Carbon Reduction

Find out about carbon management and how it affects City.

What is City doing?

City has implemented a number of carbon and energy reduction initiatives as part of its Carbon Management Programme.  Our overall target is to reduce carbon emissions by 43% by 2020 (against 2005/06 baseline figures). We are already on track to achieve this and have won numerous awards for our carbon reduction progress.

Carbon Management

• City is dedicated to improving carbon management and our Carbon Management Plan has been official agreed with the Carbon Trust as part of our participation in their Higher Education Carbon Management (HECM) Programme.
• The Plan commits City to reduce its carbon emissions by 30% by 2015 and 43% by 2020 (against 2005/06 baseline figures) through a variety of initiatives, including awareness campaigns, the use of renewable energy sources and provision of energy saving devices in new and refurbished buildings.
• The University's carbon footprint now stands at 9,989 tonnes per annum, a reduction of 22% against the 2005/06 baseline year.
• City is also committed to the Islington Climate Change Partnership (ICCP), and has exceeded the 15% reduction target by 2011 set by ICCP. The University has agreed to a new yearly target of 3% year on year reduction.
• City has signed up to the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRCEES), a mandatory initiative introduced in 2010 which requires private and public sector organisations using more than 6,000 MWh of electricity each year (equivalent to an annual electricity bill of about £500,000) to measure and report on their carbon emissions. City ranks as the most energy efficient university in London and 9th in the UK and ranks as the 155th greenest overall out of 2,000 organisations across the UK, £500,000).
• City has attained the British Standards Institute's Kitemark for Greenhouse Gas Emissions Verification.

Energy Management

• Various energy-saving projects put into place since 2005/06 have saved City over 10,000 tonnes of CO2.
• Gas consumption since 2006 has almost halved. 
• New heating, ventilation and air conditioning units have been installed.
• Energy efficient technology and materials are being installed where possible on all new and refurbishment projects (e.g. presence-detecting lights and lighting controls; energy-efficient hand dryers; etc.)
• City installed in 2009 a 30kWp photovoltaic (PV) array consisting of 172 solar panels which generate electricity from daylight and is expected to save the University around 12 tonnes of CO2 annually.
• City has installed automatic meter reading (AMR) to all its gas and electricity meters and is using that information to monitor and target energy initiatives.
• A new powerPerfector unit was installed in August 2011 that will optimise our electrical supply voltage and in doing so save 355 tonnes of carbon emissions each year and reduce £81,700 from our annual energy spend.
• A Combined Cooling, Heating and Power (CCHP) plant is currently being installed at the Northampton Square site and is due for completion by May 2012. This new £5million project will enable City to generate its own power, will save us around £469,000 annually on utility costs, and will account for a third of our 43% reduction target.

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