Inventario de emisiones de Gases de Efecto Invernadero: un insumo en la gestión del Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica (ITCR)

The Technological Institute of Costa Rica (itcr for its initials in Spanish), aims to be carbon neutral. In order to achieve that goal, it is making efforts like measuring its emissions of greenhouse gases (ghg) and implementing mitigation and removal measures. This article summarizes and analyzes the main activities responsible for ghg emissions in the Cartago and San Carlos campuses and the Academic Center of San Jose, from 2010 to 2013. A comparison of the results obtained in the inventory of ghg is made by using the emission factors from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (ipcc) and the official agency in Costa Rica, the National Meteorological Institute (imn for its initials in Spanish). Additionally, an analysis is carried out to identify the activities that cause higher emissions in the Cartago campus. The evaluated gases were carbon dioxide (co2 ), methane (ch4 ) and nitrous oxide (n2 o). The calculated emissions are reported as carbon dioxide equivalent (co2e). This work determined that the campus that contributed more to the itcr ingei was San Carlos, and its main emission source was the enteric digestion. Besides, results show that the use of the country-specific factors (given by the imn) produced an increase in the ingei, possibly because they are closer to the real climatic and geographical conditions of the region