Energy and Carbon

Energy & Carbon

Aerial view of a sports complex featuring a large indoor sports facility, blue athletics track, multiple soccer fields, lush green trees in the foreground, and nearby residential buildings in the background.

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Cardiff Met recognises its responsibility in tackling climate change, reducing estate wide carbon footprint, and improving local air quality. We publicly report our carbon emissions (Scopes 1-3) annually alongside other UK HE institutions on the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) website.

Carbon Management Plan

Our current Carbon Management Strategy 2024-2030 aims to build on the strong energy performance of the University through the promotion of best practice energy efficiency, leading by example and the engagement of students and staff to foster a collective responsibility towards continuous improvement in sustainability across Cardiff Met. With continued investment in energy efficiency, this strategy will deliver a 60% overall reduction in carbon emissions compared to the 2005/06 baseline.

Carbon Management Plan 2024-2030

Decarbonisation Investments

In 2025-2026, Cardiff Metropolitan University has secured £24.2 million in external decarbonisation funding through the Welsh Government's Digarbon programme, demonstrating a substantial institutional commitment to sustainable campus transformation. This investment supports the implementation of low-carbon infrastructure, renewable energy technologies, and energy efficiency measures across the University's estate.

Environmental Management System Awards Policies Publications

Our carbon reduction journey has resulted in a number of notable achievements. We have made significant progress on reducing our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, and we are currently developing better systems to capture, analyse, and report on our Scope 3 data, with the aim to establish targets for reducing the indirect impact the University has on the environment.

Since 2017, the electricity we purchase is from 100% renewable sources.
We have installed 24 fast electric vehicle chargers across our campuses.
In the last 7 years, we have recued Scope 1 and 2 building carbon emissions by 31.4%.
We generate around 45,000kWh annually from out solar PV, saving grid electricity costs of around £13.5k and 10 tonnes of CO2 a year.

'Halve the Half' Energy Savings

In our ambition to improve building performance, the Environment and Estates team found that approximately half of Cardiff Met's energy was being consumed out of hours. As a result, we were able to prioritise low-cost operational fixes such as adjusting heating schedules that allowed us to significantly reduce our energy use. The initiative, which has resulted in a 22.3% decrease in gas use, a 7.5% reduction in electricity, and 11.3% reduction in water reduction, has won four awards.