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Carbon Footprint at a United Arab Emirates University: GHG Protocol

Background: University campuses can be leaders of change by tracking carbon footprints and establishing strategies for reductions. The American University of Sharjah (AUS) has led this effort in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), establishing an Office of Sustainability to address energy consumption on its campus, resulting in a reduction of 30% by 2015. AUS campus uses the Greenhouse Gas Protocol to annually track carbon footprint. The purpose of this paper is to stablish a framework that institutions can use to calculate the carbon footprint (CF) on their university campuses. Methods: The GHG Protocol, which categorizes emissions into three scopes; 1: direct, 2: indirect, and 3: other indirect emissions, was used as a guideline. This paper covers the following: Scope 1: emissions from university fleet, Scope 2: emissions from electricity and water consumption, Scope 3: emissions from the university commute, limited business air travel and waste. The data for each category are analyzed and recommendations to reduce the carbon footprint are presented. Results: The total CO2 emissions for the AUS campus in 2018–2019 were 94,553.30 tCO2e. Additionally, the percentage contribution of total emissions for Scope 1, 2 and 3 were 0.37%, 61.12% and 38.51%. Conclusions: The two highest contributors of CO2 emissions at the AUS campus are electricity consumption (60.91%) and university commute (36.54%). AUS has hosted numerous educational campaigns and awareness programs to try to reduce carbon emissions, which helped in reducing electricity consumption throughout campus; however, these are still insufficient; hence, the importance of quantifying the CF of the AUS campus. Based on the results obtained, recommendations can be made to reduce overall CO2 emissions for AUS and other higher education institutions in the region and internationally.