The University of London has released the first version of the Zero Carbon Estates Handbook. The document is the first version of a guide to help Universities across the UK and Ireland to achieve Net Zero Operational Carbon on their estates.
The handbook draws together all the information that was crowdsourced when the University of London hosted over 200 sustainability professionals, architects, designers and leading zero carbon thinkers at the Zero Carbon Challenge event at Senate House last year.
The handbook offers an open source suite of documents to anyone looking to drive down carbon in the built environment. It includes:
- The Low Carbon Building Design Guide, which collates all the interventions that were suggested during the event and applies them to their relevant building types.
- The University of London’s proposed Zero Carbon Strategy.
- The Zero Carbon Yellow Pages: The contact details and information of all the leading Zero Carbon companies who attended the event in October.
- The Net Present Value Calculator: A tool designed to help build the business case for going zero carbon.
The document is intended to be the first iteration of many which will be developed through future events. To facilitate this the team at the University of London have created the Zero Carbon Universities Coalition, which aims to bring higher education professionals together with designers, architects and zero carbon leaders from all sectors and industries to share knowledge, best practice and overcome the challenges to achieving zero carbon together. They are already working on plans for a follow-up event.
“It’s been amazing to see the energy and enthusiasm there is for tackling the climate crisis through the built environment. We’re really excited to push the conversation forward and drive the Higher Education sector forward to be a leader in decarbonisation” – Matt Wilkinson, Sustainability Manager University of London.
A copy of the handbook and further information about the Zero Carbon Universities Coalition can be found by contacting This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..