Salacia Solutions is always looking for up-and-coming talent with whom sustainability flows through the veins. One of the places where thistalent walks around is the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU Amsterdam).
A vacancy text for an intern was quickly created. And then something special happened. In addition to excellent CVs from students, we also received a message from the director of Amsterdam Sustainability Institute at VU Amsterdam, Philipp Pattberg, who asked us if we could help professionalize the impact calculations of the VU itself. Our answer to this is anyone’s guess.
For years, VU Amsterdam has been measuring the greenhouse gas emissions that are released when heating buildings and from the electricity consumption of its 5,500 employees and 32,000 students. In jargon the scope 1 and 2 emissions. However, VU Amsterdam did not yet have a complete picture of its scope 3, i.e. all emissions that are released in the value chain. Think of all purchased goods and services, construction projects, waste streams and the travel movements of employees and students.
Philip put us in touch with Ivar Maas, Lead Sustainable VU, and Manon Swart, Sustainability Community Manager. Together we quickly came up with two important questions.
The first question was whether the calculation of scope 1 and 2 emissions could be automated. As a result, VU Amsterdam would measure and know these emissions much more frequently and much more precisely. And therefore be able to steer much better. The answer to this question soon turned out to be a resounding yes. VU Amsterdam has the data to calculate and report these emissions very frequently, daily or even every quarter of an hour, and very precisely, in this case per building.
The second question was whether we could help with the mapping of scope 3 emissions. This question was largely answered by the good work of a VU student with substantive guidance from us. The emissions of all purchased goods and services were calculated using Salacia’s software. We analyzed tens of thousands of purchase invoices and calculated the emissions using the so-called spend-based method of the GHG protocol.
Ivar Maas: “Sustainability is very important to VU Amsterdam and we are proud to have been named the most sustainable university in the Netherlands by SustainaBul. VU Amsterdam’s objective is to have a net positive impact on people and the planet. We want to become a gas-free university and use 100% green electricity. We already had insight into our scope 1 and 2 emissions. Salacia helped us a lot to get the picture complete by also mapping the scope 3 emissions. And they did that quickly and thoroughly.”
VU Amsterdam will soon decide how the impact measurements will be structurally improved in the coming years. We are eager, because we will not soon forget the establishment of this cooperation. Nothing more beautiful than a cow catching a hare.
Originally published in Dutch on Linkedin.
