Next steps

Last year we shared our seven priorities for 2021-22 and we would like to share our progress with these as a summary in the table below:

Our campus

We said:

We will increase the amount of energy we generate on site and add two new solar PV arrays for Jurassic House and Poole House.

We did:

Completed Jurassic House PV array saving five tonnes of carbon every year and we have installed a huge new PV system on Poole House with 236 new panels and expect to switch this on in end of 2022.

Next steps:

We are preparing to install new solar PV on Dorset House in 2023. As well as a new solar thermal hot water system for Poole House active travel.

This will help us to progress towards our target of 1MWp solar electricity generated on site by 2025.

We will replace three existing HV transformers at Talbot Campus. We will invest in studies into Heat Decarbonisation at Talbot campus and Chapel Gate.

We did replace the transformers. We have secured £99,300 funding and invested it in producing Heat Decarbonisation plans for 21 buildings. We have used this to apply for more funding from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme to pay for low carbon heat sources.

We need to finalise the Heat Decarbonisation Plan in 2023 and identify our road map for removal of gas for heating.

If we are successful in gaining more funding we plan to use this to install low carbon heat sources in 2023 to save 220 tonnes of carbon equivalent.

We will invest in ecological surveys of our campuses to create an action plan.

We did complete the surveys and are implementing the recommendations.

We will continue to implement the recommendations

Our people

We said:

We will create more student opportunities

We did:

We did roll out Carbon Literacy training, and launch our Eco Entrepreneurs Fund, Climate Justice Now programme and volunteer Climate Action Student Team.

Next steps:

We plan to expand the Climate Justice Now programme to run nationally, run new student volunteer and nature connection opportunities and explore other impactful collaborative communication routes.

We will complete university wide mapping of course alignment to climate crisis and UN SDGs.

We will be making changes to our business travel policy and supporting our staff with sustainable travel guidance.

We will investigate ways to measure the actions our suppliers are taking to reduce their impact.

We completed this inaugural mapping to identify that two-thirds of courses include the climate crisis in their content; 40% do so at all levels.

We have seen an increase in business travel as Covid travel restrictions are lifted. Our business travel policy changes are yet to be implemented and will come in 22-23.

We implemented a trial of NetPositive to capture actions our suppliers are taking.

We will repeat this mapping in winter 2022 to map progress against our CECAP objective.

We plan to publish guidance for staff to make their essential travel more sustainable in 22-23

We are working to calculate the carbon footprint of what we buy and hope to be able to share this in 22-23.