The University is committed to reducing our carbon emissions in line with the United Nations Paris Agreement, to keep the increase in global average temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The University of Chester aims to
- achieve net zero for Scope 1 and 2 emissions, across all of our activities and operations by 2030
- determine our Scope 3 emissions baseline and set targets for reduction
Current Progress
We have:
- reduced our carbon footprint by 48% compared to our 2015 carbon footprint
- installed 1,608 solar photovoltaic panels across 21 University buildings,
- replaced aging, inefficient heating systems with electric heating systems,
- replaced petrol/diesel fuelled service vehicles with EVs and
- Between April 2021 and March 2022, the majority of our electricity was supplied from a REGO backed 100% renewable tariff. Since April 2022, the University’s electricity is supplied from a zero-carbon tariff using solar, wind, hydro and nuclear generation sources.
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Carbon emissions Scope 1 & 2 since 2015
Alongside physical improvements to the estate, education and low carbon habits are important in achieving our targets. Since September 2021, we deliver Carbon Literacy Training to our students and staff and support faculties and departments to contribute to our net zero target by developing their own action plan via the Climate Action Programme.
Developing our Decarbonisation Plan
We are creating a decarbonisation plan which will adopt Science Based Targets to determine our fair share towards national and global carbon reduction targets. This will be a working document that is reviewed and updated annually to reflect the changing environment and the innovative solutions that become available to enable the transition to a low carbon future. As part of developing and implementing our Environmental Management System, we will be launching a Decarbonisation Management Group. The group will have representation from across the University and will be responsible for the implementation of initiatives and experiments to reduce our CO2 emissions across all our activities.
In developing the decarbonisation plan, we intend to collaborate with our wider community, particularly our local councils to address the range of scope 3 emissions.
HyNet North West, with the University as academic lead, is the collaboration which will begin decarbonising the North West and North Wales from 2025. The initiative will make positive and demonstrable change by reducing annual CO2 emissions by 10 million tonnes by 2030 – the equivalent of taking four million cars off the road. The University has been working as part of HyNet on initial workforce planning and skills requirements to meet industry demands now and into the future, and a socio-economic impact assessment, which quantifies the financial, environmental and health benefits of the project.