The ecological footprint evaluation of low carbon campuses based on life cycle assessment: A case study of Tianjin, China

Global warming is a very serious environmental problem. Universities, the most active organizations and locations for scientific research and social activities, have a responsibility to construct low carbon campuses and to play an important role in reducing CO2 emissions. The concept and definition of a low carbon campus were proposed in this paper along with a comprehensive model. Tianjin Polytechnical University (TJPU) was used as a case study because of its innovative efforts in this aspect. The ecological footprint evaluation (EFE) and life cycle assessment (LCA) were integrated to evaluate a low carbon campus qualitatively; The ecological footprint index (EFI) was proposed for a quantitative evaluation. The EFI of TJPU was 0.61, which indicated that the low carbon campus of TJPU is classified as having strong sustainability. Last, effective recommendations were proposed based on data analysis to improve the low carbon campus; qualitative and quantitative evaluations were also discussed to enhance the progress of constructing low carbon campuses worldwide.