Green League table result confirms environmental progress

Tuesday, 29 May 2012

The University has been awarded an Upper Second Class Award and ranked 59 out of 145 in the People & Planet Green League 2012, an improvement of 24 places from last year and 3 points short of achieving a ‘First'.

Sir David Bell told staff: "In the past 12 months, we have cut our carbon usage by 10% in absolute terms¹ as we pursue the challenging objectives from our Carbon Management Plan of reducing our carbon footprint by 35% by 2015/16.

"As an institution with a global reputation for sustainability and climate change research, we need to ensure good environmental practices permeate all that we do. This includes everything from building new facilities through recycling our waste to the everyday behaviour of staff and students.  

"Our standing in the Green League Table is a good indication that we are doing a lot of things right. We have inspections in the next few weeks for the re-assessment of our Green Flag award and to upgrade our EcoCampus Award to a ‘Gold', we hope. We have successfully bid for over £750,000 of funding to help run projects that are reducing our carbon footprint and will bring financial returns, from insulation projects to more sensitive building management systems. However, ultimately, it is people that make the difference.

"My thanks go to our 250 environmental champions who help drive improved performance at a local level across the University. But all of us have a part to play to ensure we achieve the 35% saving, an achievement that would save the University the equivalent of nearly £20 million."

An updated version of our Carbon Management Plan will be published in the next month or so, which will help us set the agenda for the next few years.

Green facts and figures on the University of Reading

• Reduced carbon emissions by 10% in 2010/11 compared to our 2008/09 baseline
• Awarded the Carbon Trust Standard for reducing CO₂year on year
• Voted fourth best green space in the UK in the Green Flag Awards
• Achieved a Silver EcoCampus award for work towards environmental sustainability
• Decreased the total amount of waste by 7%, recycling 42% of all waste
• Increased by 27% the total amount of glass recycled on campus
• Introduced improvements to the bus service linking the University with Reading town centre, in conjunction with Reading Buses.
• Carried out a full travel audit of staff and student travel patterns to support a new Travel Plan.
• Installed over 200 Photo Voltaic cells on the Whiteknights Campus to reduce carbon footprint by 21,900 kilograms of CO₂ per year.
• Energy consumption reduced by 16%
• Introduced environmental procurement practises to ensure our suppliers work with us to reduce the carbon footprint related o the goods and services they supply to the University.
• Reduced electricity consumption among staff and students by 8.4% through the Switch Off campaign
• Achieved our first two B rated Display Energy Certificaties for energy efficient buildings - Henley Business School and Carrington Building

More information about the University's environmental performance and initiatives at http://www.reading.ac.uk/cleanandgreen/

People and Planet Green League Table- http://peopleandplanet.org/greenleague