Abstract Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) transfer skills and knowledge between industries, the government, and the public, playing a vital role in the education system for a globally sustainable future as “future leaders.” Therein, evaluating greenhouse gas emissions from an educational institute is the first step towards the proposed reduction targets at the local, national and international levels. In this research, we report the first approximate carbon footprint calculation of emissions corresponding to scope 1, scope 2, and scope 3 emissions for the main urban campuses of Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Medellín, using the UNE-ISO 14064-1 standard. The carbon footprint in 2019 was approximately 7250.52 tons CO 2 eq , and 0.432 tons CO 2 eq per person. Scope 1 emissions accounted for about 2.84% of the carbon footprint, while Scope 2 and 3 emissions each contributed nearly 14% and 83%, respectively. The largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions were the wastewater process (20.46%), followed by electricity consumption (14.03%) and sent emails (7.83%). We suggested some proposals and strategies for mitigating and reducing emissions. Colombian HEIs exhibit the lowest ton of CO 2 eq . per person compared to the other HEIs. The reason may be income conditioned by the GDP of each country. Literature reviews do not exhibit a clear contribution to the carbon footprint of Colombian HEIs. This research is the first carbon footprint calculation used as a methodological contribution to HEIs in the country because the method’s implementation is not extrapolated for socioecological, political and geographic conditions