Assessing sustainability performance in the educational sector. A high school case study

This paper provides a detailed assessment of the environmental performance of a High school student in the city of Madrid, as well as the associated external costs. Life Cycle Assessment was used to evaluate the potential environmental impacts. Environmental external costs were also estimated using a simplified application of the impact pathway approach. The inventory of environmental loads included the consumption of resources in the school building operation and maintenance (O&M) activities, in the educational activities and in the transport activities. The activity of one student in one school year is the functional unit. The results showed that the emissions contributing to Climate Change are quantified in 461 kg CO2 eq·year^-1·student^-1, being the transport responsible for the 69% of the total impact, the O&M of the school building for the 20% and the educational activities for the remaining 11%. According to the results, the O&M of the facilities is the largest contributor to ozone depletion and water resource depletion. The educational activity is the main contributor to human toxicity, freshwater eutrophication and ecotoxicity, land use and resource depletion. Transport activities are responsible for most of the impacts related to the exposure to particular matter, ionizing radiation, and those impacts related to photochemical ozone formation, acidification, and terrestrial and marine eutrophication. Furthermore, the quantification of the external costs showed that these costs could reach a value of 34 euro·year^-1·student^-1 being transport the main contributor with a 52% of the external costs.