New environmental plan for 2025

Isn’t there a risk that the University’s work to reduce its climate footprint will lose momentum while we’re waiting for the environmental review and a new three-year environmental plan?

“On the contrary. As I see it, the risk would have been greater if we were basing our actions on the old environmental review and climate inventory. We’ve now increased our targets for the coming year and will base the new plan on up-to-date data. The responsibility for not losing momentum also lies with all of us. We need to keep thinking about what each of us can do, regardless of what’s stated in an overarching environmental plan for the whole University,” says Annika Sundås Larsson, Deputy Head of the Buildings Division and Head of the Unit for Environment and Physical Work Environment.

Everyone needs to do their part

The long-term goal for the University is that the total emissions of greenhouse gases caused by the University’s activities will be at least halved by 2030 compared to 2019, and then reduced to net zero by 2045.

What activities to reduce the climate footprint do you want to highlight as especially important?

“We have 100 per cent renewable electricity, but cooperation with our building owners in the energy area remains important. If we look at the University’s total electricity consumption, 80 per cent is operational electricity and it’s important that we continue to work on that. For example, turning off lights, turning off your computer and walking down the stairs means more than we might think in reducing energy consumption. Even though it’s our laboratories that consume the most electricity.

“Our travel is always something we need to think about, because as we all know, long-haul flights have a significant impact on our climate footprint and cannot be avoided. But how many people travel and how often we travel to a regular conference, for example, are important to consider.

“Setting environmental requirements as far as possible in purchasing and procurement – at the central as well as faculty level and beyond – reduces our consumption-based emissions. In procurement contracts, requirements have often been set on the fuel used for transport, which results in a lower climate footprint. When it comes to deliveries, we can get better at combining orders into one delivery.

“We all need to do our part, even when it comes to things that don’t have such a big footprint individually.

In the climate inventory, the University’s activities are estimated to generate greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to just over 50,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide in one year (2019), which corresponds to approximately 8 tonnes of carbon dioxide per full-time equivalent employee. Note that new data were added to the estimates in the climate inventory in 2022. This supplementary data resulted in our facilities – our buildings – being estimated as the biggest source of our missions. In second and third place are in-service travel and purchased goods.

Focus on facilities, in-service travel and purchasing

The 2025 Environmental Plan focuses on the biggest sources of emissions according to the climate inventory. For these three sources there are targets, key figures to follow the trend, and measures to reduce emissions. These measures are divided into University-wide activities and activities for departments or the equivalent.

Some University-wide measures include analysing travel patterns to identify measures to reduce the climate impact from in-service travel and student travel, developing our energy efficiency efforts in in the University, and developing strategies for the sustainable utilisation of purchased goods.

No-one has been appointed responsible for the University-wide activities in the environmental plan. How will these activities be initiated and implemented? What’s the thinking there?

“Many of these activities are ongoing and run over a longer period, and the responsibility for these lies with different divisions and departments. The Environment function at the Buildings Division in the University Administration can support this the work and also has a responsibility to initiate activities. Now that we have a new environmental plan, we will be contacting others within the University who are responsible for or have the authority to implement these activities.

Measures to be implemented at the department level include working to schedule classes across the whole working day to increase the utilisation of our facilities, making an inventory of the department’s purchasing patterns, and introducing measures for the sustainable utilisation of purchased goods as well as developing strategies for reducing the climate footprint of in-service travel.

Develop working methods

The environmental plan also contains a section with seven measures to develop the methods used for the University’s environmental and climate work. Two of these measures are intended to add environmental representatives to the organisation and to reintroduce the Vice-Chancellor’s special climate fund, called the Climate Pot. Employees and students will be able to apply for funding from the Climate Pot for projects and initiatives to reduce the University’s climate footprint.

Anders Berndt