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Performance based core sustainability metrics for university campuses developing towards climate neutrality : A robust PICSOU framework

  • Tallinn University of Technology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Scientific › peer-review

32 Citations (Scopus)
136 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Despite the global interest, the sustainable development of universities remains commonly unmonitored as existing tools are either overly complicated or less specific for university campuses. Evaluation of existing tools motivated this study to focus on measuring sustainability performance of university campuses. By concentrating on factors having the most prominent impact on buildings’ and activities’ greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and social performance, PICSOU (Performance Indicators for Core Sustainability Objectives of Universities), a six-category framework with about 20 key performance indicators (KPIs) was identified to monitor more than 80% of Scope 2 or/and Scope 3 carbon footprint of a university campus and enables relatively easy cost-benefit analysis of potential improvements. Proposed categories and KPIs are general, but the improvement measures can always have a local origin. To test the framework, a case study was conducted and findings include discovery of lowutilization spaces, potential parking footprint reduction, co-benefits exceeding energy savings in renovation and an annual carbon footprint of 1.3 tCO2eq per university population.

Original languageEnglish
Article number104723
Number of pages16
JournalSustainable Cities and Society
Volume97
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2023
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Funding

This research was supported by the Estonian Centre of Excellence in Zero Energy and Resource Efficient Smart Buildings and Districts , ZEBE (grant 2014-2020.4.01.15-0016 ) funded by the European Regional Development Fund , by the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research and European Regional Fund (grant 2014-2020.4.01.20-0289) and by the European Commission through the H2020 project Finest Twins (grant no. 856602 ).

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

  1. SDG 4 - Quality Education
    SDG 4 Quality Education
  2. SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy
    SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy
  3. SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth
    SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth
  4. SDG 13 - Climate Action
    SDG 13 Climate Action

Keywords

  • Carbon footprint
  • Energy efficiency
  • Indoor environmental quality
  • Sustainable development
  • Transportation
  • University campus

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    • -: FINEST TWINS GA856602Nieminen

      Esquivias Canadas, A. (Project Member), Ingi, D. (Project Member), Klossner, S. (Project Member), Malhi, A. (Project Member), Vosough, S. (Project Member), Keyriläinen, T. (Project Member), Knapic, S. (Project Member), Olin, J. J. (Project Member), Khajavi Haghighat, S. (Project Member), Olkkonen, V. (Project Member), Pihlava, K. (Project Member), Tan, X. (Project Member), Kajosaari, A. (Project Member), Pinho, P. (Project Member), Apopei, I.-V. (Project Member), Jokisalo, J. (Project Member), Sipetas, C. (Project Member), Su, Y. (Project Member), Abolfazli, E. (Project Member), Bagheri Majdabadi, M. (Project Member), Bobrov, N. (Project Member), Marques de Carvalho Martins Canha, D. (Project Member), Espinosa, A. (Project Member), Limnell, J. (Project Member), Ghanbari, H. (Project Member), Malik, A. (Project Member), Ahmed, K. (Project Member), Pirilä, J. (Project Member), Tervo, S. (Project Member), Wallgren, K. (Project Member), Nzewi, L. (Project Member), Huotari, M. (Project Member), Koivunen, T. (Project Member), Kauppi, A. (Project Member), Saif, A. (Project Member), Rönkkö, J. (Project Member), Syri, S. (Project Member), Yeung, D. (Project Member), Toivio, T. (Project Member), Laguardia Tavares, P. (Project Member), Mäkelä, J. (Project Member), Toiskallio, K. (Project Member), Ainamo, A. (Project Member), Hyvönen, J. (Project Member), Kuzmanovski, V. (Project Member), Abdollahi, E. (Project Member), Dibaj, S. (Project Member), Yousefnezhad, N. (Project Member), Zhou, Z. (Project Member), Hajian, H. (Project Member), Doostmohammadian, M. (Project Member), Javanshir, N. (Project Member), Farjam, T. (Project Member), Moradpoor, I. (Project Member), Farsaei, A. (Project Member), Hollmen, J. (Project Member), Ju, Y. (Project Member), Kangassalo, P. (Project Member), Liu, Z. (Project Member), Bhusal, P. (Project Member), Avci, C. (Project Member), Bayrak, M. (Project Member), Liaquat, M. (Project Member), Ahdekivi, V. (Project Member), Fröhlich, K. (Project Member), Madhikermi, M. (Project Member), Agriesti, S. (Project Member), Koskinen, K. (Project Member), Mir, S. (Project Member), Anashin, P. (Project Member), Hiltunen, P. (Project Member), Helenius, O. (Project Member), Ojala, P. (Project Member), Österbacka, M. (Project Member), Nummi, P. (Project Member), Munilal Jain, K. (Project Member), Putta, A. (Project Member), Kovanen, E. (Project Member), Nieminen, M. (Project Member) & Salomaa, V. (Project Member)

      01/12/2019 → 31/05/2027

      Project: EU H2020 Framework program

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