WELL-EDUCATED CARBON FOOTPRINT: SAMPLE OF A UNIVERSITY STAFF IN TURKEY

Abstract

This paper aims to calculate the carbon footprint of a Turkish universitystaff and find out relations between demographical specification and theassociated carbon footprint. The term personal carbon footprint is used todescribe the total amount of carbon dioxide and another greenhouse gas emissionfor which each individual is responsible. 139 staff participated in the survey.According to the results; the carbon footprint of the participants wascalculated at 12.069 tons per person. Lifestyle constitutes 35%, foodconstitutes 23%, housing constitutes 18%, and travel constitutes 24% of totalcalculated carbon footprint. The carbon footprint of the participants is higherthan the average of Turkish people and the world. It has resulted in thatgender, age and tenure did not affect housing, travel, food, lifestyle andtotal carbon footprint significantly. On the contrary, marital status had asignificant impact on housing, travel, food, lifestyle and total carbonfootprint. Regarding to income, it had a partial affect on total carbonfootprint. It is seen that income is positively related to travel and totalcarbon footprint.

This paper aims to calculate the carbon footprint of a Turkish universitystaff and find out relations between demographical specification and theassociated carbon footprint. The term personal carbon footprint is used todescribe the total amount of carbon dioxide and another greenhouse gas emissionfor which each individual is responsible. 139 staff participated in the survey.According to the results; the carbon footprint of the participants wascalculated at 12.069 tons per person. Lifestyle constitutes 35%, foodconstitutes 23%, housing constitutes 18%, and travel constitutes 24% of totalcalculated carbon footprint. The carbon footprint of the participants is higherthan the average of Turkish people and the world. It has resulted in thatgender, age and tenure did not affect housing, travel, food, lifestyle andtotal carbon footprint significantly. On the contrary, marital status had asignificant impact on housing, travel, food, lifestyle and total carbonfootprint. Regarding to income, it had a partial affect on total carbonfootprint. It is seen that income is positively related to travel and totalcarbon footprint.