Carbon
We’re consistently targeting operational activities to reduce emissions on our path to net zero. Find out how.
Contact us at: sustainability@plymouth.ac.uk.
Carbon footprint animation
It's hard to visualise the tonnes of greenhouse gases produced and what this looks like. Here is an animated film from 2014 indicating our carbon footprint, and what this looked like against the backdrop of the campus.
When the animation was made in 2014, our scope 1 and 2 carbon footprint was 11,000 tCO₂e. In the 2020–21 academic year, it was nearly half at 6,088 tCO₂e. We measure our carbon footprint utilising the and official carbon conversion factors published by the .
Our commitment
Our mission is to deliver net zero emissions from scope 1 and 2 by 2025 and scope 3 by 2030–2050. This is aligned with our vision to deliver interdisciplinary research, experimental education and civic engagement whilst reducing our negative impact on the environment and responding to the
climate emergency as declared in 2019
.
Our ultimate commitment is to reduce emissions as far as possible at source, and we have reduced emissions by 78% since 2005–2006. However, on our journey to net zero emissions we want to reduce our impact on the environment as much as possible and so have chosen to offset for the remaining 22% of emissions whilst we continually work to reduce these at source. To provide reporting confidence we have committed to externally verifying our emissions against the PAS 2060 standard.
We publish updates on our commitment via our annual Sustainability Report that can be found on our
policies page
, with a full size version of our .
We aim to:
- Net zero emissions from direct emissions (scope 1 & 2) by 2025.
- Continue to reduce mains grid electricity use by 20% and mains gas by 25% as a minimum by 2030 from 2005–06 levels, with the intention to support further reductions through wider energy generation projects.
- Develop a ‘net positive’ framework accounting for the positive environmental impact of research outputs to balance the negative output of the University’s carbon footprint.
- Raise awareness and build a carbon community with our staff and student population, including engagement with target and action plan setting.
- Be actively involved in projects that seek to encourage and enable large-scale carbon reduction and promote low carbon transitions in the city and nationally.
- Reduce emissions outside of the University’s direct control (scope 3) to net zero by 2030–50 in line with local and national targets.
Our performance
We have achieved carbon neutrality for all scope 1, 2 and selected scope 3 (water, waste, business travel) in according with PAS 2060 on 31 July 2023 and committed to maintain this to 31 July 2024 for the period commencing 1 August 2022, externally verified by the NQA.
PAS 2060 is an internationally recognised standard which provides a credible means of determining and demonstrating carbon neutrality.
Please note that University accommodation is managed externally by UPP, who calculate and publish their own .
The following chart shows what is covered by our carbon neutrality claim, and progress on our measurement for all scopes. More information on our scopes can be found on our , including recommendations for students and staff on how to reduce your impact at work.
Carbon offsetting
Carbon reduction is the priority of the University but in order to meet the 2025 Scope 1 and 2 goal, due to the availability of current technology, some offsetting is unavoidable at this time. Where we have offset, we have taken steps to ensure not just quality offsets, but transparency into how the money is being spent through our
Qualifying Explanatory Statement (QES)
.
Offsets are a growing market, and the University has academics and researchers who make an impact right across nature-based sequestration methods.
Our academics
Our academics have worked with organisations such as the as part of the UK Peatland Restoration Programme and have on the state of UK peatlands, which resulted in the being created. The
Â鶹´«Ã½ Peatland Research Group
have built on this work.
There are several strands of research and knowledge exchange taking place on net zero and climate action to compliment the work on carbon sequestration, which can be found
on our Net-Zero Carbon / Climate Action page
. Additional research takes place not just on our soils, but on trees and sea grass.