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UEL Environmental Sustainability Annual Report

August 2012- July 2013

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Introduction The University of East London (UEL) is a global learning community with over 28,000 students from over 120 countries world-wide. We adhere to a set of values as laid out in the University Strategy that guide what we do, one of which is sustainability; to promote and help secure a socially just, healthy, prosperous and environmentally responsible world. Over the last three years we have been working hard to raise the profile of environmental sustainability at UEL. This has involved making changes at all levels from operational to strategic; working with staff, students and partners; and being creative about how we use our resources to secure continuous improvement across our activities. We were proud to retain a 1

st in the People &

Planet Green League for 2012-13, but will not rest on our laurels and know there is much to be done to retain this status. Our ISO:14001 certified environmental management system brings structure to our efforts and helps us manage and reduce our impacts on the environment.

We continue to foster student involvement in environmental initiatives, including auditor training, and academic staff are working with our environmental team to integrate sustainability into the teaching syllabus. In July UEL hosted the influential BASE London 2013 conference at Sports Dock, with former London Mayor candidate Steve Norris offering a keynote address to a distinguished audience. With two brand new BREEAM Excellent buildings now part of our portfolio, we look forward to building on our successes over the next twelve months and expanding the scope of activity even further, with a particular focus on our carbon emissions.

Our vision is to be an enterprising,

international university bringing transformational opportunities to

individuals, communities and businesses in our region, through

diversity, partnership and excellence in teaching and research.

Contents 2. Introduction 3. Governance 3. Resources 4. From The Green Desk 5. Environmental Management 6. Energy and Water 7. Waste Management 8. Transport 9. Sustainable Procurement 10. Construction & Refurbishment 11. Biodiversity 12. Teaching, Learning & Research 12. Staff, Student & Community Involvement 14. Facts and Figures

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Governance The Environmental Sustainability Board has the aim of promoting and enabling positive environmental activity and reducing negative environmental impacts across UEL estate, infrastructure, teaching and research. The Board comprises a varied mix of people covering university life, including two School Deans, two Service Directors, the Director of the Sustainability Research Institute, the Students’ Union Environment Officer, the Associate Director of Facilities Services and UEL’s Sustainability Manager. Objectives of the Board are to:

Provide support to ensure that the environmental policy, including the carbon management plan is being delivered across UEL and will monitor progress regularly.

Provide strategic direction and make sure that there is effective communication of environmental initiatives both internally and externally.

The Environmental Sustainability Board meets at least once a semester and ensure that an Environmental Management System is implemented, resourced and maintained, and to monitor its performance. There are reporting links to the:

Board of Governors

Vice-Chancellor’s Group

Programme Board for Outstanding support for business: economic regeneration, social change & environmental sustainability

Green Move Out: Items left behind by residential students were collected for re-use and recycling enabling some 5.5 tonnes to be diverted from landfill.

Resources

In 2012-13, the Environment Team consisted of:

Sustainability Manager (permanent)

Sustainability Officer (permanent)

Two interns (3 month placement each) The f/t Sustainability Manager commenced maternity leave midway through the year and an experienced interim replacement was recruited.

An annual budget of £250,000 was allocated for environmental management including staff costs.

People and Planet

In 2011, UEL moved position from 63rd

(2:2 classification) to 41

st (2:1 classification) in the

national People & Planet Green League. In the sub-league (Peer Group E – teaching institutions with a turnover of between £40m and £119m) we were in joint 8

th place. In

2012 UEL climbed to 16th overall and achieved

the classification of “first class honours”, a status retained in 2013 even though the ranking fell to 43

rd. A gap analysis has been

undertaken to assess how to improve our ranking in 2014.

The Student Eats project encourages students to grow their on food on campus

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From the Green Desk The last twelve months has certainly been one of change for UEL. In terms of the estate alone, we have enjoyed the first full year of operation of the new Sportsdock and, in summer 2013, saw the brand new library at Stratford be completed and start to be used by its first students. Both of the buildings achieved Excellent BREEAM ratings, which should also be the level achieved by yet another new addition to our estate, USS Stratford. This is our third campus site, a brand new building in the heart of Stratford town centre to be shared by UEL and Birkbeck College, and practical completion was scheduled for August 2013. We also waved goodbye to one of our older properties, Duncan House. We have also adopted the RICS Ska rating methodology as our standard for refurbishment projects. These changes present some interesting challenges with regards to our carbon reduction target (22% by 2020 compared to our 2005 baseline). This is an absolute target, so although our normalised emissions continue to improve (in terms of kg CO2 per sqm of occupied space – see table 10.2) our aggregate emissions are rising as a consequence of the growing estate. Sportsdock is also available to the local community as a sports facility and is open 364 days per year, the new library is a 24/7 facility and with Birkbeck College offering evening teaching the USS building also operates long hours. We have ongoing energy efficiency programmes that help tackle these issues, for example a phased changeover to energy-efficient LED lighting and the introduction of microwave presence detectors, but these initiatives will not achieve the largescale energy and carbon savings that we need. We issue monthly energy usage reports for each building and hope to make these more accurate and more timely on the back of a proposal to install AMR (automatic meter reading) and are also looking at replacing older plant with new, energy-efficient alternatives. We are confident that the 20% target is achievable. We continue to face challenges in relation to waste management, principally the high level of cross-contamination that reduces the amount of waste that can be recycled. This is essentially an issue of awareness and education, trying to ensure that food waste is not disposed of in the recycling bins. However, we have managed to become a zero waste to landfill institution. With help from our waste contractor Veolia we have not sent any waste to landfill since May 2013, with waste that cannot be recycled being used for energy generation. We also had considerable success with Student Move Out, our waste amnesty at the end of the academic year. Students are encouraged to donate unwanted items for reuse rather than throw them away, we had everything from brand new coats to computer printers and collections totalled just over 5.45 tonnes; our partners at the British Heart Foundation estimate that the collections were worth around £13,000 to them and saved approximately 56 tones CO2 compared to landfill. On of our big successes has been the Beetle Bump, a specially created habitat at Docklands campus to try to save a relocated colony of one of the UK’s rarest invertebrates, the Streaked Bombardier Beetle - Brachinus sclopeta. Initial monitoring of the Beetle Bump has shown that the rescue attempt has been successful in the short-term and it is hoped that the beetles continue to thrive in their new home and provide researchers with valuable information. If UEL can provide a suitable home for the beetles, there is potential that it could form a sustainable population from which further colonies may be founded at brownfield sites across East London. In addition, the new habitat has attracted several other key species including kestrels, linnets, dunnocks and fieldfares. We were delighted that the project won UEL its first Green Apple Award. Our caterers, Chartwells, have worked closely with us to ensure that the university has Fairtrade status and they have significantly increased the range of Fairtrade products on offer. Of course, in a university environment one of our biggest challenges will always be around communications and engagement, especially with a new student intake each year. We have worked hard this year to put in place interesting, new communications strategies and the signs are positive but this will always be a non-stop and ever-changing programme.

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1. Environmental Management Objective 1 - Develop and maintain a structured environmental management system (EMS) to promote good environmental performance and ensure continual improvement.

Ref Target Achieved Explanation

1.1 Achieve and maintain ISO14001 certification.

ISO14001 certification for environmental management system achieved in January 2012. Annual surveillance audits scheduled.

1.2 Up to date legislation register in place.

Legal register is reviewed at least once a year and any new information is cascaded to relevant staff.

1.3 Prevent potential pollution and minimise emissions and discharges in accordance with legislation and best practice guidance.

A comprehensive internal audit programme is carried out annually to review compliance, and corrective actions implemented on an ongoing basis. No incidents recorded in last 12 months

1.4 Fully embed the EMS across UEL and promote good practice.

Ongoing

An online Wiki site has been developed to centralise and track document-control whilst allowing easy access to documents by staff across UEL. All documents are reviewed at least annually.

EMS communications take place regularly but fully embedding the EMS is an ongoing process.

1.5 Ensure that there are at least 6 internal auditors trained to IEMA standard available to conduct audits each year.

Staff training is held each year, there are currently seven trained auditors.

This year an IEMA-accredited training provider was selected but the particular course delivered wasn’t IEMA-accredited as it was felt that this verification was no longer required.

Successes

UEL achieved a First Honours in the People and Planet Green League for the 2

nd consecutive year.

The Beetle Bump at Docklands successfully re-housed a colony of Bombardier Beetles, one of the UK’s rarest insects, gaining a coveted Green Apple Award in the process.

UEL has hosted internal EMS auditor training for other universities and actively shared best practice with the sector through relevant forums.

Areas for Future Focus

Install a comprehensive AMR system across both campuses as an aide to implementing an effective M&T system.

Ensure that staff are fully aware of their EMS responsibilities and that training is kept up to date.

Engage with students to improve recycling rates.

Find new ways to engage staff and students with the EMS.

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2. Energy and Water Objective 2a - Reduce the institution’s carbon footprint and save energy across the estate and infrastructure through practices such as greening ICT. Objective 2b - Promote water conservation, and reduce water consumption.

Ref Target Achieved Explanation

2.1 To reduce our Scope 1 and 2 carbon dioxide emissions by 22% by 2020 against a 2005 baseline of 8750 tonnes CO2.

x Because of the construction of new buildings, the interim milestones have been recalculated. The original milestone for 2012/13 was 7777 tonnes CO2, this has been amended by adding the emissions for the Sportsdock to 8492 tonnes.

The actual Scope 1 and 2 emissions for 2012/13 were 8827 tonnes of CO2. However, the sale of Duncan House should reduce actual emissions by around 530 tonnes, which would see UEL still ahead of its interim target, although the subsequent addition of the new library and the USS building would raise actual emissions significantly.

2.2 Reduce water consumption by 1% annually.

x Water consumption in 2011/12 was 97,213m3.

Consumption for 2012/13 was 109,367 m3, an absolute

increase in water consumption of 12.5%.

Water usage is closely linked to occupation levels, full occupation of Sports Dock accounts for up to 40% of the increase but, with no significant leaks reported, measures need to be implemented to get back on track.

Successes

Lighting: An ongoing programme of lamp replacement across both campus utilises new, energy efficient LED fittings.

Water efficiency: An ongoing programme of measures such as installation of urinal controls and percussive taps has helped to achieve some savings in water consumption. Rainwater harvesting is now in operation in the University Square Stratford and the new Stratford Library.

Renewable Energy: University Square Stratford and the new Stratford Library have had extensive solar PV arrays installed which will reduce our

reduce our electricity demands from the national grid and should produce revenues when our local production outstrips local demand.

Combined heat and power (CHP): A detailed CHP) feasibility study has been carried out for both campuses to assess options for meeting UEL’s absolute carbon emission reduction target by 2020.

Scope 3: Emissions data relating to water usage and waste management is now available

Areas for Future Focus

Automatic meter reading: We have developed a strategy for installing AMR across both campuses, to not only provide real-time consumption

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data for every building but to help drill down and understand when and where energy and water are being used. This will also us to implement an effective energy management strategy based on a monitoring & targeting system that is expected to help reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions by more than 10%.

Scope 3: Extend work on the collection and monitoring of Scope 3 emission data to air travel, commuting, business travel and procurement.

Awareness campaign: Implement an energy awareness behaviour campaign alongside the M&T programme.

Renewable energy: Investigate funding for renewable technologies.

3. Waste Management Objective 3 - Minimise waste through careful purchasing, efficient (re)use of resources and recycling materials where appropriate.

Ref Target Achieved Explanation

3.1 Achieve a 60% recycling rate by 2014/15 against a 2010/11 baseline of 26%.

Ongoing The average level of recycling for 2012/13 has fallen to 34%, compared to 42% last year. This figure is based on the main Veolia waste and recycling contract, plus white paper and confidential waste collections. Additional waste streams and recycled materials such IT equipment and fluorescent tubes are not included. From May 2013 no waste at all has gone to Landfill but more needs to be done to reduce cross-contamination of waste streams to boost recycling levels.

3.2 Achieve a 5% annual reduction in overall waste output against a 2011/12 baseline tonnage until 2015.

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The baseline has been set as 676 tonnes (2011/12).

The total for 2012/13 has been recorded as 684 tonnes, however since May 2013 no waste has been sent to landfill.

3.3 Adhere to a schedule of annual waste monitoring reviews, covering compliance, operational performance, strategy and targets.

A waste management strategy was approved in December 2011 is be reviewed at least annually.

A waste composition analysis conducted in February 2012 indicated that the majority of staff and students are aware of the materials which can be recycled across the University. People who do recycle do it correctly i.e. recycling bins aren’t contaminated with general waste but there are still people who don’t recycle and put recyclable materials in general waste bins. This shows that there is further work to be done to encourage recycling.

The ISO:14001 internal and external audits cover waste and recycling operations in a number of areas and all Duty of Care checks have been completed.

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Successes

Zero to Landfill: In April 2013 we introduced a new waste management contract that now means that none of our non-hazardous waste ends up in landfill. The majority is recovered for recycling at a modern MRF (materials recovery facility) and the rest goes to SELCHP for energy recovery.

Green Move Out: This hall of residences reuse project is in its third year and thanks to enthusiastic student volunteers, more than 5.5 tonnes of unwanted materials including clothes, bedding, kitchen equipment, food and books were collected, worth around £13,000. This

was almost double last year’s total. 82% of this was reused or recycled in partnership with a local charity.

Areas for Future Focus

Food waste: There are a number of

areas for action in the waste strategy, including collection of food waste for composting.

Recycling: Promotion of waste segregation to facilitate recycling from residences

4. Transport Objective 4 - Encourage the use of sustainable forms of transport by staff, students and visitors; reduce the impact of any vehicle fleet used for university activities.

Ref Target Achieved Explanation

4.1 Implement a Travel Plan

A UEL Travel Plan has been adopted. A separate plan for USS has been developed and the two documents need to be combined.

Successes

Free workshops: Throughout the year various activities to encourage cycling have again been organised in conjunction with Newham Council including Dr Bike servicing sessions and maintenance workshops.

Areas for Future Focus

Student cyclists: Although there is an active staff bicycle user group, there is a need for greater engagement of student cyclists. This should include training on the safest route between campuse and installing secure, locked cycle storage for student at Docklands. .

Travel plan: The EEL and USS travel plans need to be combined into a single document.

First Week: Guided cycle tour of Stratford

As part of the 2013 Dr Bike day, local police provided bikes with UV security markings

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5. Sustainable Procurement Objective 5 - Purchase products and services using sustainability criteria including whole-life costing and environmental performance.

Ref Target Achieved Explanation

5.1 Maintain Fairtrade University status.

Status has been maintained and is due for renewal in January 2014.

Sustainable Catering committee, comprising staff, students and the caterers meets regularly

5.2 Implement a Sustainable Catering plan.

A Sustainable Catering Plan has been produced over the last year and implementation is ongoing.

5.3 Implement a Sustainable Procurement Strategy

x Environmental preferences have been set for stationery ordered through Office Depot.

A Sustainable Procurement intern has been enlisted to review best practice in the sector and assess the most high-impact areas for UEL to focus on.

The Flexible Framework has not been progressed due to lack of resource.

Successes

Catering: There has been a real focus on the environmental impact of catering-related procurement. All fish products are now MSC certified and point of sale packaging is biodegradable, made from vegetable materials.

Fairtrade: The range of Fairtrade products available on campus has increased significantly, including wines and all black teas.

Areas for Future Focus

Sustainable procurement strategy: This needs to be completed and approved, with training provided to relevant staff to ensure that there is anawareness of the economic, social and environmental sustainability implications when procuring goods and services.

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6. Construction and Refurbishment Objective 6 - Ensure that ambitious energy and environmental standards are incorporated into all new build and refurbishment projects.

Ref Target Achieved Explanation

6.1 Achieve BREEAM ‘Excellent’ for all new-build construction projects, and ‘Very Good’ for major refurbishments.

The one major new building completed in 2012-13 (Stratford Library) achieved an ‘Excellent’ rating, the new USS building was almost complete at year end and will also receive an Excellent rating. Instead of using BREEAM, it was decided to use the Ska rating methodology for a refurbishment for the first time, in the East Building at Docklands, with a bronze rating anticipated.

6.2 Implement RICS Ska certification for at least two refurbishment projects

Ongoing The Ska methodology has been implemented for one refurbishment in Docklands East Building, the final audit has yet to be completed. This was the only applicable project during the year.

Successes

Staff training: Environmental awareness is now incorporated into the induction sessions for all staff going to work in UEL’s new buildings. The aim is to help buildings achieve their target levels of environmental performance by engaging users in operating it sustainably.

Areas for Future Focus

New-Build: The two Stratford new buildings due for completion in 2013, the Library and the USS building, were both targeted to achieve BREEAM ‘Excellent’.

Refurbishments: The RICS Ska rating methodology will be applied to future refurbishment projects.

The new library at the Stratford campus offer students state of the art facilities and is also a BREEAM Excellent building, featuring LED

lighting and solar pv on the roof.

The new Sports Dock includes green roof space as part of a campus-wide biodiversity strategy.

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7. Biodiversity Objective 7 - Conserve and enhance biodiversity across the university estate.

Ref Target Achieved Explanation

7.1 Increase number of native species on campus.

Ongoing

Three new buildings, Sportsdock, USS and Stratford Library all incorporate green roofs

A “beetle bump” was constructed at Docklands as a habitat for the very rare Bombardier Beetle. This colony is thriving and other species seem to colonising the space too

There is no measured record of species on site, but surveys suggest that many new species are now present.

Successes Vegetable and fruit growing: Three raised beds installed at Stratford campus for vegetable growing have been maintained by staff and students. Green Man: A green man, constructed from waste wood, has been agreed for the Docklands campus. Bee hives: A hive was installed at Stratford but was damaged by vandals and a new location is now being confirmed.

Beetle bump: UEL’s Environmental Research Group worked with wildlife charity Buglife to create a mock brownfield habitat to re-home one of the UK’s most endangered invertebrates – the Streaked bombardier beetle (Brachinus sclopeta).

Areas for Future Focus Green Roofs: Exploratory work will be undertaken to investigate the feasibility of retrofitting green roofs at Docklands campus.

Stratford campus honey

Raised beds provided as part of Student Eats

have good disabled access

Stratford campus urban orchard

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8. Teaching, Learning and Research Objective 8a - Work with the local community (schools, community groups and businesses) on projects and events, to raise awareness about environmental issues and catalyse action. Objective 8b - Raise awareness about environmental issues amongst staff, students and partners; encouraging participation and provide training where appropriate.

Ref Target Achieved Explanation

8.1 Sustainability incorporated into Teaching, Learning & Assessment strategy

Ongoing The UEL Sustainability Manager is scheduled to lecture students at the Business School on sustainability within procurement strategies in December 2013

A strategy for wider adoption and incorporation of sustainability into teaching schedules has been drafted but not adopted

8.2 Support provide for staff to incorporate sustainability into the curriculum

Ongoing Formal measures still need to be put in place but the in-house sustainability team has developed an environmental toolkit for start-up business through the Make It Global programme

9. Staff, student and community Involvement Objective 8a - Work with the local community (schools, community groups and businesses) on projects and events, to raise awareness about environmental issues and catalyse action. Objective 8b - Raise awareness about environmental issues amongst staff, students and partners; encouraging participation and provide training where appropriate.

9.1 Every schools and

service to have at least two active environmental champions

x 28 departments are involved in Green Impact initiative and all departments must take part from January 2014. 3 schools and 2 services still need to confirm active champions.

9.2 75 students involved in environmental volunteering over the academic year.

x 36 students received formal environmental training and several took part in the Student Eats project, but the target of 75 was not met.

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Successes

Green Impact: The University has agreed to make it mandatory for all departments (schools and services) to participate in Green Impact from January 2014.

Student engagement: A NUS national pilot project has been put in place to train students as project assistants to assist staff teams. The initiative offered an opportunity for staff and students to work together outside of an academic environment and helped the students gain useful business skills in addition to learning about sustainability. Student quote:-

Areas for Future Focus

Sustainability Skills: We plan to expand the training and development opportunities for students by offering a comprehensive programme of sustainability skills workshops. Bringing together the Sustainability Team, Employability & Enterprise Team and Students’ Union, the aim is to provide students with training and opportunities to put this into practice.

Education for sustainable development: Further focus in this area is required to produce sustainability-literate graduates with desired employability skills. A number of academic staff have already incorporated elements of sustainability into modules which, with further support, can be built upon and expanded across all Schools.

Responsibility for environmental management: Alongside integrating environmental sustainability into strategic documents, building sustainability objectives into School and Service annual plans will help to devolve responsibility for environmental management at an operational level, encouraging consistent environmental improvement across the organisation rather than just in certain areas.

Students at the Green Impact awards ceremony

Student training

“I really appreciate this opportunity and want to use this medium to say thank you.” “Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to participate in this project.” “Thank you for the opportunity to part of this movement. It has raised my awareness on energy conservation and efficient usage, carbon foot print and how to make this world cleaner and better for the generations coming after through sustainability” “Thank you a lot. It was great working with the team :)” “I had a very fulfilling and satisfying year presenting on water conservation and would still like to continue on your next running projects in the forthcoming academic year.” “I am proud to be part of the sustainability team. I would surely replicate this in Nigerian Universities. Keep up the good works.”

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10. Facts and Figures Summary of key indicators. Energy Usage & CO2 Emissions

Year Total Emissions

(tonnes CO2)

Gas Emissions

(tonnes CO2)

Electricity Emissions

(tonnes CO2)

Oil Emissions

(tonnes CO2)

Transport Fuel

Emissions (tonnes

CO2)

Number of Staff (full

time equivalent)

Number of Students (full time

equivalent)

2005/6 8,750 2,994 4,856 813 87 - 10,976

2008/9 8,355 2,126 6,205 - 24 1,393 16,178

2009/10 8,375 1,721 6,631 - 23 1,398 17,454

2010/11 8,090 1,573 6,496 - 21 1,399 17,627

2011/12 7,928 1,595 6,308 - 26 tbc Tbc`

2012/13 8,621 2,264 6,743 - 10.1 Aggregate CO2 emissions (Scopes 1 & 2)

Normalised CO2 Emissions

Year Tonnes CO2

Floor Area m

2 Tonnes/m

2

2010/11 8,090 99,531 0.081

2011/12 7,928 99,531 0.080

2012/13 8,621 109,238 0.079 10.2 Normalised CO2 emissions (tonnes/sqm)

Summary of Display Energy Certificate Ratings

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

A Rated 0 0 0 0 0

B Rated 0 1 5 2 1

C Rated 8 6 8 12 13

D Rated 8 6 7 8 7

E Rated 4 2 2 0 2

F Rated 0 0 0 0 0

G Rated 1 6 1 1 1

Total 21 21 23 23 24 10.3 Summary of DEC ratings across the UEL estate

Water Consumption & CO2 Equivalents

2011/12 2012/13

Water Usage 97213 109367 m3

CO2 Equivalent 57.45 61.14 Tonnes 10.4 Aggregate water consumption across UEL estate,

with CO2 equivalents (Scope 3 emissions)

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Waste Management and CO2 Equivalents

2011/12 CO2 Equivalent

2012/13 CO2 Equivalent

CO2 Conversion

Tonnes Tonnes Tonnes Tonnes

Waste to Landfill 290 kg/tonne 255.38 40.3% 74.06 196.81 28.8% 57.07

Energy from Waste -37 kg/tonne 118.73 18.7% -4.39 276.46 40.4% -10.23

Recycling 257 kg/tonne 259.53 41.0% 66.70 210.66 30.8% 54.15

Total Waste Collected

633.64 136.37 683.93 100.99

10.5 Aggregate waste collected across UEL estate CO2 data based on HEFCE conversion factors

Energy From Renewables

2012/13 Energy Production

kWh Generated CO2 Equivalent (Tonnes)

Solar PV 10,343 5.068

Wind Turbine 51 0.025

Totals 10,394 5.093

10.6 Embedded Generation of Electricity from Renewables