Environmental Footprint of the University of Turku
In 2018, the University Board decided that the University of Turku becomes carbon neutral by the end of the year 2025. The university has calculated its carbon footprint annually since 2019 and has been actively seeking ways to reduce it.
The University of Turku has made biodiversity and sustainability a multidisciplinary theme in its strategy and has also asses its biodiversity footprint. The University of Turku is also one of the founding members of the Nature Positive Universities Alliance coordinated by the University of Oxford.
Pioneer in Climate Work
Defining carbon footprint since 2019
In order to achieve the carbon neutrality goal set by the University Board, a carbon neutrality working group was was set by the Steering Group for Sustainable Development. The working group worked from 2019 until the end of 2023 with the task of calculating the carbon footprint and finding ways to reduce the university's carbon footprint. Since 2024 the university's carbon footprint calculations and emissions reductions have been reported directly to the Steering Group for Sustainable Development.
The University of Turku was the first higher education institution in Finland to define its own carbon footprint and has since calculated its carbon footprint 6 times using a formula developed in 2019. It identifies the key emission sources of the university's operations. The calculation follows the GHG protocol and takes into account scope1, scope2 emissions in their entirety. As for Scope3, the calculation includes the majority of indirect emissions, but not all expenses that appear in the accounting of the University of Turku have been included. For example in terms of service procurement.
University of Turku carbon footprint for 2023
The total calculated emissions for 2023 were 8600 t co2 eq kg. Emission related to business travel and increased emissions from air traffic, and emissions related to research activities (Research Equipment and Laboratories) are major sources of emissions in the calculation. These three categories together account for more than 85% of total emissions in 2023.
See also below the annual calculation of the carbon footprint for 2019-2022.
Biodiversity Advocate
Defending biodiversity
The Biodiversity Unit at the University of Turku carries out biodiversity-related research and teaching. Biodiversity and sustainability is also one of the five interdisciplinary themes of the University's strategy, further strengthening interdisciplinary biodiversity research at the University of Turku.
The University has also profiled itself as an advocate for biodiversity in its practice. In addition, the University of Turku's Biodiversity Unit carries out impressive outreach activities, such as environmental and science education.
The University of Turku also promotes nature-positivity through cooperation with various stakeholders and through its involvement in national and international networks. As a founding member, the University of Turku joined a global network of universities that aims to promote biodiversity research and teaching in higher education, to support nature restoration in the higher education sector and to deepen dialogue and knowledge transfer between universities.
- Watch video: Sustainable Development Specailist Jutta Mäkinen talks about the Nature Positive Universities network
- Read more about the multidisciplinary theme Biodiversity and sustainability
- Read more about the University of Turku's Biodiversity Unit
University of Turku Biodiversity Footprint
The biodiversity footprint of the University of Turku for the year 2022 was calculated using a calculation method developed by researchers at the University of Jyväskylä's resource wisdom community JYU.Wisdom, which utilises scientific databases, organisation's financial accounting and other consumption data. A biodiversity equivalent (BDe) has been developed for the footprint, which gives a theoretical proportion of species that are likely to disappear globally. The total biodiversity footprint for 2022 of the university was 96.6 nBDe and 0.03 nBDe/person.
The majority of the University of Turku's biodiversity footprint is made up of purchased energy and research activities and equipment, while the carbon footprint is dominated by research activities and equipment and business travel.
In contrast to the carbon footprint, the definition of the natural footprint allows in principle to look at where the natural footprint is geographically located. This allows a more accurate analysis of the distribution of biodiversity loss between Finland and other regions of the world.
Carbon Footprint calculations 2019-2022
The calculated total emission for 2022 is 7500 t co2 eq kg. The calculation shows the increased academic business travel since the pandemic period, especially in the form of increased emissions from air traffic. On the other hand, the coefficients have been updated, so the increase in emissions is not directly proportional to the increase in flight kilometers.
Carbon footprint calculations are not nationally consistent, so the carbon footprints are not automatically comparable. There is a dialogue about unification, in which the University of Turku is also closely involved.
The University of Turku has raised awareness of sustainable choices in its community. However, this alone does not explain the reduction in emissions. Significant factors have also been the compensation procedures of Finnish University Properties Ltd (SYK Oy) and the reduction of work travel due to the Covid-19 pandemic. For buildings, emissions per floor space have also decreased. The same coefficients have so far been used also in other buildings than those owned by Finnish University Properties Ltd. The overall footprint of travelling also decreased further and represented in 2021 only 11 % of the emissions caused by work travelling in 2018 when carbon footprint was calculated for the first time.
A significant decrease in total emissions between 2020 and 2021 emerged due to use of new emission factors for research-related procurement. The use of new emission factors relates to the national harmonisation of calculations. Research equipment and laboratory supplies make up nearly 60 % of total emissions.
In 2020 Carbon Footprint of the University of Turku was 10 500 tCO2 which was about half of the total of the previous year. The carbon footprint of properties (1 220 tCO2eq), travel (1 350 tCO2eq) and research (7890 t CO2eq). Other contributors were minor. Compared to the previous years, the carbon footprint of 2020 was significantly low, circa 10 500 tCO2eq.The emissions of premises reduced significantly after the University Properties of Finland Ltd began compensating their emissions and this has resulted in the premises being carbon neutral. In addition to the emissions compensations by the University Properties of Finland Ltd, the mild winter of 2020 as well the changes promoting sustainable development in the industry had an impact on the decrease in the carbon footprint of the properties. The carbon footprint of travel dropped significantly due to the coronavirus situation while the carbon footprint of research increased a little.
In 2019, the carbon footprint of the University was 21 680 tonnes CO2 equivalent. The most significat contributors of carbon dioxide emission were properties (6830 tCO2eq), travel (7210 t CO2eq), and research (6560 tCO2eq). Other contributors were minor. District heating caused majority of the carbon footprint of the properties, and in travel, most of the emissions come from flights. The carbon footprint of research is caused by research equipment (3250 t CO2eq) and chemicals and laboratory materials (2900 tCO2eq).
