Canadian post-secondary institutions are contributors to climate change due to their large geographic, economic and environmental footprint, and also face a number of emerging environmental risks.
As such, institutions have a significant role to play in mitigating the impacts of climate change and enabling the transition to a low carbon economy through their institutional operating practices, community engagement and research and education that take place on their campuses, all while striving to manage and adapt to the climate risks on their institutions.
CAUBO initiated a Climate Change Mitigation Strategies project to support members’ efforts to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change. The project includes four components, and the fourth resource is now available for members to access:
As noted in the Net Zero Roadmap, for institutions to reach net zero, they will need to look at all emissions and determine where emissions can be eliminated and where offsets will be required. Assessing GHG emissions across the entire value chain can be complex, and for institutions just beginning to assess their Scope 3 emissions, it can be difficult to know where to start.
Scope 3 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Estimation Guidance summarizes the activities and operations that are included as Scope 3 emissions and describes the challenges of measuring them. The report also provides examples of calculations and additional resources for tracking Scope 3 for higher education institutions. Furthermore, it provides a recommendation for a common approach to Scope 3 carbon measurement and a tool that can be used to support this measurement exercise, which can be adopted by post-secondary institutions to support consistent and transparent measurement across the sector.
CAUBO’s Climate Change Project has been made possible by financial support from The McConnell Foundation.