# How does a university calculate its campus carbon footprint?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/university-campus-carbon-footprint

Start with what the campus pays for: electricity, diesel for gensets and buses, LPG in hostels and canteens, and refrigerant top-ups. That is Scope 1 and 2. Then add staff and student travel, purchases and waste in Scope 3, which is usually larger.

## Scope 1 and 2

- Grid electricity and campus solar.
- Diesel for gensets and campus buses.
- LPG for hostel kitchens and labs.
- Refrigerant refills for ACs and cold rooms.

## Scope 3

Commuting, flights for conferences, books and equipment, construction and waste. Survey commuting once a year.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads electricity bills (CEA grid factor 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh, CO2 Baseline Database version 21.0) and diesel, LPG and gas invoices (IPCC 2006 defaults) into a dated, fingerprinted Scope 1 and 2 record for each site. Intensity per unit uses the activity count you enter, and estimates are labelled as estimates.

- [College hostel per student](https://senseible.earth/answers/college-hostel-carbon-footprint-per-student)
- [Commuting survey](https://senseible.earth/answers/employee-commuting-emissions-survey)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Corporate Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-standard), [GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-value-chain-scope-3-standard)

Last reviewed 2026-10-22.