Sustainable estate
The University is committed to making its estate sustainable while encouraging students and staff to embed social responsibility and sustainability in the behaviour of the University community.
![SRS report business travel pie chart CO2e 2015-16 [flights 94%, road 4%, rail 2%]](https://www.ed.ac.uk/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_breakpoints_theme_uoe_tv_1x/public/thumbnails/image/diagrams-01_0.png?itok=usfoeNlh)
Sustainable travel
The 2016 Staff and Student Travel Survey has shown the University continues to have a high rate of active travel and public transport usage amongst its staff and students.
There has been little change regarding the overall results as a whole since 2013, though there has been small but positive increase in active travel. This is highlighted by the overall 2% increase in walking and cycling journeys by both staff and students. The University’s Carbon Footprint from commuting has reduced by 5% since 2013. The staff carbon footprint has decreased by 10%, largely due to a reduction in car-based travel.
The University, in partnership with Key Travel, have agreed a 20% discount on Virgin East Coast train travel between Edinburgh and London for business travel for staff.
Estates development
A multi-million-pound investment in buildings and facilities across the University is underway and, over the next few years, a series of projects will transform existing spaces, provide new ones and offer staff and students a greatly enhanced environment in which to work and study. Sustainability is being embedded throughout these projects, with energy efficiency and circular economy principles incorporated in the design and construction of these buildings and facilities.
Resource efficiency
Warp It, the online re-use platform, used to distribute unwanted items to staff has achieved financial savings of more than £142,000, diverted over 12 tonnes of waste from landfill in under three years of use and saved over 172 tonnes of carbon emissions. The six-month PC Reuse Project has resulted in a total of 174 PCs being reused internally, along with 257 other IT items such as monitors, keyboards and mice. This has saved the University an estimated £63,086 and 39,382kg of CO2e, and diverted 2,657kg of waste.
Learn about Warp It
Sustainable IT
The University’s Sustainable IT Group was reintroduced which aims to identify and support the enabling of IT efficiency improvement projects throughout the University, assessing the effectiveness and consequences of various opportunities to make energy, carbon and cost savings. Work has been undertaken to provide an initial mapping of energy consumption of IT across the University.
Sustainable landscape
In 2016 the University joined the Edinburgh Living Landscape, which hopes to create a city fit for the future with healthy and beautiful areas that are resilient to climate change as well as being highly valued and accessible to Edinburgh’s citizens.
Staff and student engagement
The innovation and achievement of both staff and students was celebrated at the sixth annual Sustainability Awards. Three categories featured in this year’s awards: Special, Student Awards and Student Residences Awards. Office and Laboratory award teams are working towards their accreditation at present, and will be recognised at an awards ceremony in 2017.
An online ‘Be Sustainable’ induction course was launched, providing practical advice in areas such as energy consumption, sustainable travel, purchasing, and food. The training is available to all staff, students and alumni.
Read more about social responsibility and sustainability programmes
Sustainable laboratories
Laboratories are places where innovative research takes place and where global challenges are solved, but they also have a big environmental impact in terms of energy, water and waste.
At the University, laboratories have committed to taking innovative measures to improve their environmental performance and share best practice with colleagues from across the University through undertaking peer to peer audits as part of the Edinburgh Sustainability awards. Participants have developed unique projects, including: the first scheme in the UK to recycle scientists’ disposable gloves; efforts to manage and recycle pipette tips, and; a project to recover and reuse helium.
A steering group has been established to provide a strategic approach to the sustainable management of laboratories at the University, ensuring there is a collaborative approach to common issues such as packaging, cold storage, space management, energy and resource efficiency.
These efforts were recognised at the Environmental Association of Universities and Colleges Green Gown Awards in 2015, when the University’s sustainable laboratories programme won the ‘Facilities and Services’ category.
Further information on sustainable labs