Towards a Carbon Neutral and Sustainable Campus: Case Study of NED University of Engineering and Technology
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Globally, universities are evaluating and targeting to reduce their carbon emissions and operate on a sustainable basis. The overall aim of this study revolves in addressing the following three questions: (1) How to calculate carbon footprint, including indicators selection, criteria, and measurement, for higher education institutions? (2) How to evaluate impact and effectiveness of various mitigation strategies in context of a higher education institution? (3) What are the possible limitations of approach selected for carbon footprint calculation. This paper presents estimation of the carbon footprint of NED University using a carbon calculator along with the identification of sources with maximum contribution to its carbon footprint. The carbon footprint of the NED University main campus for 2017 was calculated to be approximately 21,500 metric tons of equivalent CO2 and carbon footprint per student was 1.79 metric tons of equivalent CO2. Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions each contributed nearly 7% of the carbon footprint, while Scope 3 emissions accounted for 85.6% of the carbon footprint. Major interventions such as switching to renewables, usage of energy efficient appliances, electric vehicles, and massive tree plantation inside and outside the campus were identified as the most effective mitigation strategies.
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The NED University campus produced 21,500 Mt CO2-eq in 2017, equating to 1.79 Mt CO2-eq per student.
“The data indicated that the campus produced 21,500 Mt CO2-eq in 2017, equating to 1.79 Mt CO2-eq per student.”
From Strategies to achieve a carbon neutral society: a review (2022) · cites this paper as Mustafa et al. 2022
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Strategies to achieve a carbon neutral society: a review
Chen, L., Msigwa, G., Yang, M., Osman, A. I., Fawzy, S., Rooney, D. W., & Yap, P.-S. (2022) · Environmental Chemistry Letters · doi:10.1007/s10311-022-01435-8 · Cited by 1,326 · see citing works
- Authors
- Mustafa, A., Kazmi, M., Khan, H. R., Qazi, S. A., & Lodi, S. H.
- Affiliations
- NED University of Engineering and Technology (PK)
- Corresponding author
- Mustafa, Atif
- Venue
- Sustainability
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2022-01-11
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 794
- ISSN
- 2071-1050 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4206438845
- Cited by
- 51
- References
- 30
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 4
- FWCI
- 21.02
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Sustainability (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- This research received partial funding from the Neurocomputation Lab, National Centre of Artificial Intelligence, NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, Pakistan: PSDP.263/2017-18 (PSDP.263/2017-18)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Sustainability in Higher Education
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Environmental Impact and Sustainability
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Green IT and Sustainability
- Keywords
- carbon footprint, university campus, carbon neutrality, CO2 emissions, Scope 3 emissions, carbon footprint calculator, mitigation measures, renewable energy, energy efficiency, electric vehicles, forest plantations
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