Top 5 achievements
1
Committing to net zero emissions
Since 2010, BU has implemented Carbon Management Plans and successfully reduced out emissions by 45% since 2015, but as a university we have a responsibility to ensure that we as a community contribute to preventing environmental collapse, both directly in managing our own emissions and environmental impact as well as through education, research and engagement with practice and industry. Therefore, in February 2021 we released our Climate & Ecological Crisis Action Plan (CECAP). The CECAP not only sets out our aim to achieve net zero emissions across all three emissions scopes by 2030/31 also to embed climate action into our teaching, research and everyday practice at BU. As part of this, we have joined the UN Race to Zero campaign: a commitment to pledge, plan, proceed and publish our journey to net zero emissions. Our environmental action until 2030 will increase in both pace and reach, and we are proud of our BU community for joining us on this ambitious journey.
2
2nd in the UK for climate action
The Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings is the only global benchmarking scheme that assesses universities against the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and across three broad areas: research, outreach and operations. 1,115 universities took part in its 2021 edition, and we were proud to rank 74th globally for our action on the SDGs. In recognition of our efforts on climate change and the environment, BU were awarded the THE DataPoints Merit Award. For this award, judges assessed which UK universities were scoring highest, using data from the THE Impact Rankings, for their actions against four SDGs most linked to institutional efforts on the environment. BU ranked particularly highly on the environmental metrics including: 8th in the world for SDG12: Responsible Production And Consumption. This metric assessed our waste reduction achievements as well as our overall waste and pollution management. 15th in the world and 2nd in the UK for SDG13: Climate Action. This metric reflects BU’s environmental achievements including our low-carbon energy use, commitment to include climate education in all our programmes and ambitious net zero target.
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