Environmental News Network - Hard-to-Quantify Emissions Are the Next Frontier for Stanford Sustainability Goals

Details: By Stanford University; 20.Apr

Even before the pandemic, Stanford’s emissions from campus operations, which include providing electricity, heating and cooling to buildings and running campus shuttles, had fallen by 72% from their peak 2011 levels.

Julie Swatson

Even before the pandemic, Stanford’s emissions from campus operations, which include providing electricity, heating and cooling to buildings and running campus shuttles, had fallen by 72% from their peak 2011 levels. Emissions will achieve an 80% reduction by 2022 when a new solar facility comes online, which is 3 years ahead of the 2025 deadline Stanford set for reaching that goal.

But those numbers only reflect relatively easy-to-track emissions. Now, Stanford is beginning to measure what are known as Scope 3 emissions, the indirect emissions generated by things such as growing and transporting food, travel, investments and producing the goods we buy.

Tackling Scope 3 emissions will be critical for achieving the goals laid out last year when Stanford’s Board of Trustees signed a resolution to reach at least net-zero greenhouse gas emissions from its operations and endowment by 2050. The Faculty Senate later urged the university to revise that target date to 2040 and encouraged faculty, students and staff to accelerate efforts to reduce emissions in their own lives.

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Hard-to-Quantify Emissions Are the Next Frontier for Stanford Sustainability Goals