Mapping the Way to Net-Zero: Inside the EU UNICO Project's Stakeholder Journey

As part of the EU-funded University Cooperation for Net Zero on Campus (UNICO) project, a Stakeholder Mapping & Needs Assessment was recently undertaken by the four consortium partners: Politecnico di Torino (POLITO) in Italy, the University of the Basque Country (EHU) in Spain, University College Cork (UCC) in Ireland, and the Bucharest University of Economic Studies (ASE) in Romania.

The mapping exercise provided clear examples, insights, and practical learnings to help other universities accelerate their own pathways to net zero. By sharing tested frameworks, stakeholder engagement strategies, and institutional best practices across the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) community, the project supports peer universities to overcome common transition hurdles and drive collective climate action.

This comprehensive exercise has evaluated institutional baselines, mapped diverse campus actors, identified critical operational gaps, and captured key transferable best practices across the partner network.

Identifying and Mapping Our Core Stakeholders

Achieving systemic decarbonisation depends on transforming internal and external actors from passive observers into active co-owners of the transition. Across the four partner universities, the project identified ten core stakeholder categories, each serving a distinct operational or strategic role:

• Students: The primary users of campus space and essential agents for bottom-up cultural and behavioural change.
• Academic staff: Intellectual leaders who integrate sustainability into teaching and learning, drive research (e.g., climate, renewable energy, change management), and shape policy.
• Administrative and technical staff: Frontline operational managers handling procurement, facilities, energy networks, and IT infrastructure.
• University governance and leadership: Rectors, senates, and executive boards with institutional decision-making power and budget approval.
• Local city authorities: Municipal planners and city councils aligning campus decarbonisation with urban climate strategies.
• Central and national authorities: Government ministries that establish core funding, regulatory compliance, and national energy policy, including institutional decarbonisation targets.
• EU and international bodies: Fund networks, international frameworks, and accreditation bodies that guide European climate directives.
• Regional businesses and private sector: Engineering firms, commercial banks, and suppliers that co-finance and execute physical upgrades.
• Civil society and local community: Neighbouring residents and environmental NGOs collaborating through campus "Living Labs" and other partnerships.
• Expert and professional bodies: Technical specialists, urban designers, and accounting bodies shaping environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards and green infrastructure.

To prioritize engagement strategies, each institution mapped these actors onto a Power/Interest Matrix. This framework separates stakeholders into four strategic engagement quadrants: (1) Manage Closely (high power/high interest), (2) Keep Satisfied (high power/low interest),(3) Keep Informed & Empower (low power/high interest), and (4) Monitor Only (low power/low interest).

While institutional placement naturally varies — for instance, EHU and UCC have strong, collaborative partnerships with local authorities, whereas ASE tends to prioritize alignment with national regulations — the underlying framework ensures tailored engagement across the board.

Assessing Stakeholder Needs Across Ten Key Domains

Through focus group discussions, surveys, and expert interviews, the UNICO consortium captured community needs across ten thematic domains. These align with the core campus management areas defined in the Net Zero on Campus Guide:

• Energy efficiency and renewable transition: Eliminating reliance on fossil fuels, upgrading inefficient HVAC networks, and scaling up on-site photovoltaic generation and wind turbines.
• Sustainable mobility and transport: Expanding EV charging infrastructure, improving regional public transit links, and supporting safe cycling routes to lower Scope 3 commuter emissions.
• Building retrofitting and green infrastructure: Accelerating insulation and thermal retrofits across aging building stock, including historical urban structures subject to heritage constraints.
• Waste reduction and circular economy: Standardising waste sorting, banning single-use plastics, and sustainably handling specialist research waste streams.
• Sustainable procurement and supply chain transparency: Embedding mandatory Green Public Procurement (GPP) criteria across supply chains and tracking vendor emissions.
• Sustainability in education and research: Embedding ESG literacy, carbon accounting, and interdisciplinary modules across undergraduate and postgraduate curricula.
• Dedicated funding and green finance: Securing targeted sustainability budget lines and leveraging EU structural funds, green bonds, and energy performance contracts.
• Transparent data and emissions monitoring: Implementing smart-metering networks to provide accessible, real-time data on energy use and carbon footprints.
• Participatory governance and effective communication: Bridging the gap between high-level executive commitments and visible day-to-day campus practice.
• Equity, inclusion, and social justice: Applying the "Leave No One Behind" principle to guarantee that climate policies do not disproportionately burden lower-income students or long-distance commuters.

Overcoming Shared Barriers to Net-Zero

Despite operating in distinct national and economic settings, the four partner universities reported strikingly similar obstacles along their net-zero trajectories. A unified gap analysis identified seven overarching constraints:

1. Physical and infrastructure constraints: Space limitations in dense urban centres, ongoing construction disruptions, and outdated heating systems.
2. Financial and resource constraints: Insufficient dedicated operational budgets for sustainability staff, carbon auditing tools, and capital-intensive building retrofits.
3. Governance fragmentation: Complex coordination hurdles across disparate administrative units, academic faculties, and multi-campus regional footprints.
4. Scope three emissions and data gaps: Technical difficulties in accurately tracking, measuring, and managing supply chain, business travel, and commuting emissions.
5. Behavioural change friction: Challenges in converting high climate awareness into everyday individual actions among fluctuating student populations.
6. External dependencies: Reliance on transport authorities, national grid operators, and external urban planning bodies for essential permits and infrastructure upgrades.
7. Equity and accessibility barriers: Risks of social exclusion caused by rising costs for sustainable lifestyle choices or inadequate transit options for non-urban commuters.

Harvesting Best Practices for Peer Learning

A central benefit of the UNICO initiative is the systematic cross-pollination of tested solutions. Each institution contributes unique strengths to the project's peer-learning repository:

• POLITO (Italy): Brings cutting-edge circular economy tools, including the NANDO-AI smart waste sorting system, the ITACA Protocol for campus green building certification, and the Campus Grapes urban vineyard Living Lab.
• EHU (Spain): Contributes pioneering city-university co-creation frameworks through its Campus Bizia Lab and UnicitiES 2030 programmes, supported by an advanced regional SDG Indicator Panel.
• UCC (Ireland): Offers world-class sustainability governance and accreditation practices, highlighted by its STARS Platinum rating, 5th FEE Green Flag, open-source SDG Toolkit for Teaching and Learning, and renewable energy research.
• ASE (Romania): Offers valuable operational insight into managing energy retrofits on historically preserved urban heritage buildings, initiating the phased vehicle fleet conversion, and national Green Public Procurement alignment.

By mapping stakeholder ecosystems, pinpointing shared needs, and synthesising institutional strengths, the UNICO mapping exercise establishes a clear, practical foundation for higher education decarbonisation across Europe.

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