Collaborative approaches to greenhouse gas inventory in higher education: Insights from the Universities Denmark Group.

The challenges faced by universities and private industry in estimating their emissions for decarbonisation are similar, but the task of linking emissions to university operations, namely procurement, is complex and time-consuming due to the wide range and types of purchases. Here, participatory action research is used to address these challenges, with a group of Danish universities to investigate the functions and improve the completeness of university GHG inventories. The research enabled knowledge sharing and collaboration, leading to a better understanding of the complexities and possibilities of GHG inventories. The main conclusions drawn from discussions are that the GHG inventory should serve multiple functions; an inward-facing decision support material, and an externally-facing communication tool. EXIOBASE, an environmentally extended input-output model, was identified as a useful tool for future inventories, particularly in procurement, due to its comprehensive spend-based assessment of purchases also relevant to universities. With more universities adopting spend-based practices, the presented conclusions shed light on potential risks of this method that have not yet been discussed in this context. A consensus on methodological trade-offs, relevant activities, and data considerations for a GHG inventory are reached and reflected on. As suppliers can increasingly deliver product specific climate related information, a data ontology is needed to appropriately incorporate supplier-specific data into consistent inventories without conflicting with methodological principles and upholding proprietary requirements of suppliers. Addressing challenges identified through this collaborative investigation will expand on the dialogue in the literature and help shape how universities conduct and use GHG inventories. Keywords: Sustainable university; Action Research; Consequential Attributional; GHG Protocol.

Liberalization in the Danish waste sector: an institutional perspective.

The push for creating a more competitive and liberalized system for traditional public services, including waste management, has been on the European agenda since the late 1980s. In 2008, changes were made in EU waste legislation allowing source-separated industrial/commercial waste that is suitable for incineration to be traded within the European market. This change has had broad implications for the Danish waste sector, which is characterized by institutionalized municipal control with all streams of waste and municipal ownership of the major treatment facilities allowing the municipal sector to integrate combustible waste in local heat and power generation. This article, applying an institutional approach, maps the institutions and actors of the Danish waste sector and analyses how the regulatory as well as normative pressure to liberalize has been met and partly neutralized in the institutional and political context. The new Danish regulation of 2010 has thus accommodated the specific requirement for liberalization, but in fact only represents a very small step towards a market-based waste management system. On the one hand, by only liberalizing industrial/commercial waste, the Danish Government chose to retain the main features of the established waste system favouring municipal control and hence the institutionalized principles of decentralized enforcement of environmental legislation as well as welfare state considerations. On the other hand, this has led to a technological and financial deadlock, particularly when it comes to reaching the recycling targets of EU, which calls for further adjustments of the Danish waste sector.

The precautionary principle and chemicals regulation: past achievements and future possibilities.

BACKGROUND, AIM AND SCOPE: The paper investigates the development of the institutional basis for the present modes of chemicals regulation and management, with special attention to interrelations with the precautionary principle. MAIN FEATURES: The paper elucidates on how the precautionary principle has been shaped in relation to chemicals regulation and management since Carson's Silent Spring (years before the principle was confirmed as a policy-principle in German and European legislation. Furthermore, it is examined how the precautionary principle interacted with the development of the present chemicals regulatory regime, in a complex interplay within the OECD and Member Countries. The present modes of precaution in the new EU chemical legislation--REACH--are investigated with respect to the precautionary principle, and tested against two contemporary problems; brominated flame retardants and endocrine disrupting substances. RESULTS: The analysis demonstrates the changing character of the integration of the precautionary principle. The main tendencies are from implicit to more explicit precaution and from a closed expert-orientation towards a more deliberative approach to scientific knowledge and uncertainty. The results demonstrate that the precautionary principle is manifest in both the design of the testing strategy and in policy provisions. In particular, the substitution of hazardous substances with less hazardous is important. DISCUSSION: Despite explicit attention to the precautionary principle, is the present reformulation of the European Chemicals policy in danger of falling into loop-holes that equal problems related to the present regulation of existing chemicals? 'Precaution' has been reduced virtually to an abstract concept that is more or less devoid of practical meaning in the regulatory process. CONCLUSIONS: It is concluded that the role of the precautionary principle in chemicals regulation will require continued scrutiny in the future shaping of the REACH strategy. PERSPECTIVES: Continued development of robust and precaution-based chemicals regulation will have to involve both new data-generation strategies and new forms of political decision-making, with special attention given to transparency and deliberative policymaking.