Towards the Evaluation of Carbon Footprint for University Communities’ Mobility: Challenges, Opportunities, and Reduction Strategies

One of the reasons for the increase in the global average temperature is undoubtedly the emission of greenhouse gases by various sectors, especially from the transportation sector, which accounts for 24 percent of these global emissions. Academic institutions, through student mobility, contribute substantially to their overall environmental footprint, with 0.3 tons of CO2 equivalent per person per year. One of the crucial challenges is to estimate the student demand. For this purpose, in this paper, a Mixed Gravity Model is proposed by combining socioeconomic aspects with the efficiency of public transport. The model shows good prediction accuracy by comparing the actual number of students and the estimated number of students (Pearson coefficient assumes the value of P=0.9418). With this tool, it is possible to forecast future scenarios, implement new reduction strategies, set new challenges, and provide new opportunities to reduce carbon footprint for the whole University community