We will make an outstanding contribution to supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through our research and education, our engagement with partners and our behaviour on campus and in our communities. We will place a special emphasis on environmental sustainability, supporting the City of Nottingham’s desire to be a net zero carbon city by 2028 and working with partners in China and Malaysia to improve sustainability within their regions.
University of Nottingham Strategy
We’re committed to being a truly sustainable university. Between 2010-2020 we successfully managed to reduce our carbon emissions by approx. 40%.
We want to reduce our carbon emissions by more than half by 2030. This means reducing a further 26,848 tonnes from our carbon footprint. It’s an achievable goal but a large task to undertake, so we need everyone to help us get there.
Whether you’re a student or a member of staff you can make a difference. Even the smallest actions add up to sizeable impacts. We calculated that if all our UK campus lights were left on overnight, it would create around 15 tonnes of CO2 within a single evening. That’s enough electricity to power an average home for over 20 years.
We believe that every sustainable change an individual makes brings us closer to our mutual goal plus, the science and the numbers would agree.
What is the University of Nottingham doing?
Nottingham uses a science-based approach to set its targets from a reliable gathering of data. These targets are based on our contribution to limiting global temperature increases to the 1.5C limit (in line with the Paris Agreement). We’ve also laid out a carbon management plan for full transparency. You can see exactly what we’re going to do and the specific steps we’re taking to get us there.
Our energy is sourced from fossil fuels - the biggest carbon emitter on the planet. In the years ahead, Nottingham will directly target its energy usage to remain on course to meet its sustainability goals.
This starts with the amount of gas consumption we use to heat space and water within our buildings. In 2019/20, our consumption of natural gas contributed a total of 21,600 tonnes to our carbon emissions. This is roughly around 50% of our total (direct) emissions.
We'll tackle this by:
- Reducing the need for excessive heating by improving insulation within our buildings.
- Optimising the use of buildings through occupancy and controls; and
- Making the shift over to lower/zero carbon energy solutions to replace natural gas.
These steps will be implemented across new building projects and in our existing buildings to ensure all our sites move with the times. There won’t be any gas used in our new developments and we have a use of gas policy that we’ll be following going forwards.
We’re also increasing the amount of on-site renewable energy sources that will eventually replace their fossil fuel predecessors from 1% to 10%.
Shifting an existing consumer culture towards a sustainable one is no easy task. We believe that inspiring people to act is the best way to effect change. But you need a powerful tool to convey a clear message that makes sense to people.
How are we doing this?
‘go!’ is an insight-based campaign that’s been designed to connect with students and staff to provide a framework for all sustainability-based communication in the future.
go! will help us to demonstrate our commitment as a university to tackling climate change, as well as empowering everyone to step up, take action and that your sustainable choices matter.
In designing the campaign we worked with our staff and students to better understand attitudes towards environmental sustainability. Through this we know that:
- you are keen for the university to be more sustainable place to work and study
- you want to know what the university is doing to achieve its carbon neutral ambition
- you are ready and willing to help the University on this journey
- you now want to know what action to take
Sustainability is a long-term goal that will be achieved with small, progressive steps that include staff and students will take together.
For more information on our sustainability strategy or to discover more about go!, please visit www.nottingham.ac.uk/sustainability
Recently viewed
{{ item.faculty }}
{{ item.courseTitle }}
Entry requirements
{{ item.clearingALevel ? item.clearingALevel : item.entryRequirementsCode }}
UCAS code
{{ item.ucasCode }}
Duration
{{ item.duration }}
Start date
{{ item.startDate }}
{{ item.category }}
{{ item.title }}
{{ item.category }}
{{ item.title }}
