ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINT ASSESSMENT OF UNIVERSITY CAMPUSES AMONG DEVELOPED AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES INCLUDING A CASE FROM TURKEY

University campuses should be forefront of the mitigation and adaptation measures for climate change. In order to assess the environmental impact of a university campus, ecological (EF) and carbon footprint (CF) analysis are useful tools. Along this line, the first aim of the study is the calculation of EF and CF values of Gazi University for sustainable campus policy development. Then, EF and CF values of campuses with respect to development levels of countries were compared and assessed. Life cycle assessment (LCA) based on the ISO 14040 and 14044 series used for calculating environmental impacts in terms of EF. The study has been conducted using LCA software package SimaPro. Results indicated that; calculated EF (15700 gha) for Gazi University is 408 times higher than biocapacity of its physical capacity/area (38.5 ha). Transportation and electricity usage is the "hot spots" for most environmental impacts. In the second part; EF are found higher in university campuses in high development indexed and medium development indexed countries when compared to very high developed indexed countries.