Our buildings

The University’s changing estate provides the biggest opportunity to influence ongoing operating costs, carbon emissions and the staff and student experience.

Within our Campus Management Climate Action Policy it confirms that 'The University is committed to the rollout of the Campus Plan. Consolidating activities onto a smaller and more efficient (from both building performance and space utilisation perspective) estate, this being one of the most potentially significant reductions that can be made to the University’s carbon footprint. This programme will reduce both Scope 3 embodied carbon and Scopes 1 and 2 emissions through efficient design'.

Our measures and targets

We will demonstrate success by:

• 2018/19 Baseline footprint (8,046,229 kg CO2e / 36,484,350 kWh)
• Development on campus including physical interventions, planned maintenance and the campus plan are projected to reduce the direct energy consumed (kWh) by 10.68% by 2030, with decarbonisation of the grid this is projected to reduce the carbon footprint of the physical estate by 16.14% compared to the baseline.

New buildings and refurbishments designed sustainably and using a life cycle approach will ensure reduced environmental impacts during construction and throughout occupation. Healthy buildings will improve the wellbeing of occupants, increasing productivity and attendance.

We want to establish sustainability targets for all new buildings and refurbishments to ensure the benefits of sustainable design are realised. We also utilise the applicable elements of the WELL building standard to improve the wellbeing of occupants in new spaces.

The effective development of the estate is one of the most significant carbon savings that can be achieved. The long-term target is to achieve savings outlined above, in support of the University’s ambitions within the Climate Action Strategy and by implementing the Campus Plan. In the long term, this will reduce the size of the estate and ensure the construction of efficient buildings and facilities.

Objectives

In 2025/26 the key objective is:

• Assess building usage, aligned with cyclical requirements, to condense on site activity and monitor outcomes through the ‘carbon monitoring tool’ towards achieving net zero carbon progress and ambitions aligned with the University’s Climate Action Strategy.