CACS Related Announcements

CalCAP has chosen to include university procurement (university purchases of goods, services and food) as an additional line item in the greenhouse gas emissions inventory to estimate as actual a UCB carbon footprint as possible. From a lifecycle analysis perspective, every dollar the university spends results in greenhouse gas emissions somewhere in the economy. Using lifecycle assessment software co-developed by UCB Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Arpad Horvath, and taking the categories and expenses catalogued in UCB's purchasing department, we have calculated an estimate of all GHG emissions embodied in campus procurement of goods, services, and food of 141,000 metric tons. UCB has about 134 categories of purchases, which we aggregated into 25 major categories. When ranked for emissions, the top three in order were a) scientific research and development services, b) facilities (furniture, electrical services, janitorial products, flooring and carpeting, etc) and c) scientific supplies and equipment.