The digital carbon footprint of UCLouvain

For several years now, UCLouvain has adopted an environmental policy and has set itself the objective of becoming carbon neutral by 2035. It was shown in the previous global carbon footprint of the university that the most greenhouse gases (GHG) emitting sectors are the daily transport of employees and students as well as the production or purchase of heat and electricity. However, as the digital aspect was not studied in detail, this work aims to examine the impact of this sector. To do so, a carbon footprint methodology was followed. The data for the model comes from both the inventories of various UCLouvain departments and an online survey sent to the university community. To translate these data into GHG emissions, emission factors from the Base Carbone were used. This study estimates the UCLouvain digital carbon footprint to be 5446 tCO2-eq, i.e. nearly 8 % of the global university footprint. This is equivalent to drive more than 760 times the Earth’s circumference by car. The most impactful sectors are students’ private equipment, data transferred to and from the UCLouvain network and office equipment. Finally, different emission reduction scenarios were investigated. Three efficient reduction measures were identified. First, the limitation of the number of devices. Second, the purchase of computer models which have a lower embodied footprint. Third, the maximisation of the lifetime of the equipment. In addition, given the importance of the data transfer sector, particular attention should be paid to the evolution of this parameter.