Universities Canada's #netzero commitment explained.
Universities Canada
The voice of Canada’s universities / Le porte-parole des universités canadiennes
Universities Canada is pleased to introduce our first ever Carbon footprint report, highlighting the results from our inaugural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventory and our commitment to becoming a net zero organization by 2050.?
Why commit to net zero by 2050???
To avoid the worst impacts of climate change, countries around the world—including Canada—have committed to becoming net zero by 2050. In June 2021 Canada’s commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050 was enshrined in law with the Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act.??
Recognizing the urgent need for a whole-of-society approach, Universities Canada joined this national effort in June 2023 by committing to net zero through our climate initiative, Canada’s universities: Action for net zero. To meet this goal, we will reduce emissions where possible and offset unavoidable residual emissions to ensure a neutral overall impact on the climate.??
How do organizations start their journey to net zero??
As an initial step, organizations are first required to conduct an organization-wide GHG baseline inventory to understand its current emission levels. This informs the development of interim targets and a GHG reduction strategy to achieve net zero by 2050.??
For Universities Canada’s GHG inventory, we followed the principles outlined in the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, the globally recognized carbon accounting standard for private and public organizations. We used the 2022-2023 fiscal year as our baseline.?
What did Universities Canada learn from this exercise??
We learned that Universities Canada emitted 234.32 tC02e for our baseline year. This is equivalent to 71.8 passenger vehicles or 157 homes’ electricity use for 1 year.1 This excludes certain categories (i.e. scholarships and investments) due to data gaps and data collection challenges.?
We also discovered that the vast majority (over 90%) of our emissions are indirect (scope 3 emissions).2
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What are Universities Canada’s next steps??
Our next steps include refining our data collection methods to address current gaps and implementing a comprehensive GHG reduction strategy. This will enable us to reach our interim target of a 20% reduction by 2030 and achieve our ultimate goal of net zero by 2050.?
Please visit our website for more information about Universities Canada’s climate initiative, Canada’s universities: Action for net zero.
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