The University of Georgia Costa Rica 2014-2015 Sustainability Report UGA Costa Rica 2014 - 2015 Sustainability Report | Page 21

Costa Rica is a leading country in this area
of environmental concern, declaring a goal
of being carbon neutral by 2021. In 2010,
UGA Costa Rica set a goal to achieve carbon
neutral status by 2015.

of the campus. They arranged sources of emission
into three groups by scope. Scope 1 encompasses
emissions directly funded by campus, such as the
fuel used by vehicles and methane gas released by
livestock. Scope 2 includes emissions linked to energy
use and purchasing. Scope 3 consists of emissions that
are indirectly related to campus operations, such as
transportation and solid and liquid waste. Emissions
are offset via composting, recycling, the reforestation
project, and the two biodigesters on campus. In
order to determine if UGACR has achieved its goal of
becoming carbon neutral by 2015, we have repeated
their study for the calendar year of 2014.
Important limitations of and assumptions used in this
carbon footprint analysis must be addressed before
analyzing the results. Many governmental bodies, such
as the EPA and the IPCC, use different estimations
for carbon emissions. To account for such variation,

77.99

Tonnes of carbon dioxide are
offset annually by the Carbon
Offset Program considering the
25 percent mortality rate.

the carbon neutrality study uses averages between
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
measurements when appropriate.
Currently, there is no method of exact biogas
monitoring on the two biodigesters, with industry
averages used rather than site-specific values. Placing
water input meters and biogas output meters would
improve the accuracy of emissions calculations from
the biodigesters. Emptying the biodigesters’ gas
reservoirs and measuring the time needed to re-fill
the bags would also improve estimations, but this
would significantly disrupt the flow of gas used by
the kitchen. Plans are currently being developed to
calculate the output of the biodigesters without having
to empty the bags.

34,054

Trees have been planted since
the start of the Carbon Offset
Program in 2008.

2014 – 2015 Sustainability Report

21