Cooling towers among ivory towers : a comparative analysis of research universities, electricity consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions

The rationale for university sustainability and existing international agreements on sustainability in higher education are reviewed in the context of developing a model to determine the linkages between three environmental impacts. It is proposed that larger university facilities draw more electricity which in turn cause increased greenhouse gas emissions. Using published environmental performance reports and sustainability audits from private and public research universities, facility size, electricity consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions are shown to exhibit strong correlations among each other even when normalized by student body, research population, or facility area. Preliminary analysis of secondary variables measuring financial resources and level of prestige display significant correlations suggest endogenous economic and social factors that contribute to micro-model of university greenhouse gas emissions.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Keegan, Brian C. (Brian Christopher)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Timothy G. Gutowski.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/36754

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/36754