Period: August 23 - January 24

First of all, the previous GHG balancing at higher education institutions (HEIs) of Lower Saxony is recorded and the current state is compared to the "Greenhouse Gas Protocol" standard. On the basis of this data, challenges in accounting will be identified and gaps made visible, especially with regard to Scope 3. Finally, this phase of the project will determine the emissions for Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 that the HEIs should take into account in the future.

Progress

In April 2024, the first project phase “Recording the current status” was successfully completed with a presentation and evaluation of the results at the HochNiNa annual conference, as well as the handover of the results report on the current status analysis to all universities involved in the project. The main contents of the results report are an overview of laws and regulations as well as standards and norms in the context of sustainability reporting and GHG accounting, the analysis of GHG accounting at universities in Lower Saxony and the resulting recommendations for GHG accounting at universities.

Period: February 24 - July 25

In the second phase of the project, a common accounting framework for HEIs in Lower Saxony will be developed which, in addition to identifying suitable emission factors for the respective emission sources, will also include standard values for certain HEI areas where the data basis does not exist or is difficult to access. The aim of these standard values is to reduce the accounting time and effort as well as the complexity in order to lessen the burden on the already overburdened capacities of the university administration and yet to approximately account for relevant emission sources. The resulting GHG balance standard will then be integrated as an information and accounting tool on the project website. The tool, programmed by an external service provider, offers the possibility to enter the values of the specific HEI and to get the resulting GHG emissions displayed in tabular and graphical form as well as to compare the GHG emissions of different HEIs.

Progress

In June 2024, the second project phase “Accounting framework and information- and accounting tool” was launched as part of an online project meeting. Four thematic task forces have been formed by the universities involved in the project:

• task force 1: Basic balance sheet
   
• task force 2: Commuter mobility
   
• task force 3: Business trips and semesters abroad
   
• task force 4: Procurement
   

The task of the task forces is to develop guidelines for data collection and evaluation of GHG emissions in an iterative process by April 2025. This includes the definition of a uniform balance sheet standard, the description of a uniform methodology even for challenging data, the specification of standard values in the case of non-existent or difficult-to-obtain data, the specification of suitable emission factors and the specification of suitable key figures for the relation of emissions (e.g. CO2e/university members)

In October 2024, two more universities, Jade University of Applied Sciences and the University of Hildesheim Foundation, were added to the project. This means that 12 of the 20 universities in Lower Saxony under state responsibility are now involved in the project.

Period: August 25 - July 26

The accounting and information tool developed in the previous project phase will be continuously developed, adapted and updated in the final third project phase. For this purpose, information and advisory workshops on GHG balancing of universities in Lower Saxony will be offered, thus testing and optimizing the handling of the tool. Furthermore, measures will be derived that contribute to the achievement of climate neutrality of higher education institutions.