Greenhouse Gas Balancing and Reduction at Austrian Universities and Colleges 3.0
Abstract
Universities are also required to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions significantly in order to contribute to achieving the Paris climate targets. Regular greenhouse gas balancing is indispensable for this: It makes it possible to identify the largest emission drivers, to derive the most effective climate protection measures from them and to measure the effectiveness of climate protection measures. Against this background, the project proposed herewith aims at ensuring that as many Austrian universities as possible... - balance their own GHG emissions. The practice of GHG accounting should be made "state of the art" at Austrian universities and should also be introduced more widely at institutions of tertiary education (especially colleges). - set a concrete emissions reduction or climate neutrality target. - develop a "roadmap" for achieving these goals. - implement concrete climate protection measures. To achieve these goals, the following activities are planned in the project: - WP 1: Further development of the GHG balancing tool "ClimCalc", which is tailor-made for educational institutions and which the project consortium had developed within the framework of two predecessor projects funded by the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund. - WP 2: Periodic update of the emission factors on which the accounting tool is based for the years 2020-2022 to ensure the timeliness and correctness of the emission calculations. - WP 3: Comprehensive training and consulting for universities on GHG balancing using the ClimCalc tool as well as on climate protection in university operations (setting climate protection targets, developing a roadmap for achieving targets, implementing climate protection measures). The consortium consists of BOKU, TU Graz and the Austrian Federal Environment Agency. The project builds on two predecessor projects funded by the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund, is expected to last two years (24 months) and has a total budget of € 58,000.
- Climate Action
- Universities
- Greenhouse Gas Footprinting
- Carbon Footprinting
- Environmental Management
Project staff
Joachim Thaler
Joachim Thaler MA
joachim.thaler@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-99102
Project Leader
01.03.2023 - 28.02.2025
BOKU partners
External partners
Environmental Agency Austria
none
partner
TU Graz
none
partner