Dear students at collegiate universities,

As ambitious changemakers with limited time, it is essential to identify which environmental campaigns offer the most impact for the effort you invest.

However, it is not always clear what the effect of an action will be, since there are a range of environmental impacts to be considered.

This table aims to facilitate campaigns regarding the climate crisis. It provides estimates on how useful different actions are for lowering carbon footprints at a college.

This will hopefully simplify choices on which campaigns to pursue.

Yours sincerely,

Joey Bream. Co-founder of Scope B. Contact: [email protected]

www.scope-b.co.uk

About: This information was generated as part of a 2022 Cambridge General Engineering final project titled ‘Roadmap to Zero Emissions in a Cambridge College’. That report contains more detailed calculations and can be found here: Link to the report

Scope B’s College Carbon Impact estimation tool

Scope of emissions Carbon-saving action to be implemented Emissions saving per year per college if implemented perfectly (tonnes CO2e) Notes
Scope 1
(primary energy) Save gas used for heating 30 Save 3% of the gas used for central heating.
Electrify heating 1068 Replace gas boilers with heat pumps and electric heaters.
Purchase electric vehicles 2 Replace college internal combustion vehicles with electric vehicles
Eliminate appliance waste 4 Repair washing machines and fridges instead of buying new ones.
Scope 2
(electricity) Remove tumble dryers 12 Eliminate use of tumble dryers across college.
Install Solar panels 26 An 170 kW array would generate approx. 130,000 kWh per year, saving 26 tCO2 at 2020 levels and contributing to a distributed grid.
Scope 3.1:
(materials) Better Recycling 18 Reduce plastic, metal and paper waste to landfill by an extra 30%.
Start Composting 83 Reduce biological waste going to landfill by 50%
Save water ? Currently unclear. Reduce water consumption 25% → very rough estimate - saves 1-30 tCO2.
No ruminants 126 Remove all red meat sold in college, including that sold to students and in conferences.
‘Veggie monday’ 18 One day each week, replace meat main courses with vegetarian ones. This only applies to food sold to staff and students (exclude conferences).
All food plant-based 332 All food sold in college is plant-based.
Veggie conferencing 17 The conferencing season is made more vegetarian,
by replacing 1/7 meat mains with a vegetarian one.
No paper 1 Eliminate use of paper across the college site. This does not account secondary effects e.g. buying students tablets to compensate.
Re-use clothes/avoid buying new ~1 Currently unclear. Assuming 200 gowns and 50 lab coats this could correspond to ~1 tCO2.
Use less fertiliser 6 Eliminate fertiliser use in college grounds. This is a common product used to help garden plants grow.
Food growing 1 tCO2 saved per 200 kg food produced. Students grow vegetables on college property.
Colleges use roughly 100 tonnes food annually, generating 100-900tCO2. Growing 0.2 tonnes food saves at most 1.8 tCO2.
Scope 3.2
(services) No Flights 1000 Adopt a sustainable travel policy. Consider disincentivising students to travel for interviews. Unclear, collaboration needed.
0.1-0.5 tCO2 saved per flight.
Scope 3.3
(assets) Divestment ? Transfer endowment invested from high-emissions portfolios to low-emissions ones. Unclear, collaboration needed.
Other Climate research ? Support more climate-change technology research at the college.
Solidarity statements ? Shift the overton window by publicly voicing political statements e.g. support for stronger climate commitments from the UK Government.
Ending fossil fuel ties… ? Remove sponsorship from oil and gas companies, such as professorships, prizes or grants for college construction projects.