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A POSITIVE IMPACT FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
A POSITIVE IMPACT FOR
THE ENVIRONMENT
Reducing our environmental impact
Our operations impact the environment, especially through carbon, energy, water, resource use and waste. We are committed to reducing these impacts across both our existing buildings and new developments. We are also keen to work with others, including our student customers and supply chain partners, to help them reduce the impact of their activity.
Significant improvements in our EPC ratings
Energy Performance
We’ve updated all of our EPCs in preparation for forthcoming changes to mandatory standards and have achieved significant improvements, with the proportion of A-Brated floor area increasing from 35.1% at the end of 2021, to 92.4% at the end of 2023.
This reflects the impact of energy efficiency improvements including investments in building services, controls and building fabric, as well as a significant improvement in data quality and accuracy of EPC surveys, and the impact of updates to the government’s EPC calculation methodology.
Morriss House, Nottingham
Our sustainable new build
Morriss House in Nottingham is one of the most sustainable new builds we’ve ever completed, with a strong focus on environmental performance throughout its design and construction, delivering significant reductions in embodied carbon and designed operational energy consumption.
It is one of our first projects to include full life-cycle analysis, allowing the design team to evaluate different design, construction and material options. We reduced around 810kgCO2e/m2 embodied carbon (RIBA stages 3 to 4) via innovations such as: reduced piling in foundations; a low-rise design and layout optimisation and reduced floor slab thickness; the use of high recycled content aluminium windows; and an innovative brick-slip façade.
The building services make use of air-source heat pumps, onsite solar PV, and smart-networked heating controls to reduce operational energy consumption. Green public open space connects the development to the River Leen and the University of Nottingham campus and includes an amphitheatre.
Key achievements
Operating our existing buildings
Our all-inclusive billing model means all the energy used contributes directly to our Scope 1 and Scope 2 carbon emissions. So, unlike many real estate businesses, we have visibility and control of all building energy-use and a clear financial incentive to reduce it. This also means building energy-use and associated carbon emissions represent our most significant environmental impact.
In 2023 we invested £8.2 million in energy and water efficiency improvements across the estate including air-source heat pumps providing low-carbon
hot water, smart-networked heating controls, solar PV panels, and the latest generation of LED lighting. These measures are expected to deliver a c.1.5% reduction in energy vs. the 2019 base year, equating to around 800 tonnes CO2e; the equivalent of an average UK car driving 125 times around the world. This will make a valuable contribution towards our 2030 target of a 28% reduction in operational energy intensity compared to our 2019 base year – a key element of our Net Zero Carbon Pathway.
Throughout 2023, we’ve increased collaboration between our teams on capital investment proposals. We are working with our supply chain to better understand and improve environmental and social impacts associated with the products and services we buy. In 2023 we introduced a new supplier Code of Conduct and Sustainable Procurement Policy, and started working with key suppliers to understand our Scope 3 carbon emissions and other impacts in more detail so we can focus on the most significant opportunities and how to reduce them (see Procurement section page 23).
Developing new properties
Our largest source of Scope 3 emissions is the embodied carbon of new buildings, which is why they are the focus of our SBTi-validated Scope 3 carbon target. We’ve been working to better understand the scale of this challenge and the opportunities to improve performance.
In 2023 we adopted the OneClick Life Cycle Analysis tool, allowing us to understand and act on opportunities to reduce embodied carbon
and the operational energy use of proposed new builds earlier in the design process. This understanding, together with close collaboration with suppliers, will be key to reducing embodied carbon in new builds in our pipeline.
Creating sustainable buildings means more than just cutting embodied carbon, and so in 2023 we published our first Sustainable
Construction Framework setting out our approach to sustainable design and construction of new builds, refurbishments and retrofits.
Complementing our existing Net Zero Carbon Pathway, the Sustainable Construction Framework sets out our approach to delivering truly sustainable new buildings in line with our wider environmental and social ambitions.
Net zero carbon
Since setting our 2030 net zero carbon target in 2021 we’ve continued to focus on reducing energy consumption across our existing assets and new buildings, with £8.2 million invested in energy efficiency initiatives throughout 2023. This has helped deliver a 8.0% reduction in total energy consumption in 2023 compared to our 2019 base year, equating to a 4.1% cut in energy intensity per student bed.
Resource use
As well as our focus on energy and carbon, we are making progress on reducing other resources. We have been engaging staff and students on water and waste and have been working to gather robust and accurate data to drive sustainable changes in these areas. We are working with programmes and partnerships that will support us and our students to reduce waste generation and improve recycling. We have also made progress through engagement with our waste contractors over the last year, helping to provide a baseline of data to support future measurement and improvement.
2023 Energy consumption
Significant capital investment in energy efficiency; £20 million from the start of 2022 to the end of 2023 alone, and the impact of portfolio change has helped deliver a net 1.6% reduction in absolute energy consumption from 2022 to 2023. However, the savings from energy efficiency measures have been partly offset by increases in energy demand seen across the portfolio, meaning like-for-like absolute energy consumption increased by 1% from 2022 to 2023.
This rise in energy use is attributable to an overall increase in heating demand throughout 2023 vs. 2022, which was especially acute on sites using district heating where legacy long-term supply contracts limit our ability to make improvements in efficiency. We have also seen changes to student behavioural and occupancy patterns that may also be influencing consumption, and are working to better understand these and support students to adopt responsible living habits wherever possible.
Overall gas consumption fell, reflecting the impact of installing air-source heat pumps through 2022 and 2023 as part of our drive to cut carbon emissions. Although this shifted consumption from gas to electricity on those sites so didn’t significantly influence overall energy consumption, the purchase of 100% REGO (renewable energy guarantee of origin)-backed electricity means that overall Scope 1 + marketbased Scope 2 emission fell repeated.
Investments in 2023 included the installation of air-source heat pumps, solar PV, smart-networked heating controls and the latest generation of LED lighting and controls, either as stand-alone retrofits or integrated into wider refurbishment initiatives. In response to the high recent inflation and rising funding costs, we chose to slightly reduce our planned capital programmes for energy initiatives in 2023, and this small reduction, combined with the increased heat demand seen in 2023, mean we are slightly behind our planned trajectory towards our CRREM-based energy efficiency target of a 28% reduction in energy intensity by 2030. However, 2024 will see planned investment in this area increasing to £12 million, as well as updates to our underlying asset transition plans aiming to identify further energy efficiency opportunities with the objective of putting us back on track towards our 2030 goals. Sites connected to district heating networks remain an area of challenge, where technical issues and legacy supply contracts limit our ability to improve efficiency, although it is hoped that ongoing engagement with network operators will help us make progress in this area going forward.
Further details of energy consumption and other environmental performance data for 2023 and preceding years are contained in the appendices.
Progress towards net zero carbon
In addition to reducing consumption, decarbonisation of our energy supply is another key element of our net zero carbon target. Our existing corporate power purchase agreement already sees around 30% of our electricity sourced from a windfarm in Scotland, with the remainder matched to renewable energy guarantee of origin certificates (REGOs). While REGOs meet the criteria set under the RE100 scheme and GHG Protocol for zero carbon electricity, meaning 99.9% of electricity we consumed in 2023 was zero carbon, we recognise the need to accelerate decarbonisation and drive additionality in the energy network so are actively pursuing options to purchase more power under further corporate power purchase agreements, (CPPAs) in the future.
This progress puts us on track to meet our 2030 SBTi-validated carbon target of a 56% reduction in combined Scope 1 + market-based Scope 2 emissions compared to our 2019 base year, with 2023 absolute emissions already 57.2% below 2019 levels. Further details of energy consumption and carbon emissions can be seen
in the Appendices on page 25.
We set out our 2030 net zero carbon ambition in 2020, including overarching SBTi-validated carbon targets for Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, supported by a CRREM-based operational energy efficiency target, an RE100-aligned renewable energy target, and new build targets in line with the RIBA 2030 Climate Challenge. Since 2020, however, those standards and programmes have evolved in line with the latest climate science and an increase in the pace and scale of decarbonisation is now needed to help avoid the worst impacts of climate change. We will therefore be reviewing and updating our net zero carbon targets and pathway in 2024, bringing them in line with the latest requirements and ensuring we continue to play our part in this area.