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Assessment of carbon footprint from transportation, electricity, water, and waste generation: towards utilisation of renewable energy sources

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Abstract

Daily human activities generate greenhouse gases. The total emission of greenhouse gases is called the carbon footprint and is expressed in carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) units. As a new educational institution, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) began to take part in an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) programme that supports the reduction in carbon emissions. In this study, the total amount of CO2 produced from UTM during 4 years was measured under three categories: (1) the emissions from the fleet of university vehicles for public transportation, (2) the electricity and water emissions, and (3) the emissions produced by staff and student transportation, waste generation, paper, and maintenance by contractors. The special evaluation method is an alternative method to calculate greenhouse gases and measures all elements/sources of greenhouse gases under the same functional unit. This reference helps the assessor to avoid the double measurement of anthropogenic gases. The study results demonstrated that air transportation utilised by university students and employees and electricity usage contributed to 34.74%, 19.37%, and 18.19% of the carbon emissions, respectively. The total CO2 emissions from the three sources over 4 years were 48.442 MT. The data on the carbon footprint of the university can form the basis for monitoring, evaluation, and regulation of greenhouse gas emissions in Malaysia. Moreover, the university constructed and operates a smart house, a large solar parking lot with a capacity of 10 MW, uses solar and wind-powered lighting, and encourages the use of bicycles and electric scooters to achieve an annual reduction in the total CO2 emissions intensity. The results of this study suggested that a carbon reduction project could encourage university members and public society to an understanding of the environment and allowing UTM to become a centre of excellence for the operation of a green campus for urban areas.

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Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (Post-doctoral Fellowship Scheme grant 05E09, and RUG grants 01M44, 02M18, 05G88, 4B482) and Post-doctoral fellow (Teaching & Learning) Scheme under MJIIT-UTM. In addition, the authors wish to thank Duy Tan University for their financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Research and Development, Duy Tan University, Da Nang, 550000, Vietnam

    Amirreza Naderipour

  2. Faculty of Electrical - Electronic Engineering, Duy Tan University, Da Nang, 550000, Vietnam

    Amirreza Naderipour

  3. Institute of High Voltage & High Current, School of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, 81310, Johor Bahru, Malaysia

    Amirreza Naderipour, Zulkurnain Abdul-Malek & Rai Naveed Arshad

  4. Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra, 54100, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Hesam Kamyab

  5. Engineering Department Razak Faculty of Technology and Informatics, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra, 54100, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Hesam Kamyab & Shreeshivadasan Chelliapan

  6. Center of Excellence in Catalysis for Bioenergy and Renewable Chemicals (CBRC), Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Pathumwan, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand

    Veeramuthu Ashokkumar

  7. Faculty of Electrical and Computer, Institute of Higher Education ACECR Khouzestan, Tehran, Iran

    Jalal Tavalaei

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  1. Amirreza Naderipour
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  2. Zulkurnain Abdul-Malek
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  3. Rai Naveed Arshad
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  4. Hesam Kamyab
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  6. Veeramuthu Ashokkumar
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Correspondence to Zulkurnain Abdul-Malek.

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Naderipour, A., Abdul-Malek, Z., Arshad, R. et al. Assessment of carbon footprint from transportation, electricity, water, and waste generation: towards utilisation of renewable energy sources. Clean Techn Environ Policy 23, 183–201 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-020-02017-4

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