Estimación da pegada ecolóxica en dous Centros da Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, e posibles implicacións educativas

Abstract

The University of Santiago de Compostela, through a Sustainable Development Plan, assumes the commitment to incorporate measures towards an educational and researching activity that is developed under sustainability criteria. And to promote among the members of the university community the sense of responsibility and environment improvement. This is the reason why the completion of a study about the ecological footprint of the year 2005 associated to two teaching institutions of the USC (the University School of Primary Education in the Campus of Lugo and the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration in the Campus of Santiago) is promoted.

The work methodology is based on the studies of Rees and Wackernagel (1996) and on other studies developed in Spain. Its aim consists in estimating the surface of Galician forest necessary to assimilate the CO2 emissions that can be associated to electrical consumption, gas-oil consumption, paper consumption, water consumption, mobility, and building construction.

The results reveal that the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration would need a total of 463.58 ha/year of Galician forest to be able to assimilate the CO2 emissions associated to its academic activity (344 times its own surface); and the University School of Primary Education of Lugo would need a total of 115.57 ha/year (192 times its own surface). Finally, the study analyzes the improvement options in the studied areas.