Carbon footprint mesure of the Campus • Campus de la Transition

Project Genesis

Global warming in recent decades has resulted in an increase in anthropogenic carbon emissions to the atmosphere. In order to limit this warming to 2°C by the end of the century, according to the IPCC, net carbon emissions from the entire planet must be divided by 6 by 2050.

In an exemplary approach, the founders of the Campus decided to create, in 2018, acarbon neutrality target not 2050, but 2028, for all site activities(school, training, research).

The Maitrise Carbone Campus (MC2) project was launched in 2020 as a result of significant technical choices regarding the heating and renovation of the campus buildings.

The question then arose as to the compatibility of these technical choices (type of energy used, type of boiler, insulating materials, ...) with the ambitions displayed.

An encouraging first step and arbitration tool

A first measurement of the Campus's carbon footprint was carried out in the summer of 2020, with the support of experts in the field, following theADEME methodology.

This balance sheet covers the 3 telescopes:

A first estimate of our carbon emissions has been made of all the activities of the Campus taking place on the environmental scene, including food, mobility, energy, digital, etc. Activities taking place outside the site, such as the remote work of certain employees or the printing of the Great Transition Manual, are not included in this first carbon balance.

This work led to afirst estimate of approximately 90tCOEeq in 2020 for all activities of the association taking place on the school, where approximately 25 people livedon the calculation period (September 2019 to August 2020).

Due to the non-complete perimeter, it is impossible to accurately deduce the per capita carbon footprint of the school. However this first result gives an order of magnitude about 4tCO2eq/year per person. This estimate will need to be refined, as some of the assumptions made to carry out this first assessment still require verification. If it is not yet reaching the target of 2tCO2eq per person per year, this figure is to be compared with the average carbon footprint of a French: 11.5tCO2eq/year in 2018* . This result enabled us toidentify action levers for reducing our emissions,in particular on our movements today heavily carbonised, in synergy with theCampus mobility project (external link). This tool will give us theopportunity to arbitrate our choices over the long term, in strong connection with the projectBater (external link).

What about the growth of Campus activities and its impact on behaviour?

This first review was presented on 26 September 2020 to all Campus members by the action research team. A number of questions were then asked:

The first concernsImpact of Campus Business Growthon the reduction target, because, directly correlated with the volume of activities, the amount of carbon emitted by the Campus should indeed follow an increasing slope, absorbing and masking the efforts to reduce these emissions.
Another question concerns the scope of the calculation, as this measurement of the carbon footprint does not take into account theGHG emissions from off-site campus activities. However, a significant proportion of Campus activities take place outside the site, and this share is growing. The first carbon balance can be a solid basis for gradually taking these emissions out of the eco-location.

Campus as a field of experimentation for NZI

Our reflection is part of a global evolution of the concept of carbon neutrality. The concept of carbon neutrality is now the subject of many criticisms. In order to achieve carbon neutrality, many organisations are seeking tooffset their emissions rather than drastically reduce them. In response, consulting firm Carbone 4 recently proposed a new vision of carbon neutrality through its Net Zero Initiative (external link)(NZI).This benchmark invites organizations to think not only in terms of emissions compensation but also in terms of contribution to global carbon neutrality.

The Campus aligns itself with this vision of the consulting firm and has therefore decided to confront this benchmark with the field of the association. It is in the face of this observation on the concept discussed of carbon neutrality of an organization that the final name of the project was adopted: MC2 for Maîtrise Carbone Campus. Indeed, the real challenge of this project is tocontrol the emissions of the associationto move as quickly as possible towards global carbon neutrality.

Now what?

In 2024, an adjusted and finer carbon footprint measurement was performed. Discover the results!

Carbon Footprint Assessment – Methodology and Results
What courses of action to reduce the association's carbon footprint in the areas identified as the most emitters?