Our progress

Our Environmental Sustainability Report 2022/23 (PDF, 11.1MB) outlines the steps we’ve taken, and the progress we’ve made, towards reducing our own environmental impact.

We’ve already made significant progress:

• 61.2% reduction in carbon emissions against baseline
• 35% reduction in waste generated per person against baseline
• 4th place ranking in the latest People & Planet University League - since the report was published, we're proud to announce we've risen to 1st in the People & Planet University League (2023/24).

We aim to become a Net Zero Carbon university by 2030.

While this will require considerable planning, investment and funding, we’re already making headway. We’ve secured £3.1m grant funding to support two major decarbonisation projects – as part of a comprehensive carbon management programme – and have made the largest reductions of any research-intensive university (based on analysis of HESA data).

This work also includes prioritising renewable energy sources, reducing business travel emissions, increasing the energy efficiency of our buildings, and taking steps to align our activities with the Standardised Carbon Emissions Framework. 

The University of Reading is ranked 1st in the UK and Europe for responsible consumption and production (THE Global Impact Rankings 2023).

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, 98.7% of the University’s operational waste was diverted from landfill, thanks to initiatives such as reducing single-use items and packaging and widening collection and recycling schemes.

Whiteknights, our main campus, features 130 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:

• joined the Nature Positive Universities Alliance, which aims to reverse nature loss and restore ecosystems
• support the Department for Education’s National Education Nature Park scheme, which engages young people in biodiversity initiatives
• expanded our teaching, research and data collection activities related to biodiversity.

We take Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) seriously. 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.

This year, we launched the RED Sustainable Action Award, hosted a Teaching and Learning Festival that included a sustainability focus, and supported Reading Students’ Union’s Student Sustainability Summit.

We’re also working to embed ESD, appropriate to the discipline, into all of our courses.

We’re passionate about promoting food sustainability through our farms, substantial catering and hospitality services, and teaching and research in subjects such as agriculture and food sciences.

Our aim is a 25% reduction in food emissions intensity by 2030. This includes taking a plant-forward approach to catering, developing a fleet of electric, refrigerated, food delivery vehicles, and reducing energy consumption in our kitchen and dining outlets.