University of Genoa best practices in managing Energy and Climate Change

Abstract

Since 2011, the University of Genoa (UniGe), Italy, focused on sustainable management of its campuses. In one of them, the Savona Campus, research and projects are specifically focused on Sustainable Energy and Smart City topics. Great efforts were made to reduce the carbon footprint by the creation of two large Research Infrastructures (a Smart Microgrid and an energy self-sufficient building) integrating different renewable energy sources and system automation. These infrastructures allowed to improve the energy performance of the Campus. Several actions have been then carried out also in the Genova Campus, including the implementation of a system for the real-time monitoring of the consumption of electricity for the most energy-intensive buildings. Results permitted to reduce energy consumption and provided significative and practical guidelines for energy saving. In 2015, the UniGe Commission on Environmental Sustainability was created and since then UniGe joined several international sustainability networks, such as ISCN (International Sustainable Campus Network) and UNICA GREEN (Network of Universities from the Capitals of Europe), sharing its best practices with other universities. UniGe is also active member of the Italian Universities’ Network for Sustainable Development (RUS). In 2022 UniGe made a strong and explicit pledge against climate change, defining its Climate Neutrality Strategy 2022-2030. The strategy, starting from its latest UniGe greenhouse gases (GHG) inventory, outlines a path that the university must follow to reduce both direct and indirect emissions and defines the actions to do for the offsetting of residual emissions. This is the last step of the strong and continuous commitment towards the spreading of the sustainability culture in all the Campus activities.