Carbon, Energy and Water
We are proud to be supporting the Greater Manchester carbon revolution which will transform Greater Manchester into a world-leading greener, cleaner, climate resilient city region, improving the health and quality of life for millions of people and protecting our green spaces and environment for future generations.
In alignment with our overarching Environmental Sustainability Policy we make a commitment to achieving continual improvement of our energy and water performance and energy management system using the ISO 50001 approach to which our system was certified to in late 2019. Our Energy and Water Policy sets out our approach.
Our Energy, Water and Carbon Management Plan
In 2011, we launched our first Carbon Management Plan with targets to reduce scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions by 43% by September 2020 compared to a 2005/06 baseline. As of end of academic year 2017/18 we had already reduced our scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions by 64%. This has been achieved partly through reductions in energy use through investment, partly through reductions in the grid electricity emissions factor, and also partly through our divestment of our student accommodation in 2007/08.
Our new Energy, Water and Carbon Management Plan builds on our significant progress in carbon reduction to ensure we can achieve our objective of an 81% reduction in scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions by 2030 and work towards net zero carbon by 2038 in line with the Greater Manchester carbon reduction strategy.
Energy, Water and Carbon Management Plan 2018-2030
The Plan is currently undergoing review, in the context of the upcoming Buildings Decarbonisation Plan.
Scope 3 carbon emissions account for just over 80% of the University’s total emissions and we recognise the impact of these emissions and have committed to improving our monitoring and measuring of these and setting reduction targets where possible.
View our Addendum to our Energy, Water and Carbon Management Plan with our baseline and targets for our Scope 3 emissions.