Accounting carbon emission and proposals for their reduction at a university campus in China

In the context of global sustainable development, various industries actively account for their carbon emission to address climate change effectively. University campuses should also actively participate in this pursuit. This study takes Henan Polytechnic University south campus as an example. Energy and food consumption data were collected from the school’s relevant offices, and other data were obtained through questionnaires and multiplied by the corresponding carbon emission factors to calculate the carbon emission of the campus in 2019. Results showed that the carbon emission were 65327.44 tons, with a per capita of 1.51 tons. The analysis revealed that electricity and heating systems constituted the primary contributors to carbon emission. Heating emission profiles exhibited pronounced seasonal dependency, while electricity carbon emission ‌varied‌ across different functional areas. Two innovative findings were established: carbon transfer from transportation to the building sector was driven by accelerated electric vehicle adoption; a context-specific energy coupling system was proposed, with emission reductions quantified through localized analysis. Universities should leverage AI-powered analytics to quantify carbon emission and employ digital twin simulations for comparative assessment of emission reduction technologies. The carbon emission accounting and targeted carbon reduction measures carried out in this study can provide not only a path reference for universities to achieve carbon neutrality but also a theoretical basis and methodological references for various regions and industries to reduce carbon emission.