Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of University Campus in Operation Phase, a Case Study of Kharazmi University in Iran

The higher education sector plays a crucial role in sustainable development by educating the next generation of academic professionals. Thus, this study aimed to assess the environmental impact through life cycle assessment (LCA) of the operational phase of Kharazmi University’s Karaj campus. The LCA was conducted using a process-based method and a gate-to-gate system boundary for the university’s 100-year operational period, with a functional unit of “1 day.” SimaPro 9 software, incorporating methods from the Center of Environmental Science at Leiden University (CML), BEE + , and impact methods, was utilized for analysis. Results revealed that daily operations at Kharazmi University generate an average of 39,679.48 kg of CO2 equivalent (global warming potential), 205.6 kg of SO2 equivalent (acidification potential), and 40.5 kg of equivalent (eutrophication). Environmental damage indicators included 0.025 DALY (damage to human health), 8915.7 PDF × m2 × year (damage to ecosystem quality), 37,413.7 kg of CO2 equivalent (climate change), and a demand for 609,690.7 MJ of primary energy (damage to natural resources). Among the university’s activities, electricity usage, natural gas consumption, solid waste generation, wastewater production, and the consumption of meat, rice, acetone, toluene, xylene, diethyl ether, ethanol, tri-dichloromethane, and hydrogen peroxide in labs were identified as the major contributors to environmental pollution. The most sensitive parameters in the LCA were electricity consumption, wastewater production, red meat consumption, and solid waste generation. Further assessment with five different scenarios of electricity consumption revealed that implementing photovoltaic panels (PV) for all lighting applications across campus could reduce environmental damage by nearly 24% and pollution impact by about 9 to 24%. This study serves as a foundational step toward achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Iran.