Making School-Based GHG-Emissions Tangible by Student-Led Carbon Footprint Assessment Program

Oliver Wagner,Sebastian Albert-Seifried,Lena Tholen,Lotte Nawothnig

doi:10.3390/en14248558

Oliver Wagner, Sebastian Albert-Seifried + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/en14248558

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Abstract

Schools play an important role in achieving climate protection goals, because they lay the foundation of knowledge for a responsible next generation. Therefore, schools as institutions have a special role model function. Enabling schools to become aware of their own carbon footprint (CF) is an important prerequisite for being able to tap the substantial CO2 reduction potential. Aiming at the direct involvement of students in the assessment process, a new assessment tool was developed within the Schools4Future project that gives students the opportunity to determine their own school’s CF. With this instrument the CO2 emissions caused by mobility, heating and electricity consumption as well as for food in the school canteen and for consumables (paper) can be recorded. It also takes into account existing renewable energy sources. Through the development of the tool, not only a monitoring instrument was established but also a concrete starting point from which students could take actions to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. This paper presents the tool and its methods used to calculate the CF and compares it with existing approaches. A comparative case study of four pilot schools in Germany demonstrates the practicability of the tool and reveals fundamental differences between the GHG emissions.

Highlights

Reducing carbon footprints (CF) is a key aspect of sustainable development
Schools play an important role in achieving climate protection goals, because they lay the foundation of knowledge for a responsible generation
That is why this paper examines the question how a CO2-assessment tool must be structured in order to guarantee intuitive operation, whether students can be motivated by the tool to commit themselves to climate protection and whether self-efficacy can be experienced by using the tool

Summary

Introduction

To respond to anthropogenic impacts on the global climate system, more and more public institutions as well as private companies are assessing their GHG emissions and are aiming to reduce them [1]. Assessing emissions using a carbon footprint is an established method. It plays an important role in raising awareness about (reducing) GHG emissions and in developing measures to protect the climate [2]. In order to understand the background that plays an important role in connection with the creation of CO2 footprints of schools, we will provide detailed information as follows. The relevance of municipalities and schools regarding climate protection; 2. The relevance of carbon footprints as approach to reduce GHG emissions in schools

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