Lessons from the University of Leeds’ industry-leading approach by Jason Gardner, Project Director at global engineering consultancy Buro Happold
The need for universities to decarbonise their estate and the lessons others can learn from University of Leeds.
The move towards net zero in the UK is well underway. Across major industrial sectors including energy generation, construction, transport and manufacturing, changes are being made to how we build, operate and make things to create a more sustainable economy.
All of this is absolutely necessary. With the Government committing to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, there are new opportunities for economic growth, new investment, and a desire from all industries to future proof by going green.
But doing this is no small feat. Reaching these targets means the UK must reduce its collective carbon emissions by over 300 million tonnes, entirely rewiring our economy and much of how we live our lives. The scale of what needs to be achieved can be daunting, and it’s difficult to know where to start amid other competing pressures.
What needs to happen
The move towards net zero must happen across the board if the UK is to achieve the target, with all sectors empowered to build and operate buildings in a greener way.
Like many other sectors, universities within the higher education sector are increasingly setting challenging net zero targets to be delivered during coming decades. This has been driven not only by a collective ambition within the sector to lead on climate issues, but also an expectation from students who want their institutions to reflect their personal support for and concern about the climate crisis.
There’s no lack of ambition. Indeed, targets for universities have been getting more, not less, ambitious, with universities including Leeds, Durham and Edinburgh all setting net zero targets by 2030, 2035 and 2040 respectively.
However, the route to a lower carbon future is different for every sector in the built environment. The higher education sector faces its own challenges and very real constraints on capital.
Once these targets are in place, the next stage is to take action and create a tangible delivery plan. It’s often at this stage that universities turn to experts to transform targets into deliverable plans. Buro Happold has been working with several universities across the country, including University of Leeds, to help decarbonise their estates.
Getting the right approach for Leeds
In September 2019, University of Leeds announced its ambition to reach net zero by 2030. This is one of the most ambitious targets within the higher education sector.
The University set out how it was going to achieve this in its Pathway to Net Zero Carbon Emissions for bold action on climate. Developed with collaboration between the University’s estates team, academics, researchers and students, it sets out seven principles to guide the University’s actions.
Buro Happold worked with University of Leeds to create a detailed pathway to net zero, carrying out a careful evaluation of possible options to determine the best actions for the university to take.
To achieve these aims, the University is investing over £150 million during the next decade.
When looking at how to decarbonise, any organisation that owns and manages a large amount of building stock should focus on two things. This includes switching energy supplies from fossil fuels to electric, and decreasing energy consumption by retrofitting existing buildings to make them more energy efficient.
In establishing how best to meet University of Leeds’ net zero objective, Buro Happold’s energy reduction specialists undertook a techno-economic study of the university estate and operations. After careful consideration of all approaches, it identified the solution should focus on light retrofit of buildings and full electrification of heat, transitioning away from fossil fuel usage. The exceptions to this rule were those buildings that were identified to have particularly poor energy performance. Tackling these buildings’ energy efficiency issues became a joint immediate priority along with the electrification of heat.
This approach provides Leeds University with a realistic route to net zero carbon and beyond, in a way that minimises disruption, limits expenditure and is ultimately deliverable.
Electrifying heat is key to decarbonisation, as it takes advantage of the on-going reductions in the carbon intensity of grid electricity, and can credibly be offset by creating new renewable energy generating installations.
This marks a significant move away from the conventional fabric first approach that has been applied to the development of new buildings for many years. The important difference being decarbonising the heat source of an existing building is a different challenge to reducing the energy consumption of a new building, and therefore commands a different response. Pragmatism is also key. With many universities occupying hundreds of buildings, going into each building and retrofitting new fabric and services is not a realistic approach in terms of cost, disruption or programme.
We also find that groups of buildings can often best be tackled together using a district network fed from a centralised energy centre. Tackling groups of buildings together can be a hugely beneficial and efficient approach in terms of cost and minimising disruption.
A final but very important early consideration when embarking on an estate decarbonisation programme is understanding current and future electrical demands, and how this may affect the electrical infrastructure supplying the estate. Transitioning to electric heating will significantly increase the need for electricity, which may well in turn necessitate infrastructure upgrades. One of the biggest challenges with this is the timescales required to upgrade the electrical supply to a university estate, which will often run into years. Therefore, addressing any shortfalls in the electrical infrastructure supplies early in the decarbonisation programme is essential.
To summarise, our recommendation to universities when approaching the decarbonisation of their existing estate is to pursue a technology first approach unless specific buildings are suffering from particularly poor energy efficiency. Where these buildings are identified, their poor performance needs to be addressed in tandem with the technology approach. This means decarbonising the heat as the first priority. Fabric improvement should then be considered as part of a building’s natural retrofit cycle over a longer timeframe.
Findings from the University of Leeds
The University of Leeds is acting on its targets to help achieve its ambition of reaching net zero by 2030. The result is a solution that not only lowers carbon emissions, allowing the University to reach net zero, but also brings down fuel consumption.
The University of Leeds is now progressing well to meet its targets and tackle the net zero challenge head-on.
Every university estate is different but there are lessons everyone can learn from Leeds’ approach. Creating a clear, considered and achievable plan is the first step towards decarbonising an estate. This can then attract investment and enable moving towards delivery with real confidence.