Carbon, energy and water
The primary cause of climate change is carbon dioxide emissions; carbon dioxide is responsible for 64% of man-made global warming and carbon dioxide levels have increased by about 45% since the Industrial Revolution began. It is therefore important that we measure our carbon emissions and work to reduce them.
Carbon emissions fall into 3 ‘scopes’:
- Scope 1 – refers to direct emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels. For BCU this means the consumption of gas, gas oil, petrol and diesel across the estate;
- Scope 2 – refers to the indirect emissions that BCU is responsible for from consuming electricity;
- Scope 3 – refers to the indirect emissions created elsewhere because of BCU’s consumption of products and services. This covers everything associated with the organisation including water and wastewater treatment, business travel, commuting, purchases, construction, waste etc.
BCU declared a Climate Emergency in September 2019, which signals our commitment to reducing carbon emissions over the next decade.
What are we doing?
We are currently working towards a target to reduce carbon emissions by 43% by 2020/21, compared with a baseline year of 2005/06, which will complete 31 July 2021. As can be seen from the graph below, it is likely that we will exceed the target and achieve a 44% reduction.
BCU’s Scope 1 & 2 carbon emissions have fallen during this target period because:
- The emissions factor applied to electricity consumption has fallen dramatically due to the increasing contribution of renewable and the reduction of coal-fired generation to the grid;
- BCU has moved out of older, more energy intensive building stock into newer buildings;
- BCU has continued to invest in energy efficiency improvements and managing our energy waste.
However, due to the pandemic the way ventilation has been delivered to our buildings has led to gas consumption significantly increasing during 2020-21.
In alignment with BCU’s commitment to the Climate Emergency, for the period to 2030 we’ll be aiming to get to net-zero in Scope 1 & 2 CO2e emissions.
Net-zero means that emissions are reduced as close to zero as possible, and the unavoidable emissions are offset.
Scope 3 carbon emissions
Some Scope 3 emissions are already reported on an annual basis to HESA. As can be seen from the graph below, procurement represents the largest share of BCU’s overall CO2e emissions, the largest category of which is attributable to construction. Over the next academic year we will be focusing on better understanding these procurement emissions by improving data collection. We will also be seeking to gather data for previously unmapped areas of emissions like staff & student commuting.
BCU will also use the coming academic year to clearly identify and quantify all Scope 3 emissions with an intention to have clear targets, and methods for reaching them, in place before 2025.
Water
Water is often taken for granted, but increased frequencies of drought across Europe, changes in lifestyle and a growing population means that our water resources are increasingly being put under pressure. At BCU we have made a commitment to managing our water use responsibly.
We ensure that all new taps, urinals and showers fitted across the estate will be of a specification that consumes less potable water than standard specifications for the same type of fittings. As a result we have seen a reduction in our water use, as shown in the graph below.
Over the last two years BCU has undergone a programme of installing data loggers to all water meters. This has meant that a more accurate picture of water consumption has been possible. It also enables the Energy Manager to target waste.