SUSTAINABILITY AT BRUNEL UNIVERSITY OF LONDON: MORE THAN A NET ZERO TARGET

Campus universities such as Brunel represent communities the size of many towns with all of the resulting issues regarding services, facilities and support for campus residents, visitors and surrounding communities.

With over 20,000 students and staff coming to campus regularly, almost 5,000 of whom are residents on site, sustainability takes on many facets of which environmental impacts are only one part. The United Nations Environment Programme suggests that universities consider sustainability under four headings as discussed below.

Teaching and research:

The twin purposes of universities are to educate students and to undertake research that advances knowledge and impacts positively on society and the economy. Much of our teaching directly informs students about sustainability, but we also influence students indirectly. Increasingly our students need to learn about sustainability to prepare them for their careers: whether this is medical students considering packaging waste when prescribing, or engineers designing energy efficient vehicles. Much of our research directly addresses sustainability, for example in next generation fuels for road vehicles, but it is through the impact of this research that the greatest benefits are seen.

People and society:

Our own community is diverse and we promote individual and collective wellbeing. Working with communities globally and locally, for example through the Brunel Older Persons Reference Group (BORG) and our collaboration with Hillingdon Council and residents’ groups on flood management in the River Pinn catchment, we make contributions to sustainability at a range of scales.

We work directly with businesses across Hillingdon and West London more generally, and have organised events with the Chamber to share experiences and pass on some of the expertise that we possess as a large institution

Administration and governance:

Sustainability requires leadership, clear governance, ethical policies and embedding sustainability considerations in policies and processes.

Environment and climate:

Water, waste, heat and power are the factors that immediately spring to mind when considering sustainability. We also have a large estate that provides important habitats, stores carbon and enhances air quality. Our target is to reach net zero for scopes 1 and 2 by 2040, with complementary water and waste reduction targets. Waste reduction is an interesting and challenging area, relying on behavioural change amongst students and staff as well as policies. Moving from a target of waste diverted form landfill to one based on the waste hierarchy is currently helping us to re-assess how best to avoid generating waste in future alongside effective re-use and re-cycling of materials that we already have on campus.

Talen together, Brunel has defined our sustainability mission as “to support our community of students, staff and stakeholders to contribute to delivering the UN Sustainable Development Goals locally, nationally and internationally”. Our challenge is to balance corporate statements of intent and policies with the social action required by our community to deliver genuine, sustained changes. We cannot do this alone, and rely on all stakeholders working with us. Small changes, such as on-campus waste management and the support of the borough for the Santander cycles scheme that provides a sustainable transport option linking Uxbridge, West Drayton, the university and Hillingdon hospital, make direct contributions to reducing waste and emissions. However, their main impacts are in demonstrating our collective commitment to sustainability which we hope influence students, staff and the local community to make their own sustainable choices. At large scale, our work with businesses locally, nationally and internationally has delivered very significant reductions in carbon emissions that we can trace directly back to innovations developed at Brunel.

Of course, we have a lot more to do. Some of our residential buildings lie within designated flood zones and the River Pinn that runs through the campus has been straightened from its natural course. A long-term ambition when these buildings reach the end of their life cycle is to restore the river to a more natural form, not only reducing flood risk but at the same time enhancing biodiversity and water quality. Regular maintenance and improvements to the estate will be used to deliver energy efficiency, biodiversity enhancements and we have plans to accelerate our own energy transition.

For a university, failure to meet sustainability targets is more than a technical risk. Society expects universities to be forward looking and to show leadership and failure to operate sustainably will affect our ability to recruit students and staff, so affecting our business model.

Whether in managing threats to ecosystems, working to end child marriage, supporting refugees through scholarships, or educating our highly international student body, we aim to make the world the place it ought to be, for us, for the generations after us and for the planet they deserve. The residents and businesses in Hillingdon are integral to our success in this ambition, and we are always open to new and expanded ways of working with our communities.