**4. Results**

#### *4.1. The Trend in Energy Consumption Saving of UAH*

Since 2005 to now, the University has managed to stabilize electricity consumption, and it has registered a downturn from 2006, due chiefly to energy-saving and efficiency initiatives (see Figure 2).

**Figure 2.** UAH's evolution of electricity and natural gas consumption. Source: Own elaboration.

The following is a synthesis of the actions taken regarding energy saving and efficiency:


Moreover, important efforts have been made to increase our renewable energy pool by means of thermal solar technology for ACS, the use of plant waste as biomass, the use of alternative energies for pumping, and so forth. The UAH also has an energy generating facility (Trigeneration) in its Engineering School, while its Chemistry Building boasts the most important geothermal installation in any public building in the Madrid Region and the largest of its kind in any European university (Figure 3).

**Figure 3.** (**a**) Trigeneration Plant UAH's Polytechnic School; (**b**) UAH's Chemistry Faculty, a building of high efficiency due to the geothermal installation. © The University of Alcalá.

In recent years, however, efforts seem to have run out of steam, and there is a certain substitution effect between the two basic energy sources. There are several reasons for this. The first is the commissioning of energy-intensive facilities, such as the Learning and Research Resource Centre, an 11,000 m<sup>2</sup> heritage building, open 24 h a day, 7 days a week. Secondly, the regulatory barriers to operate the Trigeneration Plant and its technological obsolescence.

Both demand investment policies that are conditioned by budgetary restrictions or, in contrast, by new public–private partnership actions, which allow investment in efficiency by paying with the savings generated in future years.

#### *4.2. Main Indicators of Energy Consumption Saving of UAH in Terms of Consumption per User and Consumption per Area*

All these actions have allowed the University's energy consumption per user and per area first to fall and then to be maintained, thereby contributing to meeting the objectives of the Spanish Government's Action Plan for Energy Saving and Efficiency (2011–2020) but with a worrying change of trend in recent years (see Figures 4 and 5).

**Figure 4.** Energy consumption per user (2003–2017) and goals for 2020. Source: Own elaboration.

**Figure 5.** Energy consumption per area (2003–2017) and goals for 2020. Source: Own elaboration.

The number of students has fluctuated since 2010 showing a certain downward trend, with degrees now lasting 4 years instead of 5. The new energy-intensive services (24X7) increase their consumption more than proportionally to the square meters they occupy, which leads to an increase in consumption per square meter (Figure 6).

**Figure 6.** UAH's Students (clients) and Square Meters (2003=1000). Source: Own elaboration.

The UAH also boasts Spain's first solar-powered vehicle recharging point in its "Rey Juan Carlos" Botanical Garden. Two other recharging points have been opened recently at other sites (in the Pharmacy Faculty and in Malaga School in the City Campus). The Botanical Garden is, itself, a further example of sustainability, a 260,000 m<sup>2</sup> green space with more than 120,000 plant species that has become a first-class teaching and experimental resource for students and the general public alike (Figure 7).

**Figure 7.** (**a**) UAH's Botanical Garden; (**b**) UAH's Solar-Powered Vehicle Recharging Points. © The University of Alcalá.

#### *4.3. The Evolution of UAH's Footprint*

All the UAH's initiatives carried out in the last 17 years represent a significant contribution toward building a more sustainable society, both locally and globally. In terms of sustainability, the UAH has implemented actions and measures that aim at preventing, reducing, and eliminating any negative environmental impact deriving from the university activities. However, it wants to go one step further. As a public institution devoted to education, it wants to have a transforming effect on policy and to contribute, albeit modestly, to solving global problems, including, of course, global warming.

To estimate its emissions, the UAH followed the guidelines of ISO 14064-1: 2006 and of the World Resources Institute's GHG Protocol and took into account these sources of emissions [35,36]:


In 2014, 59.14% of the UAH's GHG net emissions were direct emissions from source 1 (2193.67 TCO2 tons of source 1), 16.37% were indirect emissions due to the consumption of electrical and thermal energy (source 2) (607.89 TCO2), and the remaining 24.49% were emissions from source 3. Emissions deriving from electricity consumption are undoubtedly the most significant (55.4% of TCO2 tons), followed by gas consumption (24.3%). That is why efficient energy policies are so important, since they reduce quite considerably the direct and indirect emissions caused by university activity (see Figure 8) (During 2020, work is underway to update the data of 2018. The restrictions resulting from the pandemic have delayed these tasks and no data are available).

In 2010, due to energy efficiency policies, the UAH was already able to consider itself a low-carbon organization, meeting even then the objectives fixed for reduction by 2040. Currently, the UAH is continuing to work on updating its carbon footprint. However, its commitment to directly reducing the emissions due to electricity usage (100 percent of renewable sources) or the compensation policies for emissions, as in the case of gas (all gas consumed is compensated) has enabled UAH to reach the 2050 targets already, with reductions above 80% in 2008–2011 and additional reductions of 25% in 2012–2014.

**Figure 8.** UAH's Emissions TCO2, 2008–2014. Source: Carbon footprint, UAH 2011 y 2014. Gas Natural-Fenosa—UAH [35,36].

These results encourage UAH to work even harder to improve efficiency and sustainability and to act as an example for the students, who are the generation that will have to build a more socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable future. International distinctions, such as being rated the third most sustainable university in the world by the non-profit, San Francisco-based organization, Coolmyplanet Universities Ranking [33], or its consistently high position—always among the top 40—in the University of Indonesia's Green Metric World University Rankings [32], stimulate UAH to make further improvements in the same direction (see Table 1).


**Table 1.** UAH position in Green Metrics and Coolmyplanet Rankings.

Source: Own elaboration based on Green Metric World University Rankings [32] and Coolmyplanet Universities Ranking [33].
