What we have done

Our Strategy can be found here: Energy Management Strategy 2016-2022

Keele University met its 2020 carbon reduction target a year early with a 39% reduction against a 1990 baseline. Our Energy Management Strategy 2016-2022 details our objectives, targets and action to further reduce our Carbon emissions from scope 1 and 2. (Our carbon emissions target includes our carbon emissions attributed to residential accommodation )

In May 2019 the University Council declared a climate emergency and committed to an ambitious target of net zero emissions by the year 2030.

In March 2021 we launched our Climate Action Framework Principles setting out the whole University approach that we’ll take in order to reach net zero carbon by 2030.

Our Climate Action Framework Principles priority actions include:

A commitment to be carbon neutral by 2030 which includes our campus operational emissions (scopes 1 and 2) and indirect emissions (scope 3) including:

Waste (including construction)
Water
Procurement (supply chain)
Staff and student business trips e.g. flights to conferences and field trips
Staff and students commuting to university on a daily basis
Carbon emissions associated with the travel between students’ homes and the university at the start and end of term (including international students’ travel to and from their home country)

The energy and carbon section of our sustainability webpages details our carbon reduction work to date and the development of a new renewable energy park on campus.

Energy efficiency funding

Since 2010, The University has invested more than £3m in projects that have reduced both our energy consumption and carbon emissions. These projects include the installation of new efficient gas boilers, the development of a Combined Heat and Power energy centre, the replacement of inefficient lighting systems and improved insulation amongst others and are expected to deliver lifetime carbon savings of over 35,000 tonnes. We've been so successful that we were shortlisted for a Green Gown Award in the carbon reduction category in 2016.

Energy Efficiency Case Studies:

We are consistently identifying and evaluating new projects and opportunities and have specific funding to allow us to implement those that meet specific payback criteria. Although we routinely identify new projects from building energy audits and maintenance programmes, we encourage both staff and students to assist us by providing suggestions for how we can improve the energy and water efficiency of your workspace or residence. We get some of our most effective projects this way so please feel free to fill in the KU Sustainability Ideas google form which you can find here.

Energy and water consumption performance

Please see the energy and water reports for the last academic year at the following links:

Low-zero carbon energy

Keele University is committed to reducing our impact from the energy consumption for our day to day business. For this reason we pay a premium for 100% of electricity through 'green' tariffs which is guaranteed to directly support renewable generators. The supply is guaranteed and certified via our energy provider: Renewable energy tariff certificate 2020/21 + 2018/19 . In addition, we now produce more than 5% of our energy on site through low-zero carbon measures. These include more than 250kWp of solar photovoltaics, a biomass boiler and a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) engine. In addition, our Sustainability Hub has been testing a number of different types of decentralised energy production, including ground source heating, solar thermal and biomass.

More information on the Hub can be found here.

In 2019, the University received planning permission to build a renewable energy park consisting of 20,000 solar panels, two large wind turbines and a 1MW battery energy storage solution. Following completion in early 2021, the combined technologies will serve to produce more than half of the campus's annual electricity demand from clean renewables.

HyDeploy

Keele University has joined a partnership to trial a new natural gas/hydrogen mix for homes and offices. The project is called HyDeploy. It will take advantage of Keele's unique position as a self-contained energy network and aims to demonstrate that blending up to 20% hydrogen into the natural gas supply can be delivered without disruption. The results of this project will help inform and influence future energy technology policy developments in the UK.

For more information go to www.hydeploy.co.uk