Avaliação da pegada hídrica do Campus Natal-Central do Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Rio Grande do Norte

Abstract

The scarcity and pollution of fresh water in the world are recognized as topics of great relevance in literature, given the significant resulting impacts on humanity. For this reason, “footprint” indicators have emerged in the scientific community, used to identify/measure opportunities and risk mitigation strategies that promote the sustainable use of water with the aim of increasing public awareness about how societies exert pressure on the environment. In this context, we aim to analyze how the Water Footprint can be used to account for water use in a way that can assist educational institutions in use policies and quantitative targets for efficient water consumption. Considering that the subject in Public Administration is still under-researched, including in the area of school management, although it generates considerable impacts on the environment (Center for World University Rankings, 2023), we propose to develop this investigation at the Federal Institute of Rio Grande do Norte (Campus Natal-Central), which currently has 22 (twenty-two) units in the state, with 2,807 Technical-Administrative Education employees and 1,693 teachers, in addition to outsourced employees, interns and a total of 37,485.66 students (Nilo Peçanha Platform , 2023). To analyze the sustainability of the Campus, provide mitigating measures and stimulate discussion, leading the institution towards the Sustainable Development Goals – SDGs of the 2030 Agenda, we were based on the assumptions of Hoekstra et al. (2011), Zhang et al. (2017) and Chavarría-Solera et al. (2020), among others. In methodological terms, we first carried out a review of the bibliometric literature in the Scopus database. In it, we used the search criteria for the topic "water footprint" in the titles of articles (1,707) in the last six complete years (2017-2022). As an article selection criterion, we considered publications with at least a Qualis A2 extract and the “most cited” filter from the referenced database. To enable data collection, we adopted as a methodology that used by Water Footprint Network (WFN) through the WFN Manual, using for calculation purposes the water footprint of a company, which was obtained by adding up all operational and production chain water footprints. Furthermore, we also used the methodology studied in the literature for IEs: accounting for the food-water-energy nexus. As a result, we developed a Water Footprint Assessment Manual for an Educational Institution with a case study for the Natal-Central Campus of IFRN. To create this manual, we used a benchmarking process, considering the best practices published in scientific articles used by different IEs that worked on implementing PH programs and sustainable IEs around the world.