Positive trend for the climate but pace needs to pick up

The long-term goal for Uppsala University is to at least halve the total emissions of greenhouse gases caused by the University’s activities by 2030 compared to 2019, and then reduce them to net zero by 2045.

Of course, this adjustment needs to happen in stages and the Environmental Plan 2022–2024 contains interim targets to track the actual trend. The University’s central Environmental Office has compiled trends in 2024 compared to the 2019 base year for the three largest and most important sources of carbon emissions from the University’s operations: energy use in buildings, business travel, and purchasing.

“The compilation shows that the University’s climate work is progressing in the three focus areas. In energy efficiency, we have succeeded in achieving our target, largely thanks to good cooperation with our building owners. However the news regarding the trend for business travel is somewhat less good. But despite the fact that emissions in this area have increased slightly compared to the previous year, nevertheless emissions overall have decreased since our base year of 2019, which is good news,” says Lotta Hallnäs Rask, Environmental Coordinator at the Environmental Office.

Business travel a challenge

After a dramatic drop during the pandemic, carbon emissions from flights longer than 500 km have increased in recent years, but emissions are still a bit below the figures from 2019 (just over 3.5 million kg in 2024 compared to just over 4.5 million kg in 2019).

For business travel and transport, carbon emissions per full-time equivalent employee have decreased by 18% compared to the 2019 base year. This is a slower decline than in the Environmental Plan 2022–2024, where the target was a fall of 30% per full-time equivalent employee compared to 2019. The Environmental Plan 2025 raises the target level further to 45% compared to 2019.

“Business travel is still a challenge for the University. For world-class research and education, business travel is often an essential element. That said, in order to reduce emissions from business travel, we all have a responsibility to review our travel patterns and carefully consider which trips are actually necessary. Long-haul flights of over 500 km account for the majority of the emissions from business travel. These trips are often difficult to replace with other modes of transport, and my recommendation is therefore to carefully consider whether the trip is really necessary,” says Lotta.

Can the trip be made differently?

Maybe you don’t need to fly to the same place several times in a year, but can instead make one longer business trip where you combine several missions into the same trip? Or it might be possible to start cooperating locally or have people on site here for longer periods instead of travelling to another site multiple times during a year? Consider going to a conference that’s further away every three years and instead choosing local hubs for the other years.

“It’s also worth reviewing the size of the delegation going to the same conference. Is it possible to reduce the numbers and instead work actively with knowledge transfer and networking once you are back home?”, says Lotta.

Travel patterns have also exhibited a fall in the number of business trips taken by train while the total distance flown on shorter flights of less than 500 km has risen in 2024.

“I also want to encourage staff to think about how they travel. If your flight involves multiple stopovers, you may be able to replace one of these legs of your journey with train travel, thereby reducing the total emissions from your trip,” says Lotta.

Energy use in buildings

The other major source of carbon emissions from the University’s operations is energy use in buildings. Here, the trend is falling energy consumption and thus reduced carbon emissions. Total energy consumption has fallen by 12% in 2024 compared to 2019 when calculated per kWh per square metre. This is slightly better than the target in the Environmental Plan (10% decrease compared to 2019). In the Environmental Plan 2025, the ambition is to reduce energy consumption by 20% compared to 2019.

“In 2025, we will start to see the effects of many of the energy efficiency measures taken in 2024. There will also be ongoing measures to reduce energy consumption in 2025, such as switching to LED lighting in several campus areas, updating the control systems, and projects to improve the heat recovery at BMC, for example,” says Lotta Hallnäs Rask and continues:

“In parallel with this, the University’s Environmental Office is investigating what the University can do to reduce its activity electricity. Activity electricity includes electricity used for our computers, lighting, refrigerators and freezers, and laboratory equipment. At present, activity electricity accounts for approximately 80% of our total electricity consumption. In order to reduce consumption from this category, we staff members need to get together to bring about behavioural changes. Part of this involves reviewing processes in our energy-intensive laboratories to identify energy-saving potential. There are some good examples we can emulate from our own operations, such as the UPPMAX climate pot project (see link in the Fact box).

Purchasing of goods and services

The third major source of emissions is the University’s purchasing of goods and services. The key figure here is the number of procurements and call-offs from framework agreements where environmental requirements are imposed. Here, the University is at the same level as in 2019 after a reduced share in 2023 (74% in 2024 compared with 72% in 2019, and 44% in 2023).

Note, however, that it can be difficult to monitor the number of procurements with environmental requirements year on year because the majority of procurements result in framework agreements that remain in force for four-year periods. So some years it may be relevant to sign new framework agreements in areas where it is relevant to set environmental requirements, while in other years there may be a much smaller share of framework agreements of that nature.

The Environmental Plan stipulates that the University should work systematically to reduce the environmental and climate impact of its purchases of goods and service, and this work has continued during 2024. This includes more stringent environmental requirements being imposed on procurements of services for the management of environmentally hazardous waste.

“We are also working on a project within the framework of the Uppsala Climate Protocol to reduce the amount of plastic in waste. This is related to our emissions from district heating and cooling, as plastic that has not been properly sorted ends up being incinerated and becoming part of the district heating system. Reducing the amount of incinerated plastic in this system reduces its carbon emissions, helping to reduce the carbon footprint of district heating throughout Uppsala. So do make sure you sort your plastic waste correctly!” says Lotta Hallnäs Rask.

Anders Berndt