50% emissions reduction by 2030/31

BU is proud of the sustainability credentials of its newest buildings on our campus, which feature a range of low or zero-carbon technologies to minimise energy and water use and provide excellent conditions to support academic endeavours. The Sustainable Construction Policy outlines BU’s commitments to continuing to invest in a more sustainable estate and we are constantly looking to improve, modernise and make our buildings and estate more sustainable. Over the past few years BU has opened two landmark buildings, the Student Centre and the Fusion Building, and has also carried out major refurbishment works in other buildings and across our campuses:

• Bournemouth Gateway Building, opened in 2021: our second largest building and the new home of our Faculty of Health & Social Sciences received a BREEAM rating of 'Excellent' and scored 100% for the categories of 'Management' and 'Water', plus 82% for 'Travel' and 78% for 'Energy'. It has solar PV panels producing up to 127kWp of renewable energy; ground source heat pumps to provide low carbon heating and cooling; chilled beams for low energy cooling distribution; dry air coolers and adiabatic coolers; metering to ensure we can monitor and maximise energy efficiency; rainwater harvesting; LED lights; and ample bicycle storage and active travel facilities. Work in 2022 has made improvements to lighting to further reduce energy consumption. 
• Poole Gateway Building, opened in 2020: this specialist building achieved BREEAM 'Excellent' certification for its sustainability features. Its installation of new LED stage lighting saves over 100,000kWh of electricity annually due to the far higher efficiency of the LED studio lights and a reduction in cooling demand due to lower heat generation from the high efficiency lighting.
• Student Centre, opened in 2015: the central hub on campus for the Students’ Union has a BREEAM rating of ‘Excellent’ for its environmental credentials. The building has solar panels which provide electricity to drive the ground source heat pump, which in turn provides a renewable source of heating and cooling for the building.
• Fusion Building, opened in 2016: this building also has a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating and is host to solar panels, green roofs and a ground source heat pump. Its combined heat and power plant provides a highly efficient way to heat the building, while rainwater harvesting reduces our water demand and LED lighting and triple glazing also support energy efficiency. The building brings the outdoors inside with internal trees and its large glass dome which allows natural light into the building to reduce the need for artificial lighting.
• Studland House: this staff building achieved BREEAM 'Excellent' for its refurbishment in 2021, exceeding our original target of BREEAM 'Very Good'. Work on this project was nominated as a finalist in the South Coast Property Awards 2022 in the 'Sustainable Development of the Year' category.
• Biomass heating system: this system is a renewable source of heating on campus, burning sustainably sourced local wood chips to power our central heating system with the ash then used to fertilise the next generation of trees.
• Bus hub on Talbot Campus: this six-bay bus facility offers UNIBUS passengers a high-quality purpose-built facility for their commutes. The canopy shelter not only protects from the rain but is made from solar glass and generates electricity for us to use on campus. Read more about our bus hub.
• Poole House: in 2023 BU have added a new 100kWp solar PV system to the roof of Poole House which is in addition to the system on the on the Poole House facilities block. You can see in real time how much energy we are generating from solar panels by clicking here. We have also installed a new Solar Thermal hot water system for the Poole House tower in 2023. 
• Dorset House: we have installed a new 80kWp solar PV system on the roof of Dorset House and at the same time replaced the roof increasing the thermal insulation of the building. We have completed our project to take this building away from fossil gas powered heating to use Air Source Heat Pumps. This project is predicted to save around 70 tonnes of carbon equivalent per year. This project was part funded by the UK government PSDS fund and part by Bournemouth University.

Our Sustainable Construction Policy requires any new building constructed by BU to meet or exceed a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating and for refurbishments to meet or exceed BREEAM ’Very good’.  

BREEAM is an internationally recognised certification for the sustainability of buildings, environmentally and socially, and by having these requirements built into our practice we ensure that our new and existing buildings are as energy-efficient as possible. A prime example of this is the Student Centre which, when built, became the highest BREEAM rated building in Dorset.  

All of our buildings have Display Energy Certificates (DECs). The DEC’s are based on a range of factors that vary across every building, such as energy used to run the building per square metre, and are benchmarked against similar buildings. Each building is provided with a score rating of 0–150+, with highest ranking buildings having the lowest score, as well as a letter grading between A and G. The average DEC score is around 100. BU’s average 2019 building DEC was a C rating with a score of 66.  

You can read more about the environmental impact of our buildings on the Energy, Carbon and Water page. 

Estates development is a key focus in our plans to reduce emissions, and we aim to implement a capital development programme that reflects this. Our key actions within the CECAP for this are to:

• Adopt and implement the UK Green Building Council Framework Definition for Net Zero Carbon on all major development projects
• Update the Sustainable Construction Policy with commitments to net zero and nature-based solution (complete)
• Implement net zero principles at the design stage for construction projects
• Ensure budget envelope includes net zero commitments including offsetting embodied carbon and waste emissions
• Install additional meters across our buildings (in progress)

Since heating makes up over half of BU’s total Scope 1 and 2 operational emissions, heat decarbonisation is a key focus on the road to Net Zero.

A Heat Decarbonisation Plan (HDP) was created in 2023 supported by the Low Carbon Skills Fund, which provides funding for public sector organisations to develop plans to decarbonise their estates. Its purpose is to set out a road map from now until 2030/31, to replace fossil fuel reliant systems like gas-fired heating, with low carbon alternatives.

A thorough review of how and where the University uses energy was completed. This included building audits of twenty-one building across BU’s four campuses to assess the performance of the heating and hot water systems, electrical systems and for five buildings thermal imagery was used to look at the building envelope, to see where heat is lost through the walls, roofs, windows and doors. A list of energy conservation measures was then developed for each building and prioritised based on their emissions reduction benefit. The recommended measures are focused into the following categories:

Heat Electrification

Replacing gas fired heating systems with heat pumps will significantly reduce the demand for natural gas and provides the greatest opportunities for heat decarbonisation. The HDP identified 16 potential sites for the installation of 12 air source heat pumps and 4 ground source heat pumps across its campuses, with the potential to achieve a net reduction in emissions of 810 tonnes CO2e annually. As part of this plan, BU has secured £463k in funding from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) to remove gas heating systems from Dorset House on its Talbot Campus and replace them with air source heat pumps by Spring 2024. Other exciting projects have been identified at a high level including heat recovery from data centres and the creation of an ambient loop and these will need to be developed technically in order to maximise the recycling of heat on campus.

Building Envelope Upgrades

Improving the building envelope of campus buildings will reduce their heating requirements. Using thermal imaging survey results, upgrades such as more efficient windows and cavity wall insulation have been identified across 7 buildings, with the potential to reduce scope 1 emissions by 65 tonnes CO2e annually.

Renewable Energy Generation

Renewable electricity generation will help to mitigate additional electricity demand when heat sources are switched to electric through the installation of heat pumps. In addition to BU’s 9 existing solar PV arrays, a further 9 sites have been identified for solar PV installations with the potential to reduce BU’s scope 2 emissions by 84 tonnes CO2e annually.  

Offsite Renewables

Electricity consumption from the grid that cannot be eliminated through building envelope improvement, energy efficiency upgrades and renewable energy generation can by purchased through green electricity tariffs to further reduce scope 2 emissions. BU already purchases 100% renewable electricity through green tariffs. This could be further improved by using Power Purchase Agreements which BU are investigating.

Finanical Cost of Reducing Carbon Emissions

The HDP study identified approximately £21.8m of potential decarbonisation projects to significantly reduce emissions and support BU achieving net zero by 2030/31. Projects will be implemented in a phased approach as sources of capital expenditure and external funding are explored and the plan will continually evolve to reflect the changing landscape of a university campus and technology improvements.

You can read the full Heat Decarbonisation Plan here (pdf 3.8mb). 

2024 full costing review and update

In 2024 we commissioned a cost consultant to assess our HDP and this as resulted in a new estimate of total costs to be £38.7m (ex VAT). This new estimate removes the cost of the Dorset House ASHP project which has been completed in April 2024. The core areas of activity included are: cavity wall insultation, glazing upgrades, heat reutilisation, solar PV, ASHPs, GSHPs/ambient loop. On top of this we also estimate the design costs, risk, inflation (assuming projects are delivered between 2026 and 2038), professional fees and client costs. Therefore the total estimate including VAT is £46.46m. This gives us a view of the magnitude of the cost of decarbonisation and will allow us to more fully plan our next projects. We will be reviewing the performance of our first ASHP project at Dorset House and sharing our findings to inform our next steps. We know we have a lot of work to get each project to a detailed design stage where we can evaluate and make decisions. 

BU fleet vehicles are used for IT services, schools outreach, residential services, maintenance and facilities management activities. As of January 2024, 69% of the BU fleet vehicles are powered by electricity with 9 out of 13 vehicles having already switched over. As leases end this summer we are moving away from fossil fuel powered vehicles and have vehicles on order to progress towards our target of 100% electric by 2025.

This helps to reduce carbon emissions and improve air quality for our students and staff. We have electric charging points on campus to help us manage our fleet and we encourage staff to make the transition to electric vehicles where possible.

We encourage our third party contractors to also use electric vehicles and our security contractor now use electric vehicles to travel around and between our campuses. 

Other opportunities include our 15 Unibuses. These were refreshed in 2023 with the latest Euro 6 diesel buses and we are looking to move these buses to electricity or a lower carbon fuel before 2030.