UNIVERSITY VIEW
As the UN Climate Change Conference, or COP26, approaches, all eyes are on our world leaders.
It is hoped this pivotal event will see them taking decisive action to avert the catastrophic impact of climate change.
At Cardiff University, we have many academics dedicated to providing the much-needed research and evidence on the current state of the world’s climate, its impacts on humanity and biodiversity and the ways we can navigate away from a future none of us wants.
As an institution, Cardiff University has a major role to play in creating a more sustainable future.
That’s why, in November 2019, we declared a climate emergency and announced our aim to become carbon neutral for our direct energy consumption by 2030.
We have also aligned our targets with Welsh Government’s policy to shift the economy away from fossil fuels and make the public sector carbon neutral by 2030, as well as the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act, which aims to make Wales more resilient and globally responsible and provide a more sustainable future for our current and future students.
Since 2019, a lot of work has been taking place to ensure sustainability is embedded into every part of the university’s structure and decision-making.
Our Environmental Sustainability Enabling Strategy, recast last year in light of Covid-19, set out our vision towards building an inclusive, sustainable, and resilient future for our community and our aim to bring about environmental benefits not only to Cardiff and Wales, but to the wider world.
There are many projects ongoing which are feeding into this strategy. One goal is to make our campus carbon neutral.
We are considering sustainability as we construct new buildings and investigating how our older buildings can be improved, navigating constraints such as planning regulations.
We are currently gathering data on the temperature and air quality inside our buildings and investigating how we can make them more efficient to run.
As part of our Ecosystem Resilience and Biodiversity Action Plan, we are monitoring wildlife on campus – the first formal population survey of slow worms was run earlier this year.
We are working with students to create a hedgehog-friendly campus and have joined with the Hedgehog Friendly
Campus accreditation scheme, a national biodiversity programme set up by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society in collaboration with SOS-UK.
Working with Cardiff council, we are helping to create a connected forest in Cardiff city centre – where we plant trees which feed into Cardiff council’s replant strategy. We are also focusing on travel.
Changing Steps Cardiff is a rewards programme designed to encourage our staff and students to use healthier and more sustainable modes of travel.
Freshers students at university halls residences will be travelling on newer and cleaner buses to campus from this term.
These initiatives, as well as many others, are allowing us to make steady progress towards a greener future.
As signatories of the Sustainable Development Goal Accord, which represents the university and college sector’s collective response to 17 sustainable development goals, we achieved an overall rank of 101st-200th out of 1,115 ranked institutions globally for this year’s submission. Among universities in the UK, we ranked 4th for climate action, 11th for responsible consumption and production and 5th for good health and wellbeing.
This is a reflection of the incredible work being done by so many people across the university.
There are undoubtedly many challenges on our road towards net zero.
The financial constraint of decarbonising the campus is an obvious one, as well as the issues regarding international travel – both for academics and students.
These are serious issues facing the entire sector.
Difficult decisions undoubtedly lie ahead. But I’m confident the university, in conjunction with its dedicated staff and students, is in a strong position to navigate these challenges.