Author(s)

Isiaka Adeyemi Abdul-Azeez

Department of Urban & Regional Planning, Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola, Nigeria.

Universities are challenged to play a leadership role in addressing unsustainable practices that are exacerbating global warming. Basically, many assessment tools have been suggested for measuring emission scenarios and achieve sustainability within university campuses. However, majority of the existing tools consider greenhouse gas emissions outside the campuses upon which universities have no control. This study identifies energy as a major driving force for Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) emission and a universal variable for the assessment of CO₂ emission in university campus. It proposed the Malaysia University Carbon Emission Tool (MUCET) to estimate Carbon Dioxide from the sources of energy use within the campus and assess the CO₂ emission scenario within Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). The result was compared to that of similar carbon emission inventory initiated by the UTM in 2009, a total emission of 46,000 Mt CO₂ was observed in 2011 using MUCET compared to 82,578 Mt CO₂ given as the total CO₂ emission value for the campus in 2009. Also MUCET presented 74% CO₂ emission for electricity and 26% in the transportation sector in variance to 78% and 20% offered for electricity and transport respectively in 2009 using the contemporary method of assessment. The difference in values was attributed to the contribution of the indirect and off-site emissions (i.e. Scope 3 emissions) from external sources. The study showed that MUCET presents a more realistic emission value and would promote sustainability on the campus.

Assessment Tool, Carbon Emission, Energy Use, University Campus Sustainability

Abdul-Azeez, I. (2018) Development of Carbon Dioxide Emission Assessment Tool towards Promoting Sustainability in UTM Malaysia. Open Journal of Energy Efficiency, 7, 53-73. doi: 10.4236/ojee.2018.72004.