Have a personal or library account? Click to login

Transition to Climate Neutrality at University Campus. Case Study in Europe, Riga

Open Access
|Oct 2022

Abstract

100 cities in Europe have committed to being pioneers and achieving climate neutrality by 2030. It is crucial to start with the decarbonization of cities because, although they cover only 3 % of the Earth’s land, they produce 72 % of all greenhouse gas emissions. This paper contributes to the city decarbonization research but on a smaller scale. We study the decarbonization potential of a university campus. It is a unique part of a larger urban area. It represents a cross-section of the population of different socio-economic backgrounds and ages, generating irregular schedules and constant movements of people and goods throughout the day. Riga Technical University is one of the pioneer universities in Latvia that has decided to achieve climate neutrality by 2030. This study aims to provide a qualitative review of the potential for improvements and describe the preliminary CO2 simulation model that includes Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 emissions. A particular challenge is the Scope 3 emissions, which focus on changing user habits. A survey of Riga Technical University students and employees was developed and conducted to analyse the most effective solutions for this type of emission. Survey results and future work recommendations are presented together with the model outline.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/rtuect-2022-0071 | Journal eISSN: 2255-8837 | Journal ISSN: 1691-5208
Language: English
Page range: 941 - 954
Published on: Oct 28, 2022
Published by: Riga Technical University
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 2 issues per year

© 2022 Ketija Bumbiere, Aiga Barisa, Jelena Pubule, Dagnija Blumberga, Tomas Gomez-Navarro, published by Riga Technical University
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.