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Purpose: Universities and their actions affect the environment directly and significantly. Therefore, the carbon footprint (CF) needs to be implemented in these institutions for mitigating climate change and its potential risks. Based on this understanding, the university consortium quality and environment (QualEnv) stands out by its main objective – to increase the university's contribution to sustainable development (SD) through the deployment of systematic environmental practices and quality processes. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to present the CF of the Latin American universities of the QualEnv consortium. Design/methodology/approach: The study was based on the actions for adopting CF and its implementation at the universities that take part in the QualEnv consortium. The measurement process and report presentation were done properly by the universities and published as institutional documents. Therefore, data were collected and analyzed through a document search, systematic literature review and participant observation. Findings: The results show knowledge deepening and systematization on CF in higher education. In addition, it presents the effort of a group of universities that, through a research network, seek to adopt practices towards a carbon-neutral university, which requires an incremental and systematic change to break out of the traditional system. Originality/value: This paper discusses the practical implications for universities and the need to implement initiatives for measuring and reducing their CF since it shows how the institutions belonging to QualEnv consortium have created their own strategies to mitigate climate change and contribute to SD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

University campuses represent a heterogeneous ecosystem as to social, economic, energetic, and personal travel planning with a huge impact on hosting cities and territories. Sustainable policies are thus fundamental to reduce this impact and to adopt ecological behaviors. The measures for any University Sustainability Plan should be evaluated in terms of GHG emissions, as well as the overall impact of the university itself. Carbon footprint (CF) calculation is a relevant Decision Support tool that allows university organizations to measure and communicate the environmental effects of their activities. The aim of this paper is to present a carbon footprint methodology specifically designed to calculate the carbon footprint of large universities. The methodology was applied to calculate the CF of the University of Bologna by following international standards—i.e., the GHG protocol, the ISO 14064, and the ISO/TR 14069 guide—to understand the environmental impact caused by greenhouse gas emissions from direct and indirect university activities. The study was conducted upon the data available in 2020 and then was compared to the 2018 data, with the aim to recognize if the effect of the pandemic could have altered the results. In 2020, the University of Bologna emitted 16,467 tCO2e which became 15,753 tCO2e considering the offset and avoided emission provided by the internal production of energy from renewable sources. Comparison between 2020 and 2018 shows how, in 2018, most of the emissions came from transportation, representing 74% of the total emissions, while in 2020 almost 50% of total emissions derived by IT procurements. The case application demonstrates the way with which the methodology may be applied to assess environmental impact for complex university campuses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Greenhouse gas emissions related to food production in selected countries around the world in 2000, 2007, and 2014 were analyzed in this paper. In recent decades, many studies have suggested that greenhouse gas emissions mostly caused by agricultural production should be reduced. However, a low-carbon agricultural sector often involves a reduction in inputs, which may result in smaller production volumes. Nevertheless, the overarching goal should be to maintain food production at a sufficient level to meet the population's food requirements. Food production is particularly important in the context of the forecasted growth of the world population. In this situation, greenhouse gas emissions per product unit should be regarded as a key indicator that reflects the environmental sustainability level of production processes. Defined as such, environmental sustainability was examined across the entire food production system—referred to as agribusiness. This study calculated the emissions of major greenhouse gases related to food production and compared them to the GDP of agribusiness. The average ratio of the agribusiness carbon footprint to GDP in countries examined was nearly 2 kg of CO 2 equivalent/USD in 2000. This value kept decreasing during the study period, reaching 1.21 in 2014. A decrease in the ratio was recorded despite an increase in agribusiness greenhouse gas emissions, which validated the research hypothesis that an increase in greenhouse gas emissions from agribusiness does not necessarily reflect a decline in the environmental performance of agribusiness production. This is especially true for China and Brazil, whose greenhouse gas emissions related to food production increased considerably in the years examined in this study along with a clear decline in emission levels per unit of agribusiness GDP. This study is innovative, because the literature does not provide any similar calculations for the food production subsystem, especially regarding emission levels per production unit. This approach required the authors to integrate the calculation methods used in agribusiness production with those applicable to agribusiness greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, this study relied on consistent methods developed by the authors to calculate these values. The research adds to existing literature by calculating the carbon footprint for the entire food production system, and it argues that better environmental performance of agribusiness production can be achieved despite higher greenhouse gas emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]