Facts & Figures

Greenhouse Gases

ETH has set itself the goal of rapidly and significantly reducing its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with a quantifiable target by 2030 (ETH Net Zero). As part of these endeavours, ETH prepares an annual GHG assessment based on the guidelines of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG Protocol). Three scopes of GHG emissions are distinguished.

The gallery below contains graphical representations of ETH's GHG emissions in Scope 1, Scope 2 and business travel (a commodity group of Scope 3). Underneath the gallery, an external link leads to an interactive dashboard which can be explored in more detail.

ETH Zurich endeavours to use energy as efficiently and climate-friendly as possible to maintain its operations. This is made possible above all by the renovation of existing buildings and the ongoing modernisation of building technology. In addition, the use of waste heat (e.g. from server rooms) is constantly being optimised. The use of fossil fuels for heating is continuously decreasing. The main driver for this is the expansion of the Anergy Grid on the Hönggerberg. The electricity purchased by ETH comes almost entirely from renewable sources, primarily hydropower. In 2020, the electricity consumption by ETH properties located within the Canton of Zurich corresponded to 3.5 % of the total consumption of the City of Zurich.

Due to the high energy demand, ETH has a limited potential for self-supply with solar power. At present, 13 of its own photovoltaic (PV) systems produce between 0.8 and 1 GWh of electricity per year, depending on the weather, and thus cover just under 1 % of the electricity requirements of the campuses in the city centre and on Hönggerberg. By 2025, five new PV systems will be added to the main and external locations of ETH, which will increase annual production by around 0.45 GWh. The construction of further PV arrays should increase this figure to 3.3 GWh per year by 2034. Many of the buildings in the city centre are unsuitable for the installation of PV systems due to their historical structure. Consequently, most of them are located on the Hönggerberg campus.

The gallery below gives an overview of ETH's electricity demand and its electricity self-production. More detailed information is available by following the link to the energy dashboard underneath.

More than 30,000 students and employees commute to ETH every day. According to the latest commuter survey from 2021, almost 95% of them travel by public transport, by bike or on foot. The ETH Link bus transports ETH members and guests three to four times per hour between the campuses in the city centre and on Hönggerberg. The buses on this route have been fully electric since 2020. ETH also owns around 100 vehicles, which are mainly used for material transport. 40% of them have a hybrid or electric drive. Thanks to electrification, fuel consumption has been steadily reduced and is expected to sink further in the coming years.

According to current estimates, emissions from business trips by plane, by car or with public transport are around four to five times higher than those from commuter traffic. They account for around 13% of ETH's total emissions. Almost 95% of this is attributable to air travel - this includes flights by ETH members to conferences, for field work and research exchanges or to project meetings, as well as flights to ETH by guest lecturers and applicants and flights by students as part of their degree programmes.
Long-haul flights over 4500 kilometres account for around 70-80% of air travel emissions. The rest is accounted for by short and medium-haul flights in Europe. Professors and doctoral students fly the most, whereas students, guests and other scientific, technical or administrative staff only account for around 10-20% of emissions.

More information on the Air Travel Project and its data collection can be found in the Air Travel Emissions Dashboard.

In view of the considerable quantities of waste produced by ETH's various activities, the university is developing comprehensive solutions for waste management. Waste should be avoided wherever possible. The target recycling rate of 50 % has been met in 2021 and 2022. The non-recycled waste is used for energy recovery in a waste-to-energy plant. All of the green waste from the gardens is composted.

The total paper consumption at ETH has been declining for years. Almost 85 % of its paper usage consists of already recycled paper. The remaining consumption is comprised by FSC-certified paper from sustainable forestry.

Responding to demands by students, the restaurants of SV Group and Compass Group at ETH have been focusing on sustainability since 2013. As part of the "ETH Climate Programme Gastronomy" (2018-2021) and "Sustainable Gastronomy Project" (2022-2024), the companies are focusing on the topics of climate protection, resource conservation, social & ethical issues as well as health. GHG emissions had  to be reduced by a total of 10 % in the years 2018-2021. The average emissions for the years 2015 to 2017 served as baseline value. A new reduction target of 15 % was set for the years 2022-2024. The year 2019 was chosen as the new baseline. The proportion of ordered vegan and vegetarian menus has a significant influence on the carbon footprint of ETH restaurants and is therefore recorded in most establishments.

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Sustainability Reporting until 2020

ETH Zurich can look back on a long tradition of sustainability reporting. In 2002, the energy report was published for the first time, which in 2004 became the more comprehensive environmental report. From the 2009/2010 sustainability reporting period onwards, reporting followed the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standard. As of 2020 ETH publishes an integrated Annual Report and a Value Creation Model.