1. Introduction
To understand the sustainability problem, one must first consider the existence of the intrinsic relationship between humanity and nature. In this context, our dependence has become more evident in recent decades, as the excessive use of resources to satisfy humanity’s unlimited needs has strongly affected the constant flow of different resources on the planet. This is why it is important to study the ecological footprint (EF), which represents the amount of ecologically productive land required for the production of resources used and the assimilation of waste generated by human beings, measured in global hectares (hag). The EF is a tool that indicates, at a global level, the ecological deficit or surplus existing in a defined area, assuming that consumption is homogeneous. It can be calculated at a local, regional, or national level; moreover, it can be calculated at an institutional or personal level, indicating whether a population group is living within the limits of the planet or of the existing regional or local ecosystem [
1,
2,
3,
4,
5].
In the 1950s and 1960s, many countries worldwide demonstrated that they had the capacity to meet the needs generated in their own territories; however, since the 1970s, the indicators of demand for goods and services in the world have exceeded the associated supply, generating a gap in needs. To cover this deficit, goods and services began to be produced in larger volumes, affecting the use of natural resources. Therefore, the ecological footprint began to vary, and the biocapacity of the earth was affected by increasing the consumption of renewable resources at rates greater than their natural regeneration cycle, releasing greater volumes of CO
2 into the environment, and exceeding the capacities that ecosystems have for natural assimilation and absorption [
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10].
For these reasons, since the 1990s, the problem of climate change has been one of the most critical and worrying environmental problems for humanity and nations. This is why environmental pollution, the generation of solid waste, and CO
2 emissions, among other important issues, were addressed at the meeting of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change and the conferences of the parties on climate change (COP), both promoted by the United Nations (UN). This same international organization proposed the paradigm of sustainable development in 1987, where sustainable development was established as development that satisfies the needs of the present without compromising those of future generations. Likewise, 17 sustainable development goals have been in force for UN member countries from 2015 to 2030. They all propose clean development mechanisms and tools for the public sector, private sector, and civil society of the countries [
11,
12,
13,
14,
15,
16,
17,
18,
19,
20,
21].
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) address aspects such as affordable and non-polluting energy (SDG 7), and the responsible production and consumption of resources (SDG 12). These have been incorporated into the state policies of Peru, where it has been established that, in order to reduce the ecological footprint, environmental policy guidelines must be implemented in state institutions and the private sector, including the Peruvian university system [
22,
23,
24,
25,
26,
27,
28,
29].
Greenhouse gases (GHGs)—mainly carbon dioxide (CO
2)—are the main cause of the problem of climate change, which is considered the main environmental threat to our planet, as fossil fuels, which contribute to the generation of GHG emissions, continue to be the main source of energy for economic activities [
20,
21,
30,
31,
32,
33,
34,
35,
36,
37]. In this sense, talking about the topic of the ecological footprint is important, as, being a measurement method, it allows for analysis of the demands of humanity on the biosphere with respect to the regenerative capacity of the planet. This is carried out by jointly considering the area required to provide the renewable resources that people use and the area occupied by infrastructure necessary to absorb waste [
38,
39].
To determine whether the human demand for renewable resources and CO
2 absorption can be maintained, the ecological footprint is compared to the planet’s regenerative capacity (or biocapacity). In addition, both the ecological footprint (which represents the demand for resources) and biocapacity (which represents the availability of resources) are expressed in units called global hectares (hag), with 1 hag being equivalent to the productive capacity of one hectare of land with respect to the average production worldwide [
40,
41,
42,
43,
44,
45,
46].
In recent years, the ecological footprint indicator has made it possible to identify the production and consumption of organizations with respect to environmental sustainability. As such, the methodology for calculating the ecological footprint of universities takes into consideration that ecological systems are necessary to obtain flows of materials and the energy required for the production of any type of product, for the absorption of waste from production processes and the final use of products, and for the creation of infrastructure. To estimate this indicator, the forest area necessary to assimilate the CO
2 emissions produced in each consumption category identified and selected in the institution must be determined. This forest area is obtained by calculating the quotient of the total mass of estimated emissions (of all categories) and a factor that represents the carbon absorption or fixation capacity. The surface occupied by the buildings on the university campus is added to the final value obtained [
47,
48,
49,
50,
51,
52].
The worldwide ecological footprint in 2017 reached 2.70 hag/person, with a biocapacity of 1.78 hag/person, where Africa had an ecological footprint of 1.41 hag/person and a biocapacity of 1.48 hag/person, Asia had an ecological footprint of 1.78 hag/person and a biocapacity of 0.82 hag/person, Europe had an ecological footprint of 4.68 hag/person and a biocapacity of 2.89 hag/person, Latin America and the Caribbean had an ecological footprint of 2.58 hag/person and a biocapacity of 5.47 hag/person, North America had an ecological footprint of 7.90 hag/person and a biocapacity of 4.93 hag/person, and Oceania had an ecological footprint of 5.39 hag/person and a biocapacity of 11.15 hag/person [
12,
41,
44,
45,
53,
54,
55,
56,
57,
58,
59].
In the case of Peru, it reached a value of 41,627,485 hag, representing a value of 1.46 hag/person—a value lower than that determined by the Global Ecological Footprint Network, which indicated that, for this period, the value was 43,408,349 hag (i.e., 1.54 hag/person). Considering the value of the global BC (1.80 hag per capita), by 2022, it was expected to increase to 1.47 hag/person. All of this is caused by the growing population and changes in the per capita demand for resources, resulting in Peru joining the ranks of countries that exceed the ecologically permissible parameters. Additionally, Peru’s CO
2 emissions in 2020 reached 44,479 megatons, thus positioning Peru as number 128 of 184 countries within the ranking of countries by CO
2 emissions from least to most polluting [
48,
50,
60,
61].
Given this problem, it is necessary for the public and private sectors to become aware of their levels of contribution to environmental deterioration and, at the same time, strategies for reducing the ecological footprint should be proposed. This is because, in recent years, the demand for organizations to evaluate the environmental impacts that they generate by applying sustainability indicators has increased; this is also the case for different public and private universities in particular, which are part of systems within their local environments. An institution can have inputs related to the consumption of different types of resources and outputs as part of the production of different types of waste. This analysis is in compliance with what was established at the Earth Summit (1992), which took place in Rio de Janeiro, and the functions that universities should perform for the benefit of guaranteeing sustainable development are included in Agenda 21 [
61,
62,
63,
64,
65,
66,
67,
68]. For this reason, the National University of the Altiplano (UNA-Puno), from its institutional framework and considering the perspective of the local reality, has been showing institutional growth not only in the aspect of infrastructure, due to its great pedagogical potential, but also with respect to the number of members who have progressively joined the university community (e.g., students, teachers, and administrative staff).
With its properties, UNA-Puno has an area of 38.93 hectares. As a public institution, its activities are to provide university-level higher education in its 35 professional courses in 19 faculties, with 23 master’s programs, 13 doctoral programs, pre- and post-graduate populations (18,508 and 6385 students, respectively), and 108 RENACYT-CONCYTEC researchers and teachers. It also has 1311 teachers, 813 administrative workers, and various infrastructure, vehicles, equipment, and laboratories [
68,
69].
In recent years (2018–2023), the numbers of students and teachers have increased at an annual growth rate of 0.037 and 0.0421, respectively (information from the UNA-Puno statistics office). This implies increases in demand for the consumption of water services, electricity, fossil fuels, and food, among other things, as well as an increase in the generation of hazardous and non-hazardous wastes, contributing strongly to its ecological footprint. It is necessary to mention that, at present, UNA-Puno does not have an instrument or document that systematizes the different types of resources that it demands, nor does it possess information related to the quantities of the different types of waste that are generated. Therefore, the real dimensions of the impacts that are generated in the development of the daily activities of the university are not known [
68].
In this sense, this study is intended to demonstrate the degree of contribution to environmental deterioration by the UNA-Puno community. Therefore, this research proposes the calculation of the ecological footprint for 2023 using the methodology for calculating the ecological footprint of universities proposed by López et al. [
51]. For this purpose, information was collected from direct sources (institutional information) and indirect sources (surveys), which allowed for the calculation of a sustainability indicator that provides information on resource consumption and relevant implications for sustainable development.
4. Discussion
Most studies focused on calculating the ecological footprints of universities have considered the methodology for this purpose proposed by López et al. [
51] in the Spanish context. In this research, this methodology was used with some adjustments, in order to reflect the local reality, thus allowing for comparison with results obtained using similar methodologies for the estimation of the ecological footprints of universities.
The ecological footprint generated through the different institutional activities of the National University of the Altiplano was demonstrated. With the use and consumption of goods, it can be seen that the results are very similar to those of other investigations conducted in the last 15 years. Ecological footprint estimates have been calculated for Latin American universities, as presented below, and most of them have made use of the estimation methodology proposed by López et al. [
51]. In this research, this methodology was also used with some minor modifications, which is why comparisons of the results with those obtained in other studies carried out at other universities in Latin America are pertinent [
54,
56,
77,
78,
79,
80,
81,
82,
83,
84]. It can be clearly observed that the ecological footprint per capita in universities is generally less than 0.5 ha/year, as observed in this study (0.04 ha/person/year). Although this value was well below that of foreign universities, the CO
2 emissions from consumption at the National University of the Altiplano were the highest at the national level (4721.20 t CO
2); the corresponding ecological footprint at the national level of universities in Peru is also relatively high (915.67 ha/year). This result is mainly due to the fact that, at this university, the population of teachers, students, and administrative staff comprises 20,632 people, and because the university owns land for experimental centers inside and outside the department of Puno, reaching a total of 12,147.08 hectares (
Table 6).
From the estimates of the ecological footprint, the consumption categories, and the methodology, we can infer that this university had a high level of CO
2 emissions and a significant ecological footprint. This is due to the large amount of infrastructure and number of buildings constructed over the last 15 years, the use of transportation to the university, and energy consumption. This greater level of carbon dioxide emissions must be addressed through the implementation of a series of policies and/or actions by the university authorities for their adequate reduction. If the objective of the university management is to improve academic quality and improve research, the priority should not be only iron, cement, and stone. Budget, efforts, and resources should be oriented toward these priorities, and it should be understood that the most important resource of a university is human resources. Therefore, the construction of infrastructure should not be the priority of resource allocation—as happens in the best universities in the world [
74,
84,
85,
86], given that the average ecological footprint of European universities is 0.55 ha/person/year. There, the means of transportation has a 55% share in the generation of CO
2. Thus, to reduce the ecological footprint, environmental education policies must be developed for university communities, and more sustainable management must be carried out. In addition, policies and/or actions must be implemented for the rational and efficient use of electrical energy at the National University of the Altiplano. Both recommendations are supported, in light of the findings of this ecological footprint investigation.
5. Conclusions
In 2023, the National University of the Altiplano had 1311 teachers, 18,505 undergraduate students, and 813 administrative staff. Through academic, research, and social activities, carbon dioxide emissions amounting to 4721.20 t CO2 were generated as a result of consumption through infrastructure construction, mobility, electrical energy consumption, paper consumption, and potable water consumption.
The methodology proposed by López et al. [
51] for the estimation of the ecological footprint of universities was adapted to the local reality, and an ecological footprint of 915.67 ha/year or 1172.06 hag/year was estimated, in addition to a per capita ecological footprint of 0.04 ha/person/year or 0.06 hag/person/year.
From the obtained results, it can be inferred that building- and electrical energy-related consumption generates the most carbon dioxide emissions. Therefore, they contribute to greater CO2 emissions and a greater ecological footprint. Therefore, university authorities should implement relevant policies and practices that re-orient investments toward the rational and eco-efficient use of electrical energy. They should also not excessively increase the construction of buildings, and they should encourage the frequent use of bicycles and other means of transportation. Another use of the results obtained is that they improve knowledge and inform better environmental behaviors and culture on the part of the university community.
It is necessary to indicate that the methodology used in this research was an adaptation of procedures that were developed in the Spanish context, in which the possible environmental impacts of solid waste management were not considered. We consider this to be one of the limitations of the present study; in future research, it is recommended to establish a methodology according to the local reality, which will allow for more precise and reliable results to be obtained.
Finally, the results of this research contribute to supporting sustainable development by providing a tool for sustainable management and an integral metric of the impact of the activities of the National University of the Altiplano on the environment according to its ecological footprint generated in 2023. Specifically, this contributes to Sustainable Development Goal No. 7 on affordable and clean energy and Sustainable Development Goal No. 12 on responsible production and consumption. The Peruvian university system has incorporated actions within the framework of sustainable development into its institutional environmental policies through strategic planning, in order to reduce its ecological footprint, as have the countries leading in sustainable production, such as Germany, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, and others that have quality water, soil, air, and ecosystems. It is recommended to propose methodologies appropriate to our environment and carry out further ecological footprint studies on universities, non-university institutions, and economic activities with greater environmental impacts. This will allow for measurement of the impacts of anthropogenic activities on the environment, enabling consequent environmental policies and actions in accordance with sustainable development.