Energy and carbon
As a multi-site organisation we recognise our responsibilities in tackling climate change and are working to reduce our carbon footprint across the estate. Our current Carbon Management Plan 2018-2022 goals ensure that our scope 1 and 2 direct emissions are kept on target against 2005/06 baseline, despite our new building developments, and that we increase the energy we generate on site.
Our achievements
- We have achieved 47% scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions* from 2005-06 to 2018-19 which delivers the progress set in our CMP 2018-2022
- We are increasing our renewable energy generation capacity in 2018-19 which will double the target set in our CMP 2018-2022
- We achieved BREEAM excellent certified for our refurbished Pittville Student Village opened in 2017 and our new Business School building completed in 2018
- Our new Business School development is zero emissions and uses 4 air source heat pumps for all its heating, eliminating the use of fossil fuels on site
- We now emit over 2,000 fewer tonnes of carbon each year than we did ten years ago – the equivalent of 250 typical UK homes worth of emissions
- We have exceeded our targets for reducing scope 3 carbon emissions from waste production and disposal, water use and treatment, and business travel
- Over the last ten years we have reduced electricity use by 19% and gas by 37%
- We have tripled the size of our electric vehicle fleet since 2017
Key documents
We assess the proportion of our total carbon emissions (scope 1 and 2) arising from the provision of in-house and externally provided residential accommodation for staff and students. In 2017/18 this was 34.7%.
As well as reducing our scope 1 and 2 emissions targets, we are working to drive down scope 3 emissions from our supply chain through consistent implementation of the sustainability requirements in our Procurement Strategy.
*Scope 1 – direct emissions e.g. from gas and oil combustion for heat and hot water
*Scope 2 – indirect emissions e.g. from the purchase of grid electricity
*Scope 3 – indirect emissions from transport, waste, water consumption and procurement
We’ve achieved this by:
- Reaching over 200,000 kwh of solar PV panels – raising our renewables capacity and adding to existing arrays at Oxstalls that provide 45,000 kWh of electricity each year
- LED lighting – rolling out LED lighting to halls and operational buildings and installing efficient lighting control through our annual maintenance programme
- Switching to cleaner fuels – switching from using oil for heating to high efficiency gas boilers at our halls has reduced carbon emissions from oil burning by around 200 tonnes
- Building energy management – improved sub metering has helped guide refurbishment and efficiency initiatives, ensuring temperature and humidity levels are well controlled
- Increasing our efficiency – evaluating energy use against building and room usage patterns optimises our space management efficiency
