Using ecological footprint analysis in higher education: Campus operations, policy development and educational purposes

•The use of ecological footprint analysis to calculate higher education institutions’ impact on the environment.•The contribution of ecological footprint analysis to manage campus operations.•The use of ecological footprint analysis for policy development in higher education, by defining key components for further action.•Ecological footprint analysis can serve as an awareness-raising tool for educational purposes.

Ecological footprint analysis has been used worldwide in a variety of organizations (enterprise, public authorities, non-governmental organizations, (higher) educational institutions) and at different levels (personal level, (parts of) organizations, cities, regions, countries). Universities also calculated their ecological footprints, for various reasons: e.g. to answer the societal appeal to integrate sustainability into their core business, to perform a sustainability assessment of their operations, to use as an educational tool with students, to use for policy development. In general, performing an ecological footprint analysis is a way for higher education to ‘practice what they preach’, to monitor sustainability performance and raise awareness among the university's community. This article focuses on the calculation of the ecological footprint and discusses the possibilities to use this tool for campus operations, educational purposes and policy development.