Summary of progress against net zero emissions target

Where we started: Our aim: How we’re doing: 45% since 2005/06

50% 36% across all three scopes and net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030/31 across GHG sources currently being measured against the 2018/19 base year.

The CECAP maps out our route to become a net zero emissions university with environmental sustainability embedded across its operations, teaching and research. To implement the Plan, 94 actions have been identified across 10 themes. Our progress is tracked through our CECAP Group and reported to the Sustainability Committee. A summary view of our progress is below, and more detail is provided in Appendix 1:

Greenhouse gases

In 2018/19, BU’s GHG emissions scopes 1 and 2 and measurable parts of scope 3 were recorded as 6,723 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) for the year.

In 2021/22 this reduced to 4,335 tCO2e.

BU has set a target of achieving net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by the academic year 2030/31. Underpinning this is rapid decarbonisation across all the university’s activities. The CECAP sets targets for BU’s actual emissions reduction that show us how much the university needs to reduce GHG emissions from the new baseline year of 2018/19 before offsetting. To achieve this, the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) tool was used to set Science Based Targets (SBTs) for each year.

Our target for scope 1 emissions was missed this year, but targets for scope 2, scope 3 and overall emissions reduction were met.

Emissions reductions from the base year in percentage by scope and year

The largest reduction across the scopes comes from scope 3; this is mostly due to the reduction in business travel (in particular flights) which is still lower than before the pandemic, reducing BU’s emissions by over 1,100 tCO2e compared to the base year. However, this year’s emissions from flights have increased by 300 tCO2e when compared to last year (2020/21), highlighting the importance of reducing travel or using a more sustainable mode of travel where possible.

The scope 2 (purchased electricity) target has been met; this is due to a reduction in DEFRA carbon factors from the decarbonisation of the national grid, an increase in renewable generation from the on campus solar panels and also a reduction in electricity consumption from the grid from energy projects, such as the upgrade of the Talbot Campus transformers and continued monitoring and managing energy usage across sites. Electricity usage for ventilation has increased compared to the base year as equipment is run for longer to reduce Covid-19 transmission.

The scope 1 (direct emissions) target has been missed. A reduction of 10% compared to the baseline year was achieved, rather than a 16% reduction. This reduction comes mainly from fugitive emissions; the emissions from BU’s main heating source, natural gas have increased by 100 tCO2e compared to the base year. This is due to the increased heat needed in our buildings that follows the increased ventilation for Covid-19 safety. The decarbonisation of heat is a key challenge for reducing buildings emissions and a Heat Decarbonisation Plan is being developed with a contractor that will lead to increased on site low carbon or renewable heat generation.

Improvements in data management

This year we have continued to improve data management in line with best practice principles (for example the Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard). This supports CECAP objective 8 and several of our CECAP actions. As we continue to improve our data capture, methods of calculation and include more sources of GHG emissions, we are able to provide a GHG footprint that is as relevant, complete, consistent, transparent and accurate as possible. The changes have improved the completeness of our data by including new activities in the report, for example travel from attendees to open days. It has also improved accuracy and our ability to correctly track GHG emissions over time by improving data quality. We have explained our rationale for these changes in the Data Management section and full details of GHG emissions calculations are in the Emissions Report in Appendix A.

Sources of emissions

The two charts below show the changes in the sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the base year compared to 2021/22. For a further details, see the Emissions report in appendix A.

Total GHG emissions by activity, baseline year vs 2021/22 (tCO2e)