrigation
478 Kuldip Singh Sangwan et al. / Procedia CIRP 69 (2018) 475 – 480
Annual glassware purchased Flask, beaker etc. CPU
Annual upstream transport Material and equipment Offline survey
transportation to campus
Annual food emissions Vegetarian and non-vegetarian Offline survey
food (existing study emission)
*Estate management unit (EMU), #Centralized purchasing unit (CPU)
The inventory analysis of the activities under scope 1 was
done through record sheets of the transport services division
[22] and estate management unit [23]. Inventory analysis of
scope 2 was performed for purchased electricity using the
service provider purchase bills.
The organizational boundaries considered for the study
covers: institute academic buildings (consists of 3 faculty
divisions and a new lecture theatre complex used for lectures
and practical laboratories including office space for faculty and
departmental activities), central engineering workshop, library,
institute facilities centers (i.e. student activity center, health
club, sports complex, swimming pool, medical center,
supermarket, faculty and staff housing, street lights, water
supply network, student hostels (14 hostels for male students
and a bigger hostel for female students), seven student messes,
maintenance department, special kitchen and bakery, and a
guest house.
Whereas the operational boundaries of the presents study
includes: scope 1 ± direct emissions from burning of fossil fuel
in electric generator sets and campus fleet (cars, tractors,
ambulance, etc.); scope 2 ± indirect energy emissions of
imported electricity from state electricity board; scope 3 ± other
indirect emissions consists of: commuting and business travel
by faculty, staff, and students of the BITS Pilani, Pilani campus
(i.e. commuting of students between home and university
FDPSXVIDFXOW\DQGVWDII¶VFRPPXWLQJIURPKRPHWRRIILFHDQG
vice versa, visit to attend scientific conferences, seminars, and
workshops within India and abroad), transportation of
products, materials, and capital goods; papers used within
institute for answers sheets, questions papers, notices, circulars,
teaching notes, lab manuals, curriculum booklets, and many
more material used in both printed and unprinted form; various
wastes generated within the campus including organic, metal,
glass, paper, and plastics; food emissions are estimated using a
published study and survey data of food habits; refrigerants
used for air conditioners and refrigerators within the campus
(excluding individual owned); institute procurements: consists
of chemicals, electrical and electronics components, glassware
DQG SODVWLFZDUH FDSLWDO JRRGV LH HTXLSPHQW¶V DQG VHWXSV
purchased for scientific laboratories and other usages in the
institute); workshop procurements to meet the engineering
services need of the campus and for project and training works
of the students, also fabrication of metals and wooden products
used within the institute facilities; products and materials
required by maintenance department of the institute for
repairing, refurbishments, and other installations comes mainly
under construction and maintenance.
Inventory analysis of the rest of activities was carried out
using estimations of the amount/quantity of material used or
either by actual dimensions or weight measurement wherever
possible. Secondary data sources i.e. (web, manuals, brochures
etc.) were also considered for more material and product
specific information. Primary and secondary data sources are
compiled together for the material flow modelling and LCA.
3.4. Emissions factors
The use of various Ecoinvent datasets to account the
emissions from three different scopes are discussed in Table 2.
Since the availability of data for Indian conditions is low,
globally valid data is preferred throughout. If such data is not
available, European data is considered.
Table 2. Use of Ecoinvent dataset & end-of-life options for three scopes
Category Use of dataset
Scope 1
Fuel used in Campus Ecoinvent dataset for burning of diesel and petrol in
Fleet, and other internal combustion engines
services
Scope 2
Imported electricity Ecoinvent dataset for Indian electricity mix
Scope 3
Waste Ecoinvent dataset for incinerations of dry waste like
paper, tree leaves, reuse of organic waste for feeding
animal (like pig), landfill dataset from Ecoinvent for rest
of the waste
Computer accessories Ecoinvent dataset for production of computer
accessories and treatment transitions according to WEEE
Capital goods Ecoinvent dataset for capital goods by dividing them in
their main components and modelling togethers in form
of sub-components and materials
Chemicals Chemical data from Ecoinvent
Electronics and Modelling electronic components, few of electronic
electrical products components which are not available in dataset, they are
assumed to be electronic components unspecified
Commuting and Modelling of transportation in passenger kilometre in all
business travel modes: car (petrol and diesel both; shared and single
occupancy both), bus, train, two wheelers, aircraft
domestic, and aircraft intercontinental
Refrigerants Amount of refrigerants consumed using Ecoinvent
dataset
Workshop Modelled through Ecoinvent separately in weight or
procurements volume: Metal products (tools, metal rods, pipes, wires,
etc.), wood (including saw wood, plyboard, etc.),
polishing material (paint, sand, varnish, etc.); also
treatment transitions for waste metals chips and scraps.
Water consumption Ecoinvent activities for Water withdrawal and storage,
distribution, and treatment
Glassware Ecoinvent dataset activities by accounting weight and
types of different glassware
Upstream transport Ecoinvent dataset in metric ton Km of lorry and train
Food emissions Data of Kg CO2 Eq. for different food items from
published literature [5]
3.5. Impact Assessment
For the carbon footprint assessment of BITS Pilani
University campus, the well-known Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change (IPCC) [24] is used. The global warming
potential (GWP) with a time horizon of one hundred years is
evaluated.
4. Results and Discussion
The subsection 4.1 illustrates the carbon footprint results of
the BITS Pilani, university campus and subsection 4.2 provides
a comparative analysis of the present study results with results
of carbon footprint assessment from other universities.
 Kuldip Singh Sangwan et al. / Procedia CIRP 69 (2018) 475 – 480 479

4.1. Carbon footprint results of BITS Pilani, university time than the normal working hours. Secondly, the CO 2
campus emissions from the Indian electricity mix is high because coal
based electricity has large share (around 60%) in total
A detailed and extensive consumption based carbon electricity production of India [25].
footprint of BITS Pilani campus was evaluated. Fig. 2 shows a
Health club Academic building
breakdown of the different sources of GHG emissions Services Maintenance
classified as Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions. Results Student hostel & mess Faculty Housing
show a total of 16500 t CO2 eq. (metric tons of CO2 equivalent) Carbon emissions
of GHG emissions. 50% of GHG emissions are from scope 2 2000 8.0
electricity generation and 48.9 % GHG emissions are from 7.0
scope 3 sources. The rest 1.1 % emissions are the scope 1 GHG

CO2 emissions in Kilo tons

emissions from the petrol and diesel burned at BITS Pilani 1500 6.0

Electricity in MWh
owned facilities like diesel-electric generator sets and vehicles.
5.0
68% of scope 3 emissions are travel related emissions, 12 %
emissions are from the food consumption by the inhabitants of 1000 4.0
the campus and 10% emissions are from the annual
3.0
procurements in the workshop. The detailed distribution of
scope 3 emissions are shown in Fig. 3. 500 2.0

1.0
16000
0 0.0
14000
2013 2014 2015
12000
CO2 Eq (in tons)

10000 Fig. 4. Distribution of major energy consumers over years

8000
Fig. 4 illustrates the electricity consumption by the different
6000 units. Whereas the energy consumption per student is approx.
4000 1574 Kwh and CO2 footprint per student due to electricity
consumption is 2219 Kg CO2 eq. the analysis of the energy
2000
consumption over past years shows that the energy requirement
0 is growing steadily over years (as shown in Fig. 4). This
Scope 1 Scope 2 Scope 3 Total
increase in electricity consumption over the years due to the
expansion of the campus has increased the GHG emissions
Fig. 2. Carbon emissions for all three scopes for the BITS Pilani from the Scope 2 electricity generation. Therefore, preventive
measures are required at university level to optimize the energy
usage of various consumers within the university campus to
Glasswares lessen the environmental burden.
Upstream Transport
Computer access.
Chemicals 4.2. Comparison of carbon footprint among other universities
Water used
Electronics and electrical Next a comparative analysis of studies from other
Food - Teachers
Capital goods universities across the globe is performed. The studies
Commuting others addressing full consumption based footprints are compared
Food - others with the current study. De Montfort University (DeMU),
Refrigerants
Waste University of Cape town (UCT) and Norwegian University of
Commuting Faculty Science and Technology (NTNU) results provide full
Food - Students consumption data. Table 3 shows a comparative study of some
Enrgineering workshop
Commuting students of the parameters important for evaluating the greenhouse gas
1 10 100 1000 10000
emissions of the universities. It is interesting to know that the
Tons of CO2 eq.
carbon footprint (CF) (in Kg CO2 Eq.) per student for Indian
university campus and NTNU are comparable, which is around
Fig. 3. Greenhouse gas emissions details for scope 3 4.6 tons of CO2 equivalent per year per student.
Whereas that of De Montfort University and university of
The electricity consumption is divided by the different Cape town is 1.13 and 3.6 tons of CO2 equivalent per year per
buildings in the campus ± Institute buildings, staff quarters, student respectively. The total carbon footprint of the Indian
student hostels and messes. university campus is less due to less number of the students and
It is observed that university campus buildings have high staff. The carbon footprint per square meter of the developed
energy consumption mainly because it is a residential campus, area for BITS Pilani university is 12.01 tons of CO2 eq.
and faculty members and students use the facilities for longer
 480 Kuldip Singh Sangwan et al. / Procedia CIRP 69 (2018) 475 – 480

Table 3. comparative analysis of carbon footprint studies http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish their gratitude to the respondents of the

survey & residents of the campus, along with authorities for
providing access to the data and sharing their valuable time.
References
[1] Carbon dioxide information analysis center. Fossil-Fuel CO2 Emissions.
13/04/2015. 2015. Available from: http://cdiac.ornl.gov/
trends/emis/methreg.html
[2] Government of India. India Environmental portal. 2015. Available from:

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