Comparing greenhouse gas emissions across Texas universities

Abstract

This project serves as a study comparing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions between universities in Texas. Over 90 percent of climate scientists believe that increased climate change is due to anthropogenic causes. These anthropogenic causes result in the GHG that we emit in our day-to-day activities. Our study quantifies the GHG data from our university, St. Edward's University in Austin, and compares it to data obtained from other Texas universities. This report will serve as a reference to the universities involved to improve sustainability initiatives in place by comparing practices and metrics. These findings may also serve as a catalyst for action for other universities to begin implementing their own sustainability practices. Our hypotheses are exploratory in nature; schools with sustainability offices will have lower emissions than those without, and St. Edward's emissions will have decreased since the institution of a sustainability program. The results show that there does seem to be a correlation between the schools with the lowest GHG emissions and their creation of a sustainability office.