After three decades of global climate initiatives, local governments’ capabilities to implement policies and solutions have not always been effective in making the urban environment more resilient and adaptive to climate change. All the previous climatic initiatives and decisions were mostly carried out by governments or affiliated actors on global or regional scales. However, the lack of notable climate actions at the community level is evident in the current crisis of urban sustainability. To drive a radical change toward a zero-carbon transition at the city scale, massive decarbonization is required at the institutional level (academic/nonacademic campus) of a city. Among all the nongovernmental actors, it is always expected that Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) would take the lead in promoting a resilient and sustainable future for the cities through their education, research, and innovation. HEIs’ multidimensional activity resembles the “small scale model of a city” interacting with different subsystems like education, administration, transport, housing, health, etc. However, the present studies were found to be mostly based on specific regions and developed countries. In addition, the previously developed methods of assessing energy consumption and CO₂ emissions at the university level lack adaptability for other countries and urban settings. Following the need for a comprehensive method of evaluating energy consumption and accelerating the zero-carbon practice to a broader scale, a new framework is proposed here for a university campus. It can be implemented regardless of the campus type and geographic and weather conditions. After implementing the evaluation methods on a 753-acre campus of Rajshahi University, the campus typology and natural resources were identified. Following that, the behavior patterns of the users in terms of energy usage and waste generation were also determined. Finally, the results show that 1900.71 tons of CO₂ was emitted in the academic year 2022. The per-capita CO₂ emission was 0.041 tons of CO₂. To boost the zero-carbon city transition, three core parameters of scaling-up methods were taken into consideration to evaluate the benefits of zero-carbon campuses. The scalability of the zero-carbon practices was evaluated based on the ideas of (1) expansion—how educating future generations about the environment can have a long-lasting impact, (2) demonstration—adopting innovative practical and technological solutions to exhibit the benefits of zero-carbon practices to society, and (3) collaboration—building strong alliances with state and nonstate actors of the city to promote sustainability through sharing knowledge, innovation, and technology.

Food system has significant impacts on water scarcity, which in turn becomes a bottleneck for food security and socioeconomic development. Existing research has primarily concentrated on the relationship between food consumption and quantity‐based scarce water use but has overlooked quality‐based scarce water use. Here, we constructed an aggregative scarce water use indicator, considering water quantity and water quality simultaneously. The food demand‐driven aggregative scarce water use of Chinese provinces in 2017 was investigated based on a scarce‐water extended multiregional input‐output model. The results demonstrated that food demand‐driven scarce water use is amplified eight (8) times by water quality degradation. Henan, Shanxi, and Tianjin were found to be the primary contributors to the food demand‐driven aggregative use of scarce water. Moreover, the study reveals food demand‐driven virtual aggregative scarce water flows among regions and sectors. Production‐side measures on reducing water scarcity include the improvements of water use efficiency and wastewater treatment capacity in exporters of net virtual aggregative scarce water (e.g., Hebei and Henan). Furthermore, demand‐side measures are equally important, including food demand optimization in importers of net virtual aggregative scarce water (e.g., Zhejiang and Beijing). In addition, interregional cooperation (e.g., transferring advanced water conservation and contaminant mitigation technologies from developed regions to regions with high aggregative water scarcity) in China is critical for promoting the sustainable management of food and water resources. The study's findings provide significant insights for policymakers at the regional and interregional levels to develop coordinated water resource and environment management strategies in China.