A supply chain carbon footprint analysis of the University of California, Berkeley

New RAEL analysis of UC Berkeley's carbon footprint: 97% of emissions are indirect

RAEL, in collaboration with the UC Berkeley Office of Sustainabilty, has developed a new hybrid life cycle model to estimate of the carbon footprint of UC Berkeley. Total emissions are 424,000 metric tons for the year 2008.

Direct emissions (Scope 1) are only 3% of the University's total carbon footprint. Indirect emissions from purchased energy (Scope 2) account for 37% of the total, with 60% from other indirect sources (Scope 3). The official UC Berkeley greenhouse gas inventory includes roughly 50% of the total carbon footprint.

The goals of the new RAEL study are:

1. to improve upon some of the shortcomings of UC Berkeley’s previous carbon footprint assessment for the year 2006,
2. to provide an updated estimate of UC Berkeley’s carbon footprint for the years 2006, 2008 and 2009,
3. to ensure the assessment is compliant with the newly proposed World Resources Institute standards for Scope 3 reporting,
4. to suggest potential strategies for supply chain emission reductions,
5. to produce a spreadsheet tool to facilitate annual monitoring of carbon footprint data in the future,
6. to explore uncertainty in the model, and
7. to suggest improvements for future carbon footprint assessments.