Sustainability on campus

Net-zero

The university has committed to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The 2022–23 academic year has seen a 45.5% reduction in scope 1 and 2 emissions against a 2009–10 baseline. This reduction has been achieved through a range of projects, including installing solar panels, rolling out energy-efficient LED lighting, developing a state-of-the-art data centre. 

We have recently published our Net-Zero Strategy 2022–2025, setting out the guiding principles for how we will approach carbon reduction. The university has committed to achieving net zero by 2050 and is in the process of identifying a suitable, sustainable plan for achieving this.

The strategy has a focus on decarbonising our buildings, with three key themes:

• Demand reduction – Improvements to building fabric, energy efficiency and resource optimisation to minimise the university’s energy demand.
• Energy generation – Producing our own clean, affordable energy.
• Responsible energy procurement – Source our remaining energy needs from sustainable sources.

Renewables

We have installed over 2,500 solar panels across our campuses which generated over 600,000 kWh last year (2022–23). This resulted in cost savings of over £160,000 and reduced our annual carbon emissions by over 125 tonnes.

The solar arrays at Grand Parade and Varley were installed through an innovative collaboration with Brighton Energy Co-operative – a community energy organisation whose members invest to develop renewable energy systems in Brighton and the south-east.

We have also installed solar hot water panels on the roof of the Huxley building in Moulsecoomb.

Sustainable buildings

Our campuses are home to a wide variety of building types, ranging from old 19^th century buildings to tailor-made new builds. As set out in our Net-zero strategy 2022-2025, construction and renovation projects will give priority to fabric efficiency, energy efficiency and on-site generation, consistent with Passivhaus and Enerphit design standards to enable the transition to zero carbon forms of heating.

Installation of more efficient lighting at our Aldrich and Falmer libraries is saving 48 tonnes of carbon a year. The recent replacement of metal halide floodlights at Falmer Sports pitches with new LED luminaries is expected to reduce energy use and the associated carbon emissions by more than 50%.

Heating and ventilation is a significant contributor to a building’s carbon footprint, which is why we’ve implemented a range of initiatives to lower this impact.

• Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES) system - an innovative way of heating and cooling one of our largest buildings, using water from hot and cold wells below the site. This reduces reliance on fossil fuels for space heating.
• An extensive building energy management system (BMS) - ensuring our buildings are comfortable places to work and study, while striving for the most efficient use of energy across our campuses.
• Combined Heat and Power (CHP) units – reducing carbon emissions by generating electricity at the same time as providing heat. The use of natural gas means this is not a zero-carbon technology, however it currently provides a viable means of reducing emissions at locations with significant heat demand.
• Building fabric upgrades – improvements to the building fabric reduce heat demand and therefore the energy required for heating. Refurbishment projects in recent years have seen improved window glazing installed in Mithras House and much of the Cockcroft Building.

As outlined in our sustainability and environmental policy statement, designs for new and refurbishments of existing buildings will be guided by our goal of achieving net zero carbon usage. Our construction and refurbishment operating procedure sets out our targets and strategies to achieve this. 

Green IT

With IT equipment playing an integral role in the work of a modern university, we’re working hard to ensure our IT services are run as sustainably as possible.

A key success has been the development of a state-of-the-art water-cooled data centre on our Moulsecoomb campus, providing energy-efficient housing for current and future departmental servers.

With a significant number of computers across our campuses, the installation of power-down software has played a key role in minimising the carbon emissions of our IT systems. The software ensures that all computers are automatically powered down when not in use, avoiding energy waste.

Embedding sustainability

We’re striving to embed sustainability throughout all our practices. Our university’s approach to engaging students and staff is framed by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), influencing our teaching and learning, research, public and community engagement, and campus operations, in collaboration with the Students' Union.

Sustainable curriculum

At our university, sustainability is seamlessly integrated into all teaching and learning through Research-Informed Teaching. This innovative approach combines learning with research skills and knowledge exchange, encouraging students across disciplines to explore Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). ESD in our courses and modules is reviewed through the Annual Quality Assessment process led by the quality leads of the Quality & Standards Department. ESD approaches and qualitative impact are also overseen by members of the Global Challenges Leadership Group.

Visit our Global Challenges and research and knowledge exchange pages for more insights.

Our campus serves as a 'living lab' for sustainable development, addressing Global Challenges. Our Net Zero Carbon Management strategy utilises university buildings for research and teaching, exemplified by first-year Architecture, Technology, and Engineering students exploring low-carbon retrofitting techniques. Additionally, our People and Nature Plan enhances graduate skills through real-world, paid environmental surveying opportunities, boosting employability in biodiversity conservation.

Strategy for student and staff engagement

Our strategies set clear objectives and milestones for engaging both students and staff, monitored through the Sustainability and Environmental Policy statement 2022–25 with annual updates. Regular sustainability surveys assess behaviours, awareness, and performance among university stakeholders, detailed further in our Governance and Policies.

Travel

Aligned with our Net Zero Carbon Management strategy, the university aims to shift commuter transport towards mass transit, walking and cycling. Annual travel surveys guide efforts to enhance active travel options. We also offer termly free bike maintenance sessions to support safe commuting to university.

Events

Recognising the impact of scope 3 emissions, we lead by example with various events that engage students and staff, promoting wellbeing and sustainable choices in daily life to reduce scope 3 emissions. More information can be found in our Net Zero Carbon Management strategy.

Every term we offer free bike maintenance sessions for students and staff ensuring the bikes are safe when cycling and encourage them to commute to university, our most recent in May 2024.

Staff inductions and training

During mandatory staff induction days, our sustainability team introduces new staff to our sustainability policy, responsibilities, and sustainable travel advice. We provide training and community networking opportunities to drive sustainability outcomes and uphold social responsibility.

Student-led evaluations 

We encourage students to get involved in evaluations. Every year, sport and health sciences students complete the Planetary Health Report Card (PHRC); a student-led initiative where they use a metric-based tool with support from their teachers to evaluate how well planetary health is addressed in their course and institution.

Research

The University of Brighton has a long, rich and diverse history in making a transformative difference to society through research and knowledge exchange.

We aim to meet the major challenges the world faces, building a sustainable future for our planet in numerous ways:

• across the natural and technological world by addressing aspects of climate change and biodiversity loss, investigating future green fuels and architectural practices as well as making advances in health and wellbeing;

• in the economic and social spheres by tackling issues such as clean, accessible and affordable food and water supplies, environmental justice, housing problems, and harnessing the power of global informatics;

• by prompting real-world change through debate or critical and cultural intervention that can surface deeper issues, consolidate communities for change, and sustain the world through cultural inclusivity, opportunity and participation.

Our work breaks boundaries, bringing together diverse disciplines, international partners and individuals from academia, industry and beyond. Through our collaborations and partnerships, we share our insights, solve practical problems and shape debate towards creating a better future for all. 

Visit our research and knowledge exchange pages to find out more.

Partnership

The University of Brighton actively works with community groups and organisations to help our local communities to thrive, and to improve teaching and research. We work together to solve problems and develop working relationships that help local communities and the university in the long term.

Our Community University Partnership Programme (CUPP) creates sustainable partnerships, helps develop ideas into projects, provides start-up funding and helps networks and communities of practice develop.

The university’s award-winning Green Growth Platform supports Sussex’s thriving green sector through business support, innovation and research and development support, events, and opportunities for skills development, delivered by a team of industry experts, business advisors and university specialists.

The university's Sustainability Team support local community partnerships throughout the year on small scale projects, including Brighton and Hove Food Partnership, Surfers Against Sewage and the Brighton Bike Hub. Read more about these activities on the c-change pages.

Waste and recycling

Our aim at the University of Brighton is to promote a zero-waste culture of ‘rethink, reduce, reuse and recycle’, in order to significantly reduce waste and increase recycling across all areas of the university estate. The university is working towards its waste and recycling goal of 60% by 2025. 

This means reducing packaging; cutting down paper use; reducing and recycling food waste; facilitating staff to share surplus resources internally and with local organisations; running the annual reuse project in our halls of residence, and investing heavily in recycling facilities across our campuses.

What happens to waste on campus?

Mixed recycling

Our mixed recycling is collected by The Recycling Partnership, who sort the recyclable materials into individual material types before being reprocessed.

General waste

General waste is taken to a transfer facility for inspection before being taken to the Energy Recovery centre where it is incinerated to generate electricity to power local homes and businesses. 

Glass

Glass is taken to the glass recycling facility where it is crushed, cleaned and sorted by colour. 

Food waste

Food waste is collected and transported by the Recycling Partnership to an anaerobic digestion plant where it is processed to produce a biogas and bio fertiliser. Biogas helps to produce renewable energy to power our homes and businesses, whilst bio fertiliser is an essential ingredient in farming and is spread on fields to help crops grow.

Re-use

At the University of Brighton, we work with charities to redistribute and reuse any surplus furniture, electrical equipment and office consumables, through Warp It. The platform allows our staff to easy loan or give items they no longer need to colleagues. If the items are not required within the university, they will be passed onto our partner organisations and charities.

By the end of 2023 we have saved £249,078 and avoided generating 24,536 kg of waste. This is the equivalent of saving 120,991 kg of CO₂ and planting 165 trees.

Furniture that is not reusable is recycled. The items are carefully broken down and materials separated for recycling.

Re-use Project 

At the end of each academic year we run our successful re-use project, where we partner with the British Heart Foundation to encourage students moving out of halls to donate their unwanted items. In 2024 our students donated 592 bags, helping to raise £8,880 for the British Heart Foundation and diverting 4.7 tonnes of waste. 

Supporting sustainable travel

The university encourages active and sustainable travel to and from our campuses and supports avoiding the need to travel by using online meetings or conference calls, supported by the university's Agile Working Framework.

Our campus travel plans outline the actions being taken on each campus to encourage use of active and sustainable travel modes and include:

• staff and student sustainable travel discounts
• access to a wealth of travel information for students and staff
• on-campus facilities including cycle parking, showers and lockers
• Cyclescheme, providing tax-free salary-sacrifice bike purchases for staff
• salary sacrifice travel season ticket loans for staff
• staff access to travel discounts through the easitNetwork
• free 1 month bus pass from Brighton and Hove Buses for eligible new staff
• hi-vis and safety accessory giveaways, competitions and engagement activities.

Our Moulsecoomb Campus plan is accredited to Modeshift STARS, recognising effective development, implementation and monitoring of the travel plan. The plan is current accredited to Good (Bronze) standard and the Sustainability Team are working towards Very Good (Silver) accreditation by September 2024.

The university is also a member of the Southeast Communities Rail Partnership’s, Sussex Downs Line Steering Group. The groups connects communities to their railways along the line between Seaford and Brighton, encourage travel by train and engagement with the railway.

Further information on all student initiatives and travel information can be found on the c-change travel pages.

Business travel and offsetting

University employees travelling for business are required to consider how and if they need to travel for business purposes, to support the university’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions.

Colleagues are required to:

• Travel only when absolutely essential, following the principles of the sustainable travel hierarchy to consider whether travel is required and if the work can be carried out online or virtually.
• Travel by the most cost-effective method which, in most circumstances, will be bus or standard class rail travel.
• Only travel overseas where it is deemed essential, and the activity cannot be carried out otherwise.

These commitments are outlined in the university’s Expenses Policy, where travel costs will not be reimbursed if the policy is not adhered to.

Under normal business circumstances, colleagues will be discouraged from taking flights between mainland UK destinations, unless this prevents colleagues with disabilities or caring responsibilities from travelling, or the flight is part of a connection with an overseas flight.

Colleagues can also book use of an electric car or van for inter-site or local travel, supporting emissions reduction.

Colleagues can find more information about working off campus on the Staff Central Sharepoint pages, including:

• Details of Microsoft packages available for download and access off campus
• Guidance using MS Teams for collaboration
• Accessing staff email.

Offsetting

The university does not currently support offsetting as a means of reducing carbon emissions, and instead promotes investment to reduce operational emissions. Offsetting will be required to meet our net-zero target but will only be used to offset unavoidable emissions after all feasible reductions have been made. This approach is outlined in the university’s Carbon Offsetting Position Statement.  

Travel survey 

Our annual travel survey asks students and staff about their travel habits to the university. The survey results are used to inform development of travel facilities and initiatives across the campuses, monitor progress towards our travel targets, and inform development of our travel plans. 

View the results of the 2024 Travel Survey. 

Biodiversity

We strive to preserve and protect natural habitats and biodiversity on our campuses, creating new opportunities for wildlife on campus wherever possible.

In addition to nurturing local habitats, our biodiversity work helps create a better environment for the university community, promoting staff and student wellbeing and increasing enjoyment of our campuses.

The university has developed a People and Nature strategy with the School of Applied Sciences that includes biodiversity initiatives such as:

• improved management of biodiversity at Moulsecoomb and Falmer
• better management of habitat corridors
• a reduction in the amount of chemicals used on our campuses
• the installation of green roofs.

Falmer Library: Gardening Project

The Falmer Library Gardening Project is a staff-led initiative that began in 2023 with the aim of transforming a run-down allotment space on campus into an outdoor community hub that both staff and students can enjoy.

To kick start the project staff donated seeds and plants and the Sustainability team supplied peat-free compost and a greenhouse to ensure the allotment can be tended to all year round. The site now has wildflowers, a vegetable patch, a fruit bed and a mixed bed which includes a mature bay tree.

For 2024 the Gardening Project aims to grow a wider variety of fruits, vegetables and herbs that when ready can be harvested and taken home by staff and students to enjoy. The project also hopes to engage more staff to help build community, connect with nature and support wellbeing.

The Dye Garden

The Dye Garden was created in 2014 by both staff and students predominantly from the School of Art and Media, with the aim of starting an academic project that would support staff and MDes Textiles research.

Having been a build site for many years, the ground was compacted and the first summer was spent manually digging into the chalk to prepare for the project. It quickly became a success and ten years on in 2024 the garden continues to grow a range of plants that are used for extracting pigment to make into ink for use in creative practices in the school. This year the beds are being developed further so the garden can produce a wider range of dye plants and larger quantities of key colours, such as woad, madder and weld which produce blue, red and yellow retrospectively.

Student-led Projects

Students from the School of Applied Sciences have undertaken butterfly, hedgehog, and bird surveys to help develop an ecological appraisal of our Falmer campus and inform our People and Nature Plan. 2024 is the second year the student-led project has been run and continues to be supported by the university through the offer of guidance and training from the School of Applied Science’s ecology unit and through the provision of funds to support three students over three weeks.

Hedgehog Friendly Campus

The hedgehog is one of Britain’s best known and loved mammals, yet they are in trouble with a 75% decline in numbers in some areas since the year 2000. University of Brighton students and staff have collaborated to attain Bronze Hedgehog Friendly Campus certification. The scheme aims to raise awareness of the plight of hedgehogs while taking practical steps to improve habitats and circumstances for hedgehogs across university campuses. There are a variety of ways students and staff can get involved from installing log piles and hedgehog houses, running social media campaigns, to writing blog posts, litter picking and taking part in campus hedgehog surveys.

For 2024–25 the university aims to renew its Bronze accreditation and achieve Silver certification to further promote biodiversity and help protect a vulnerable species. More information is available on the Hedgehog Friendly Campus Blog.