通常来说，仅靠地方政府的政策的制定和执行并不总是足以提升或保持住一个城市环境水平和气候目标。在全球气候危机时刻，非政府的行为主体也应积极参与，利用其资源加强合作，实施适当和必要的气候行动计划。在所有非政府的行为主体中，高等教育机构（简称HEI）有潜力通过其气候行动计划带动并促进城市走向低碳、韧性和可持续的未来。除了教学和研究之外，促进城市/社区的社会、经济和文化发展一直是高等教育机构的核心目标。高等教育机构是知识、创新、专业化教育和服务的中心。它们的社会责任的基础是服务于它们所在的社区和城市。高等教育机构已越来越成为一个社区或城市低碳发展和多元化的驱动力与催化剂。人们高度期望高等教育机构能够利用其资源和气候行动计划，促进在低碳领域的可持续创新，并在社区和城市层面释放其有益的影响。根据联合国环境规划署的说法，只有将全球、区域、国家和地方层面的行动计划结合起来，才能减少气候变化的影响，确保一个可持续的未来。在所有公共和私营子系统中，高等教育机构类似于城市与不同子系统产生多维互动——包括教育、行政、交通、住房、卫生和食品等部门。它经常被研究者称为“小尺度城市模型”。随着其可扩展的基础设施，零碳校园可以起到示范作用，为实践、推广和展示从“零碳校园”向“零碳城市”过渡铺平道路。本论文提出了三个学术问题：（1）高等教育机构如何成为零碳目标的示范窗口及其对城市零碳转型的影响如何?（2）如何计算高等教育机构的碳排放量?（3）为什么实现“零碳校园”有助于向“零碳城市”的转变，实现这种零碳实践尺度转变的机制是什么?

本论文首先对“大学校园可持续性”的相关文献进行全面的综述。重点关注了“可持续校园”、“绿色校园”、“生态校园”、“智慧校园”、“零碳校园”、“低碳校园”为关键词的相关文献。通过综述发现，虽然文章中措辞不同，但最终目标或多或少是相似的。不同术语的选择多基于不同的上下文、系统边界和目标。本研究采用了“零碳校园”一词，并以“可持续零碳”为评价标准，对现有的评估方法进行了系统综述。

其次，本论文全新提出了一个新的可扩展框架来核算大学校园的碳排放和分析实现零碳校园的途径。该框架具有灵活的可扩展性，可适用于世界各地的各种类型的大学园区，充分考虑不同国情下高等教育机构的类型、系统边界、地理和气候条件等。该评估框架分为4个步骤，首先是确定校园类型与边界，这里需根据其所在城市设计和规划的特点进行分类，并确定与城市的链接方式。其次，考虑其自然禀赋和已建构筑物，计算中需充分纳入已建构筑物的总碳足迹和不同用地类型（草地、森林、水体等）的碳可利用性（固碳效益）。第三，调查分析该高等教育机构不同类型用户在能源使用、交通、水消耗和废物产生等方面的行为模式，制定可能会影响人群行为的政策和手段。最后，计算范围1（直接）、范围2（热、电等间接）、范围3（行为影响间接）的总碳排放量，评估用替代能源、碳抵消取代化石燃料的自然禀赋和技术设备的潜力、以及器具和行为改变下的零碳转型路径。

本研究选择位于孟加拉国拉杰沙希市的拉杰沙希大学（Rajshahi University）作为案例，该校占地753英亩，校园在其边界内具有教学、行政和住房设施的基本功能。2022年，其师生总人数为45801人。本研究设置了问卷调研，有关电力消耗、燃料消耗和废物产生的数据是通过拉杰沙希大学的官员访谈获得，师生行为数据通过填写问卷收集。

采用碳核算与评估框架，本研究计算了拉杰沙希大学不同直接源和间接源的总排放量。在研究中还对不同范围的排放的贡献因素进行了比较。碳核算结果显示，拉杰沙希大学在2022学年共排放了1900.71 ton CO_2e。考虑师生总数为45801，人均排放量为0.041 ton CO_2e。在所有排放源中，范围2间接温室气体排放是2022年温室气体排放的最大来源。范围2的排放主要来自电力购买，占总排放量的69%。第二大排放源是垃圾填埋场倾倒的三类固体废物，占19%。交通运输和景观作物种植产生的温室气体次之，为12%。此外，通过设置招生人数变化、能源使用结构变化和废物处理方式变化等情景，探索行为和措施改变对未来碳排放的影响。

最后，高等教育机构作为城市系统的关键角色，关键角色功能的根本性变化会影响整个系统或运行过程。高等教育机构所培训的青年市民是城市的主要利益相关者，他们在城市气候变化行动中的个人或集体角色都可能是“零碳城市”未来的决定性因素。零碳实践依赖于高等教育机构所培训的青年市民的综合行为和实践。本研究提出了从“零碳校园”到“零碳城市”的尺度扩展新机制：包括“扩展（Expansion）机制”——如何教育下一代关于环境与气候变化的知识能够产生不断延展的持久性影响；“示范（Demonstration）机制”——采用创新的实用型技术解决方案，向社会展示可复制可推广的零碳实践；“合作（Collaboration）机制”——与城市的政府和非政府主体建立强有力的联盟，通过分享知识、创新和技术促进可持续发展和零碳目标。

Local government policies and solution implementation capabilities are not always sufficient to uphold or enhance the standard of their urban environment and climate target. In this moment of crisis, non-government actors should also actively participate with their resources to strengthen collaboration and implement the proper and essential climate action plans. Among all the non-government actors, Higher Education Institute (HEI) has the potential to take the lead in promoting a resilient and sustainable future for the cities through their activities. Alongside academia and research, contributing to the social, economic, and cultural development of communities has always been a core objective of higher education institutes. HEIs are the centers of knowledge, innovation, and specialization of production and services. The foundation of their social responsibility is to serve their host community and beyond. An HEI becomes the driving force of a community or city's low-carbon development and diversity. It is highly expected that with its resources and activities, HEI should promote sustainable innovation and unleashes its beneficial impacts on the community level and beyond. According to UNEP, only a synchronized approach to combing global, regional, national, and local levels of action plans can mitigate climate change and ensure a sustainable future. Among all the other public and private subsystems, HEIs resemble the multidimensional activity of a city interacting with different subsystem-education, administration, transport, housing, health, and food. It has often been marked as a “small-scale city model” by numerous researchers. Along with its scalable infrastructure, a zero-carbon campus can take the lead and pave the path of practicing, promoting, and demonstrating the transition to a zero-carbon city. In this thesis, three questions are listed: (1) How do Higher education institutes (HEI) become the new demonstration window for zero-carbon experiments and their impact on the city's zero-carbon transition plan? (2) How to calculate the carbon emissions of an HEI campus? (3) Why scale up the zero-carbon practices and what are the methods of scaling up zero-carbon practices?

The first step of this research started with a thorough literature review related to “University campus sustainability”. From the very beginning, several terms such as sustainable campus, green campus, eco-campus, smart campus, net-zero campus, and low carbon campus have been encountered and were included in the list. The first finding regarding the terminology was, even with different wording the end goal is more or less the same. Based on different contexts, system boundaries, and targets several researchers used different terms. For this study, the term “zero-carbon campus” was selected. To assess the sustainability standard of the campus, several methods which were developed and used were analyzed intensively.

Following the identification of opportunities, a new framework was proposed to calculate the carbon emission of university campuses and pathways to a zero-carbon practice. The objective of developing the framework was to introduce flexibility, that it can be used or to adopted for any university campus around the world regardless of type, size, and geographical and climatic barrier. The framework was divided into 4 steps, first step was to identify the campus typology which was explained based on the theory of urban design and city planning. Secondly, take account of its natural resources and built structures to calculate the total footprint of the built structure, and the total availability of natural resources like grassland, forest, cropland, and water bodies. Thirdly, A survey to analyze the behavior pattern of its users regarding energy use, transportation, water consumption, and waste generation to develop policies and strategies eventually. Finally, selecting a carbon accounting method to calculate the total carbon emission from all scopes including 1,2, and 3 emissions. Lastly, evaluate the potential of natural resources and technological equipment to replace fossil fuel with alternative energy sources, carbon offset, and changes in human behavior and equipment.

To evaluate the framework a case study was selected. A 753 acres Campus of the Rajshahi University, which is situated in the divisional city of Rajshahi in Bangladesh was selected as the case. The campus has the basic functions of academic, administration, and housing facilities inside its territorial boundary. The total population of its users was 45801 in the year 2022. For further data collection for the study, a detailed survey was conducted to get the response of the users of the campus. Data regarding electricity consumption, fuel consumption, and waste generation were collected through officials of Rajshahi University.

Using the methods of carbon accounting, the total emission from different direct and indirect sources was calculated. Contribution and comparison of different scopes were also presented in the study to get a clear picture of specific roles. The result of carbon accounting shows that Rajshahi University emitted 1900.71 ton CO_2e in the academic year of 2022. Considering the total user population of 45801, the per capita emission of the users was found to be 0.041 ton CO_2e. Among all the emission sources, scope 2-indirect GHG emission was the biggest contributor to GHG in the year 2022. Scope 2 emission mainly generates from purchased electricity with 69% of the total emission. The second emitting source is scope 3 waste dumping in landfill with 19%. Fuel combustion for transport and crop cultivating is the lowest generator of GHG with 12%. Following that, 2 scenarios have been developed to explore the future impact by altering the data on population, energy usage, and waste generation. Significant changes have been found in the overall carbon emission in both scenarios compared to the base year 2022.

Finally, as a key actor of the city system, a radical change in the functionality of a key actor can influence the whole system or the operation process. Citizens are the prime stakeholders of the city, their individual or collective roles in any movement or activity can be a deciding factor of the city's future. Zero-carbon practices are solely dependent on the combined behavior and practices of the users of a specific organization. HEI campus has been addressed as the subject of this study. Three core parameters of scaling methods- expansion, repetition, and collaboration have been taken into consideration to evaluate the benefit of zero-carbon campuses. The scalability of the zero-carbon practices has been evaluated based on the ideas of (1) Expansion - How educating future generations about the environment can have a long-lasting impact, (2) Demonstration - Adopting innovative practical and technological solutions to exhibit the benefits of zero-carbon practices to society. (3) Collaboration- Building strong alliances with state and non-state actors of the city to promote sustainability through sharing knowledge, innovation, and technology.