With the launching of the nationwide greenhouse gases targeted management system, SNU was designated last September by the Ministry of Land and Sea as one of the institutions to be put under supervision. Accordingly, the Asia Institute for Energy, Environment, and Sustainability (AIEES) and the SNU Division of Construction conducted inquiries into the sources of greenhouse gas emissions at SNU, calculated the amount of emissions, and completed the processes of third party verification and government registration. Hereafter, SNU will continue to discuss specific reduction targets in September and submit a specific plan for reducing emissions in December. Come 2012, a full-fledged implementation of the reduction plan will begin.

The main sources of greenhouse gas emissions at SNU turned out to be coming from stationary combustion, mobile combustion, and power consumption (refer to [Table 1]). The transportation of students to and from school, emissions from the course of production such as those coming from laboratories, and greenhouse gases coming from elapsed use of commodities were not included as sources in this inquiry.

[Table 1] Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions at SNU

	Emission Activity (%)		Source	Fuel
Direct Emission	Stationary Combustion (23%)	Greenhouse gas emissions from fixed combustion facilities	Boilers, Water, Chiller/Heaters, CHPs, etc.	LNG, Kerosene, Boiler, Oil, etc.
	Mobile Combustion (1%)	Greenhoouse gas emissions from mobile combustion facilities	Shuttles, Trucks, Automobiles, etc.	Gasoline, Diesel, etc.
Indirect Emission	Power Consumption (76%)	Consuptiom of electricuty supplied from outside campus	Buildings	Electricity

The amount of emissions from SNU is shown in [Table 2]. Greenhouse gases have consistently increased in recent years, and in 2011, SNU’s emissions amounted to 100 thousand tons CO2eq. This is approximately the amount that 25000 households would emit in a year--and this means that SNU’s energy consumption equals that of a city with 25,000 households. When compared to other universities in Korea, such as Korea University or Yonsei University, SNU is emitting nearly double the amount of greenhouse gases.

[Table2] Annual Amount of Greenhouse Gas Emissions at SNU

	2007	2008	2009	2010
Gwanak	85,620	87,888	87,761	97,560
Yongon	12,104	12,372	13,077	14,119
All	99,583	102,154	102,748	113,694

The factor that is responsible for most of the greenhouse gas emissions is electricity use, making up approximately 75% of the total emissions of the university. Since electricity use is something that can be reduced not through renovation of facilities but through active participation, the efforts of members of the SNU community are becoming crucial. Such enthusiastic efforts to reduce greenhouse gases have the largest potential to actually reduce emissions, in turn.

For a sustainable greenhouse gas cut-back plan, the SNU administration has been waging a campaign for an environmentally friendly SNU, while also entrusting further research of greenhouse gas reduction methods to the AIEES. Through the execution of such methods and further specific enforcement guidelines, SNU is working hard to act as the leading university in greenhouse gas reduction.

Written by KIM Eun Young, SNU English Editor   ?
Proofread by Brett Johnson, SNU English Editor