̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Environment and Energy

High flying academics

cjb250 — Mon, 10 Feb 2020 08:53:30 +0000

Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� has committed to dramatically reducing its carbon footprint. But making a meaningful difference will involve tackling the culture of international travel that runs deeply through academia.

Cambridge Green

cjb250 — Wed, 20 Nov 2019 09:15:20 +0000

From removing ruminant meat from its menus to building ‘green’ buildings, the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge is weaving sustainability into its very fabric. Only bold steps will help it achieve an ambitious target of becoming zero carbon by 2048 – or even earlier.

Removing beef and lamb from menu dramatically reduces food-related carbon emissions at Cambridge ̽��ֱ��

cjb250 — Tue, 10 Sep 2019 04:25:38 +0000

In October 2016, the ̽��ֱ�� Catering Service (UCS), which is responsible for 14 outlets across the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and over 1,500 hospitality events each year, implemented the policy, which focused on the areas with the biggest impact without compromising on cost. These were:

Reducing the consumption of meat, in particular ruminant meat (beef and lamb)
Improving and increasing the availability of plant-based options
Removing unsustainable fish from the menu
Reducing food waste

Our Sustainable Food Journey, published by the ̽��ֱ��’s Environment and Energy team, reveals that since implementation, despite increases in how much food was purchased, overall carbon emissions across UCS were reduced by 10.5%. There was a 33% reduction in carbon emissions per kilogram of food purchased, and a 28% reduction in land use per kilogram of food purchased.

“Sustainability is extremely important to our students and staff and we wanted to ensure that we were not only responding to their needs, but pushing what was considered possible in a catering environment,” explains Nick White, Head of the UCS. “This has involved making sacrifices, but is has been absolutely the right thing to do. It’s about making the right choice easy.”

Securing support from catering service staff was key to making these changes. Catering staff were briefed on the environmental benefits of the Sustainable Food Policy and why the UCS wanted to implement it. As cooking with meat is a key part of most chef’s training, the UCS provided chefs with vegan cookery classes and a trip to Borough Market to get inspiration for plant-based menus. Meanwhile, café managers were given training on marketing for sustainability rather than profit.

To encourage changes in behaviour among the customers, UCS increased the number and variety of vegetarian and vegan options at the same time as removing ruminant meat. They also used subtle ‘nudge’ techniques, including placing the vegetarian and vegan options before the meat options and changing how food options were labelled.

“If you go to most restaurants, they’ll put a ‘V’ for vegetarian or label something as vegan,” says Catering Manager Paula White. “We didn’t do that, we just put what’s in it. You use your eyes, your nose. If you look at something and think ‘Wow, that looks good’, you’re not first of all thinking ‘Is there beef in that?’”

̽��ֱ��Sustainable Food Policy has been widely supported by customers. ̽��ֱ��UCS now sells more sustainable, plant-based food, and as a bonus, they retain the same level of footfall, and have increased their gross profits by 2% from 2014/2015 to 2017/2018, despite increases in food costs.

Andrew Balmford, Professor of Conservation Science at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, who advised UCS on how to make the necessary changes, says: “ ̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ��’s catering managers have, in a very short time, dramatically reduced the environmental footprint of their operation by removing ruminant meat from its menus, lowering food waste and eliminating unsustainably harvested fish– while simultaneously increasing sales and profit. It is hard to imagine any other interventions that could yield such dramatic benefits in so short a span of time.”

̽��ֱ��UCS also decided to stop selling single-use plastic bottles, and have replaced these with glass bottles, cans or bio-degradable bottles. This has led to saving over 30,000 plastic bottles from landfill per year.

On the menu

A typical menu at the ̽��ֱ�� Centre’s Main Dining Hall is:

Aubergine rogan josh
Butternut squash lasagne
Roast chicken
Breaded pork escalope

̽��ֱ��full report is available to read on the Environment and Energy website.

A Sustainable Food Policy at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, which includes removing beef and lamb from the menu and promoting plant-based food options, has had a dramatic effect on food-related carbon emissions at the ̽��ֱ��, a report released today reveals.

It is hard to imagine any other interventions that could yield such dramatic benefits in so short a span of time

Andrew Balmford

SvenHilker (Pixabay)

Vegetables

A bold response to the world’s greatest challenge

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge is building on its existing research and launching an ambitious new environment and climate change initiative. Cambridge Zero is not just about developing greener technologies. It will harness the full power of the ̽��ֱ��’s research and policy expertise, developing solutions that work for our lives, our society and our biosphere.

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

Yes

Licence type:

Public Domain

̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge adopts Science Based Target for carbon reduction

cjb250 — Thu, 25 Jul 2019 08:16:30 +0000

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� has also expressed an aspiration to be ten years ahead of its Science Based Target decarbonisation pathway at all times and to reach zero carbon by 2038.

“Scientists have made it clear that we need to take urgent action to prevent potentially catastrophic climate change,” says Professor Ian Leslie, Senior Adviser to the Vice-Chancellor with special responsibility for Environmental Sustainability.

“As a world-leading ̽��ֱ��, we need to not only take responsibility for our own carbon emissions, but also to demonstrate to others what is achievable. By setting an ambitious target for carbon reduction and aiming to reach it a decade early, we hope to provide opportunities for others to learn from our approach, including where we are successful and areas that are found to be challenging.”

Science Based Targets are based on independently developed models of what organisations need to do. Cambridge’s target is focused on scope 1 and 2 emissions targets: scope 1 emissions are direct emissions from owned or controlled sources; scope 2 emissions are indirect emissions from the generation of purchased energy.

“ ̽��ֱ��important point about Science Based Targets is that they are not arbitrary, but rather are robust and evidence-based,” adds Dr Emily Shuckburgh, Director of Research on Carbon Neutrality at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge. Dr Shuckburgh also leads Cambridge Zero, due to launch in the autumn.

“Achieving our commitment will undoubtedly be challenging, but it is a challenge we have a duty to meet. We encourage other universities and institutions to consider adopting similar commitments.”

Initially, the new commitment applies to the ̽��ֱ��’s operational estate, which includes buildings and assets that directly support its teaching and research activities. ̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� is developing Science Based Targets for its wider estate and activities over the next three years.

Work that is already underway to reach the commitment includes:

looking at options to significantly reduce the amount of gas that the ̽��ֱ�� uses for space and water heating;
assessing the feasibility of developing a solar farm on ̽��ֱ�� land;
sourcing all of the ̽��ֱ��’s electricity from zero carbon sources;
a programme of energy efficiency improvements across the ̽��ֱ��’s estate.

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� is also taking steps to ensure that carbon is a key consideration in decisions relating to the development of new buildings.

Other proposals in the pipeline include providing the ̽��ֱ��’s departments with better data on their energy use and carbon emissions, so that staff and students are informed to take action and to measure the impact this is having.

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� has also committed to develop targets for reducing its indirect (scope 3) carbon emissions, for example those from its supply chain and business travel, and is developing a number of initiatives to reduce these.

Science Based Targets are developed using models that calculate the level of carbon reduction a particular organisation needs to achieve in order to do its ‘fair share’ in reducing global emissions. As their starting point, the models reflect the amount by which global emissions need to be reduced to ensure that the goals set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement are achieved. ̽��ֱ��Paris Agreement, which is an international response to the threat of climate change, aims to limit the increase in global average temperature during this century to well below 2 degrees Celsius (measured against pre-industrial levels), ideally limiting the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ��’s Science Based Target is based on the 1.5 degree limit. It shows by how much and how quickly the ̽��ֱ�� needs to reduce its emissions to ensure it is doing enough to help reduce global emissions to the levels that the latest climate science says is necessary to prevent the worst consequences of climate change.

̽��ֱ��models and data underlying the development of Science Based Targets are provided by the Science Based Targets Initiative and the International Energy Agency. Companies adopting their own Science Based Targets can also have them assessed and validated by the Initiative, although this service is not yet available to the higher education sector. ̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ��’s target has not yet been validated, but it has been developed by an external consultant who has direct, relevant experience and is a member of the Initiative’s Technical Advisory Group.

For further information, see the Environment and Energy website.

Cambridge has become the first university in the world to announce that it has adopted a 1.5 degrees Science Based Target for carbon reduction, committing itself to reduce its energy-related carbon emissions to absolute zero by 2048, with a steep 75% decrease on 2015 emissions by 2030.

By setting an ambitious target for carbon reduction and aiming to reach it a decade early, we hope to provide opportunities for others to learn from our approach

Ian Leslie

Sir Cam

Solar panels at West Cambridge

A bold response to the world’s greatest challenge

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge is building on its existing research and launching an ambitious new climate change initiative. Cambridge Zero is not just about developing greener technologies. It will harness the full power of the ̽��ֱ��’s research and policy expertise, developing solutions that work for our lives, our society and our economy.

Yes

Environmental report highlights Cambridge’s progress towards sustainability goals

cjb250 — Wed, 18 Apr 2018 08:17:56 +0000

In the foreword to the report, Vice-Chancellor Professor Stephen Toope writes: “ ̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge leads the world in many fields of academic endeavour, including making essential contributions to the global journey toward a more sustainable future. In the course of carrying out our research, we should not lose sight of the fact that how we carry out our research, and all of the work that supports it, also has an environmental impact.

“Through our 2015 vision, policy and strategy, we made a commitment to achieve outstanding environmental performance and we are seeing the positive impact of our efforts in some areas; however, we also recognise that we must do more to achieve our aspirations on a range of fronts.”

̽��ֱ��report aims to be transparent regarding our progress and recognises that we need to do more. It emphasises the role that every member of the ̽��ֱ�� has in helping the institution achieve its sustainability goals.

Among some of the highlights in this year’s report are:

Transport

̽��ֱ��performance of the Universal bus, which operates from Madingley Park & Ride to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus via the railway station, has significantly exceeded expectations: the number of ̽��ֱ�� passengers are up by 73%, and user satisfaction has increased to 85%. However, the percentage of staff using sustainable modes of transport to commute to work slipped just below our 75% target this year.

Energy and Carbon

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� spent £2.9 million on energy efficiency projects last year, the highest amount so far, and its direct carbon emissions fell for the third year running. However, its indirect emissions (from sources such as air travel) increased.

Waste

Despite its overall waste volumes increasing significantly due to several large construction projects, the ̽��ֱ��’s ‘zero waste to landfill’ contract has seen the environmental impact of its waste considerably reduced. It has also seen the rates of recycling for construction projects steadily fall over recent years.

“Virtually every aspect of activity across the ̽��ֱ�� has some environmental sustainability impact,” says Kevin Couling, Interim Head of Environment and Energy. “Every individual working or studying at the ̽��ֱ�� has a role to play in taking action to reduce their environmental impact. Cambridge is strongest when we work together. This is why we are encouraging everyone to take part in the Cambridge Green Challenge.”

̽��ֱ��2016 report, produced by the Environment and Energy team at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, won a Green Gown award for Sustainability Reporting, with clear reporting of key performance indicators and progress against targets.

Environmental Sustainability Report 2017

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� has published its Environmental Sustainability Report 2017, setting out its progress over the past 12 months, including key achievements and where there is room for improvement.

Every individual working or studying at the ̽��ֱ�� has a role to play in taking action to reduce their environmental impact. Cambridge is strongest when we work together

Kevin Couling

Sir Cam

Cambridge in Autumn: Bicycles at Trinity College

A bold response to the world’s greatest challenge

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes