Climate Responsibility

In the literature, the terms climate neutrality and net zero are not always used with the same meaning. In the University’s Climate Strategy, however, the two terms are used interchangeably based on the definitions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Federal Office for the Environment. Climate neutral or net zero for organizations means that no more greenhouse gases are emitted than can be absorbed by natural and technical reservoirs.

As part of the university's climate strategy, reducing its own emissions is an absolute priority. However, according to the IPCC, offsetting residual emissions is also necessary in order to achieve the targets defined in the Paris Agreement. It is not possible for the university to achieve a complete reduction in emissions by the target year of 2030. Offsetting the remaining emissions from 2030 onwards is currently being considered. There are various options for offsetting:

• Offsetting - or compensation - means that emissions are offset by investing in global projects that reduce future greenhouse gases (e.g. energy efficiency, renewable energies).      

• Negative emissions technologies (NET), on the other hand, aim to permanently remove existing CO₂ from the atmosphere and store it. There are both technical and biological approaches for this.

Promising solutions will be carefully examined by 2030 and a proposal for the President’s Board will be drawn up by the Sustainability Committee. The expertise of Basel researchers can be drawn upon in the process.

In the spring semester of 2022, the President’s Board established the "Climate Steering Group", which consisted of representatives from various faculties and university groups and was tasked with developing recommendations for the target year of a climate-neutral university and the measures required to achieve this. The steering group worked intensively on these issues in collaboration with the Sustainability Office from May 2022 to March 2023. It then compiled the results of its work in the "Climate Responsibility" report, which was approved by the President's Board in May 2023 and forms the basis of the university's climate strategy. Targets and measures were developed for the five fields of action Campus & Management, Mobility, Teaching, Research & Dialog and Engagement & Culture.  The climate strategy was adopted by the President's Board in February 2024 and approved by the Senate in March 2024.

The main difference lies in the different emission scopes included: While larger entities such as cantons often (still) limit their climate accounting to so-called Scopes 1 and 2, it has become standard practice for companies and organizations to also address Scope 3 emissions in particular. The reduction targets in the Canton of Basel-Stadt (net zero by 2037) and Basel-Landschaft (net zero by 2050) only relate to direct, so-called Scope 1 emissions. But both cantons also define targets and measures for Scopes 2-3. The reduction targets of the University of Basel explicitly refer to direct and indirect emissions (Scopes 1-3). Areas that have not yet been quantified (e.g. procurement) are to be gradually included.

It is challenging to compare the reduction targets between other universities. One of the reasons for this is that the system boundaries and base years are defined differently. Depending on the ownership structure of the infrastructure, for example, the area of "Gray Energy Buildings" is either within or outside the system boundaries. The reduction targets of the University of Basel refer to the base year 2019, whereas other universities sometimes refer to significantly earlier base years with higher initial emissions, which means that the same reduction targets can be achieved earlier.

The University's system boundaries follow the principles of the globally established Green House Gas Protocol and, in the area of district heating, the Swiss KBOB standard, and are based on the requirements of the Science Based Target Initiative, which sets standards for science-based reduction paths for companies. The quantitative reduction targets are the result of extensive potential assessments based on specific, ambitious but realistic key measures.

The University's system boundaries follow the principles of the globally established Green House Gas Protocol and, in the area of district heating, the Swiss KBOB standard, and are based on the requirements of the Science Based Target Initiative, which sets standards for science-based reduction paths for companies.

Business travel includes all flights, car, train and bus travel as well as accommodation and catering paid for by the university. The Energy data (heating, cooling, electricity) relates to all buildings used by the university. District heating is accounted for in accordance with the Swiss KBOB standard (Koordinationskonferenz der Bau- und Liegenschaftsorgane der öffentlichen Bauherren), whereby the emissions generated in a waste incineration plant are attributed to waste treatment and not to electricity and heat production. Catering includes the quantities of food and products purchased by the canteens and cafeterias, excluding vending machines. The topic of Waste includes the disposal of hazardous waste and other non-recyclable materials. According to the SIA standard, the Gray Energy Buildings section accounts for emissions from new buildings that occur over the life cycle of the building materials, until disposal at the end of use, calculated over 60 years. Only new buildings and renovations of buildings owned by the University are included. The carbon footprint for 2019 does not yet include the new buildings Biozentrum and DSBG, as the balance sheet is only drawn up from the reference year onwards. There will therefore be an increase in emissions in this area by 2030. The topic Other includes emissions from university vehicles and laboratory gases.

The area of procurement is relevant for the greenhouse gas balance, but has not yet been quantified. In the area of procurement, the aim is to set up greenhouse gas monitoring in order to develop measures for more climate-friendly, sustainable purchasing.

It has not yet been possible to quantify the emissions from employee and students commuting, owing to insufficient data. Given that there is very limited car park infrastructure in the 80 university buildings, it is assumed that a very high proportion of commuters use public and/or non-motorized means of transport. As the university's options for action have been categorized as rather limited, no goals and measures relating to commuter mobility have been included in the climate strategy.

The carbon footprint was prepared in accordance with the international standard of the "Green House Gas Protocol" (GHG). The GHG Protocol divides greenhouse gas emissions into three emission categories:

Scope 1 emissions originate from direct emission sources within the system boundaries under consideration, such as the company's own heat generation and vehicle fleets. At the University of Basel, these only include emissions from laboratory gases, a few vehicles and heat generation from fossil fuels in some buildings.

Scope 2 emissions arise from the external generation of electricity and heat that is purchased. At the University of Basel, this includes the purchase of electricity from several sources and district heating from IWB.

Scope 3 emissions are all other emissions caused indirectly by organizational activities. Within Scope 3, a distinction is made between 15 sub-categories. For the university, these include business travel, catering operations, waste disposal, indirect emissions from energy provision and emissions generated during the construction of buildings (gray energy buildings). Also relevant, but not yet quantified, are the area of procurement and commuting.

As usual, the most important key figures on greenhouse gas emissions are reported annually at the university's annual report. Every two years, the key figures and the implementation status of the measures are presented to the President's Board as part of the established sustainability reporting. A progress report will be prepared at the end of 2030.

New reduction targets will be defined in the coming years for the period from 2030 onwards. Recommendations for further reduction paths are to be drawn up by the Sustainability Committee. However, a reduction to zero emissions is not possible in the long term. Offsetting the unavoidable emissions from 2030 is therefore being considered. Nevertheless, reducing our own emissions as much as possible is an absolute priority, even after 2030.