Environmental sustainability is at the forefront of everything we do at the University of Reading. It’s one of our key strategic drivers, and we remain firmly committed to our institution wide approach to embedding sustainability across all of our activities. This ranges from ensuring that sustainable development principles are rooted throughout our teaching and research, that our research develops lasting solutions and that we spread our impact effectively across all spheres from local to global. Our latest Environmental Sustainability Report 2023/24 outlines the progress we have made.
This report highlights the following areas of significant progress:
- 1st place ranking in the People and Planet University league which demonstrates our institution wide commitment and second year in the top 5 of this league.
- Top 30 in the world for our work in five of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (Times Higher Education Global Impact Rankings 2024).
- Joint 28th in THE Global Impact Rankings 2024.
- Zero direct or indirect investments in fossil fuels.
Key areas of progress
Together with a wide range of other topics, our Report details the steps we’ve taken across five key areas and how they contribute towards the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):
Ethical Investment
Zero direct or indirect investments in fossil fuels
In 2020 we committed to divest from companies directly involved with the extraction of fossil fuels. In 2024 we have gone one step further and have amended our Investment Policy to exclude the largest fossil fuel extractions funders. We have now disposed of our holdings in Bank of America, Barclays and Wells Fargo. We will undertake a through review of our Investment Policy in 2025, with input from our student community.
Waste
62% of our waste is sent for recycling, composting, reuse or repair
The University of Reading is ranked 3rd worldwide for responsible consumption and production (THE Global Impact Rankings 2024).
Our Waste and Resource Use Strategy focuses on responsible resource use and sustainable waste management – wherever possible, we seek to reduce, re-use, recycle, and recover.
Our efforts are paying off: this academic year, 99% of the University’s operational waste was diverted from landfill, and we achieved a 62% recycling rate.
Biodiversity
Winner of 14 consecutive Green Flag Awards
Whiteknights, our main campus, features 134 hectares of woodland, biodiverse grassland, and a lake – and is home to more than 2,000 species of plant and animal life.
Enhancing and conserving the rich biodiversity of our green spaces is critical. To this end, we:
- Completed a comprehensive baseline ecological assessment of our Whiteknights campus. This will inform a new Biodiversity Action Plan.
- We collaborated with local schools to create a number of outdoor learning spaces on the University owned Langley mead nature reserve.
Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)
Among top 30 global universities for work in five of the 17 SDGs
As educators, we have a responsibility to equip our University community with the skills and knowledge needed to develop sustainable practices – both now and into the future. We are working to ensure that ESD is embedded within all subjects at the University, but experienced in a way that is authentic to the particular discipline.
Work has progressed this year on a bespoke online course and University wide module which provide a comprehensive grounding in climate and sustainability for all students.
Sustainable food
Using technology to reduce gas use
We have been working to phase out the use of gas in our catering outlets and move towards electric. Park Eat is on track to be our first catering building to have its gas supply disconnected and we are monitoring energy usage at each socket. This is allowing us to make informed decisions about equipment replacement which will reduce energy consumption. As a result of this work, we have replaced our bottle fridges which has reduced energy use by around 40%.
By utilising forward-thinking technology to predict service levels, reusing leftover food when safe to do so, cooking in smaller batches, and reducing the size of our counters in quiet service periods we are significantly contributing towards our 50% reduction in the weight of food waste per meal served target by 2030.
Future commitments
Whilst we celebrate our progress, we recognise there is still much to do and we commit to a process of continual improvement to achieve our commitments.
Our key targets over the year ahead are:
- Update our Net Zero Carbon plan in line with the Standardised Carbon Emissions Framework (SCEF) standard.
- Roll out a scheme to reuse more University IT equipment.
- Increase the number of Electric Vehicle (EV) charging points across our campuses.
- Publish a new Biodiversity Action Plan in 2025.
- Remove the gas steam boilers from the Health and Life Sciences (HLS) building, with localised electric steam generations installed in their place.
Details of our other commitments and ambitions can be found in our Environmental Sustainability Report 2023/24 (PDF, 11.1MB).
