Sustainability

We manage our environmental impacts through the internationally recognised standard ISO14001, which specifies requirements for an effective environmental management system (EMS) covering all activities and sites. Our environmental manual sets out the intended outcomes of the EMS and how we ensure compliance with the standard. Our environmental planner sets out our objectives, targets and responsibilities.

In July 2020, we became one of a small handful of UK universities to have been awarded the International standard for energy management ISO50001. This gives us confidence that we're managing our energy consumption and carbon emissions in the best way we can and supports our Net Zero Carbon 2030 target.

We support the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and are signatories to the SDG Accord, a worldwide collaboration of universities, committed to delivering the Goals.

As part of our support for the SDGs, we're mapping our curriculum, research, business practice and partnership-building against the Goals, in order to understand where we're doing well and where we can improve. This is our first SDG report on progress so far. It's a huge task and there will always be much to do but it's helping us to play a meaningful role in making a better world.

We've taken a number of actions on single-use plastics, and have produced a rationale for why we have taken these steps.

Since 2016, all our electricity has come from certified renewable sources. 20% of our electricity is purchased under a power purchase agreement (PPA) directly from a UK wind farm. The other 80% is purchased from the REGO scheme. We're working with our energy provider to secure 100% electricity directly from new wind and solar.