Beyond carbon: multi-criteria evaluation of environmental impact reduction alternatives in higher education institutions

Current organisational environmental management relies predominantly on carbon-centric approaches, creating blind spots that may obscure ecological trade-offs. This study aims to develop and validate an integrated Environmental Footprint 3.1 and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis framework for the systematic evaluation of institutional environmental improvement alternatives beyond greenhouse gas emissions.

The framework evaluates 18 improvement alternatives across commuting (7 alternatives), energy (7 alternatives), and procurement (4 alternatives) domains using the Preference Ranking Organisation Method for Enrichment Evaluations (PROMETHEE). Applied to the University of Coimbra, the methodology employs an organisational life cycle assessment following ISO 14072:2024, with institutional boundaries defined according to ISO 14064:2018 emission source categories, and evaluates performance across 16 environmental impact categories from the Environmental Footprint 3.1 methodology. SimaPro 10.1.0.5 software, equipped with Ecoinvent 3.8 and EXIOBASE databases, supported impact quantification, while an analysis using PROMETHEE prevents environmental burden-shifting through non-compensatory multi-criteria evaluation. The assessment integrates both isolated alternative evaluation and mixed institutional scenarios projected to 2030, enabling a comprehensive analysis of cross-category synergies and trade-offs.

The analysis reveals that active mobility consistently delivers superior environmental performance across multiple impact categories, whilst complete electrification strategies create significant burden-shifting effects, increasing freshwater eutrophication by 22% and mineral resource depletion by 38%. Transportation emerges as the dominant contributor across multiple impact categories, with gasoline-powered car commuting accounting for 49.5% of non-carcinogenic human toxicity potential and 44.6% of freshwater ecotoxicity potential. The framework identifies powerful synergies between dietary transformations and behavioural mobility changes, with vegan alternatives achieving substantial reductions in eutrophication categories. Integrated institutional scenarios demonstrate that coordinated behavioural interventions achieve transformative environmental benefits, with optimal scenarios delivering 16% reduction in climate change, 45% reduction in freshwater ecotoxicity, and 57% reduction in ozone depletion.

The integrated Environmental Footprint-Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis framework successfully prevents environmental burden-shifting by ensuring that climate improvements cannot mask deteriorating performance in toxicity or resource use dimensions. Behavioural interventions (particularly active mobility and dietary transformations) consistently outperform technological solutions across impact dimensions while supporting multiple Sustainable Development Goals simultaneously. The methodology provides organisations with actionable pathways toward sustainability by identifying intervention priorities that address operational hotspots without creating unintended environmental consequences across different impact categories.