As Cornell has taken steps to reduce carbon dioxide emissions over the past two decades, addressing campus consumption may be the next green frontier. Using Cornell as a case study, the researchers created a framework aimed at helping universities reach their climate goals in the coming years; Cornell seeks to achieve carbon neutrality by 2035.
"Understanding what causes emissions leading to climate change is key to solving climate change," said senior author Natalie Mahowald, professor in engineering at Cornell and an atmospheric scientist.
Campus greenhouse gas emissions dropped from 463.5 thousand metric tons of carbon dioxide in pre-COVID 2019 to 404.7 thousand metric tons in 2020 at the starting phase of the pandemic, the researchers found. The shutdown also offered new insight into campus's carbon usage overall.
While energy and managing greenhouse emission is important to sustainability, procurement is becoming a crucial issue in campus management.
The Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability funded the work.