Sustainability at Keele
At Keele we’re committed to sustainability, root and branch. It is embedded in everything we do and we’re on course to achieve Carbon Neutral Goals for 2030, where we have already made impressive, innovative, and crucially impactful strides to reduce our campus carbon footprint and emissions.
At the core of our mission is the vision for a more sustainable world, driven by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and this drive has led to us leading innovative trials in smart energy and green technology. From hosting the first UK trial of hydrogen blending in a gas network, testing new smart energy technologies, to producing our own renewable energy on campus, we’re proud to be leading the sector on sustainability.
Our efforts are recognised around the globe, a status which was cemented when we won the Global Sustainability Institution of the Year award at the Green Gown Awards in 2021.
Energy
- Our Low Carbon Energy Generation Park, consisting of 2 wind turbines, 12,500 solar panels and an industrial sized battery to store the generated energy, provides over 50% of the University’s campus electricity, saving around 1,500 tonnes of carbon emissions each year with ambitious plans to eventually supply surplus energy to our local community.
- A £15m SEND (Smart Energy Network Demonstrator) project has developed the first UK’s national living laboratory demonstrator at Keele that monitors all carbon emissions and energy live cross the whole Keele campus.
- A £7m HyDeploy project, demonstrating how hydrogen can reduce the carbon intensity of natural gas for heating throughout the country is being tested domestically in the village of Rugeley, Staffordshire, with a larger project being installed in an area of Newcastle upon Tyne, with a focus on hydrogen heating Keele campus for the future.
- Keele have installed 38 smart charging hubs for electric vehicles (EV) across the campus, becoming one of the largest hub’s in the region.
- Keele University is leading The Midlands Innovation for Sustainability and supporting 10 County Councils with their sustainable goals.
Food, Catering and Waste
We are passionate about local, sustainable, and seasonal food that is healthy for our customers and the planet.
- We have been certified by the Soil Association Food for Life Served Here Standards for several years and we have introduced several initiatives to make our catering facilities more sustainable, such as the ‘Drink, Rinse, Repeat’ reusable cup campaign, allergen-free, vegan choices and vegetarian choices.
- We have launched our Green Delegate Packages with the ability to calculate the carbon used to run your events, offering carbon neutral options and partnering with clients to meet their sustainable goals.
- We are segregating over 30 tonnes of food waste annually for recycling via an anaerobic digester to generate green electricity and all our waste cooking oil into biofuel.
- Less than 1% of all waste goes to landfill at present with a university policy to recycle, reuse and repurpose.
Embedding Sustainability in Everything We Do
- Keele has a robust NETpositive procurement scheme, ensuring all our suppliers have the highest ethos and culture for sustainability and carbon reduction to be one of our preferred suppliers.
- Carbon Literacy and Sustainability Training is available to all Staff at Keele University and all job descriptions have been updated with sustainability responsibilities.
- On our Low Carbon Energy Generation Park we are conducting a biodiversity project, to monitor the impact of large expanses of solar panels, the results are impressive confirming wildlife, vegetation and woodlands are flourishing.
- As the leading institution on climate change and net zero in our region, Keele is in partnership with The Centre for Alternative Technology’s Zero Carbon Britain team and is working with all 10 Councils within the region to support them to meet their carbon neutral targets, as highlighted here.
Accreditations
- In 2021 Keele University was named Global Sustainability Large Institution of the Year in The Green Gown Awards, a hugely sought-after accolade for climate change.
- Keele is Green Meetings Gold Accredited
- Keele campus holds a Gold Award as a Hedgehog Friendly Campus.
