Sustainable Campus: The Experience of the University of Lisbon at IST

This paper addresses the research problem of determining if relevant energy and water savings may be obtained in university campuses without significant investments, based mainly on “surgical” technical and organizational measures. With the creation of the “Sustainable Campus” project, in 2011, IST has been implementing a sustainability policy. A resource management policy has been accompanied by a permanent project team, which proposes the implementation of technical measures. This activity is performed in articulation with the operational management through integrated actions in a collective effort to reduce consumption. Without significant investments, the energy-saving measures implemented have consistently achieved a value of more than 20% in energy consumption when compared to the average annual consumption values of the past decade. Additionally, in 2018, water consumption was 58% lower than the reference baseline value of 2011. In 2018, specific projects were implemented in the area of sustainable mobility, with a focus on smooth mobility and sharing. This paper presents the “Sustainable Campus” project, its operational lines, and the results achieved in energy and water consumption and sustainable mobility.