College campus carbon footprint accounting and zero-carbon campus planning at Beijing Normal University

Direct carbon emissions within the geographical boundaries of universities and cross-border indirect carbon emissions are comprehensively considered, to construct a model of campus carbon emissions-accounting． The Haidian campus of Beijing Normal University is used to calculate and analyze current carbon emissions from the perspectives of both consumption and production． Three scenarios of low-carbon campus, deep carbon reduction and zero-carbon campus are designed． Total carbon emission at Beijing Normal University in 2022 was found to be 96.72 kt, the main source of carbon emission was indirect carbon emission by external power transfer (Scope2), accounting for 50.3% of total． Direct carbon emissions on campus (Scope1) are comparable to other indirect carbon emissions (Scope3), accounting for 25.5% and 24.2% of total carbon emissions respectively． Faculty apartments, student dormitories and office areas are the main sources of carbon emissions on campus, total carbon emissions reaching 42.06 kt CO₂, accounting for 43.5% of the total carbon emissions on campus, driven mainly by electric energy consumption and natural gas consumption． Among the remainder functional areas, carbon emissions by library, living service area, teaching area and main building were 9.30, 8.32, 7.92 and 7.25 kt, respectively． The sources of carbon emissions in living service areas are special, mainly caused by water and natural gas． Beijing Normal University can achieve a 40% carbon reduction by 2060 with a low-carbon campus scenario plan. If the deep carbon reduction scenario is implemented, the campus carbon emissions can be reduced by nearly 70% by 2060． If universities can follow the zero-carbon campus planning path and integrate various carbon reduction measures on both consumption and production, the university could achieve zero-carbon campus in 2060． This study can help colleges and universities to implement “carbon neutral” policy, clarify the status quo of carbon emissions, and realize zero-carbon campus．