NET ZERO & ZERO CARBON BUILDINGS
Decarbonising higher education – the investment challenge
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Toby Horne, smart infrastructure financing partner at Siemens Financial Services UK, examines the role of higher education institutions in the decarbonisation challenge and how the financial sector can aid institutions wanting to invest in green solutions
s the global cost of climate change becomes more apparent, the UK remains committed to achieving Net Zero emissions by 2050. To achieve this goal,
the government and press have been vocal about how private businesses and households can meaningfully drive down their carbon emissions. Equally, universities and higher education (HE) institutions have an important role to play in meeting carbon reduction targets. In 2021, over one thousand universities and HE colleges worldwide pledged to become completely carbon neutral by 2050, with some institutions aiming to decarbonise as quickly as 2030. This list includes 168 UK institutions. While this ambition is laudable, it nonetheless represents a series of logistical and financial hurdles in a sector that continues to struggle for financial solvency. According to Times Higher Education, almost half of all vice-chancellors expect their institutions to be in a financial deficit in 2024. In order to fund the necessary infrastructure to achieve Net Zero, institutions therefore need specific, tailored finance programmes to ease the burden of green investment. Here, we’ll look at the true carbon cost of the HE sector, the retrofitting of buildings necessary to achieve carbon neutrality, and how the financial sector can aid institutions in removing the cost barriers to investment.
The carbon cost of higher education
The HE sector is a substantial contributor to global emissions. Data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency demonstrates that 133 UK
universities accounted for 1.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions between 2021 and 2022. While two-thirds of those managed to decrease their emissions over the past year, experts warn of “patchy” progress within the HE sector that is failing to keep pace with current targets and the greater climate emergency. Professor David Reay, director of the Edinburgh Climate Change Institute, told Times Higher Education that institutions cannot rely wholly on the decarbonisation of the national electricity grid. Professor Reay reiterated the importance of “grasping the nettle of institution-wide enhancements to the energy efficiency of buildings, equipment and usage”. Inevitably, this involves substantial investment. “This is not cheap,” Reay warned, “and in these straitened times the capital costs of things like building retrofit risk being put off, even though the savings over the longer term can far outweigh these costs”.
The specific challenges of HE buildings
According to the International Energy Agency, in order to meet Net Zero targets, not only must all new buildings be zero-carbon ready, but 20% of existing stock must be retrofitted for carbon neutrality by 2030. While this represents a challenge for all sectors, it is particularly demanding for the HE sector.
The UK is home to some of the oldest and most prestigious university campuses in the world. Unfortunately, while the halls of Oxford or St. Andrews may be steeped in history and architectural wonder, these very assets can curtail today’s ambitious ecological targets. Retrofitting the medieval architecture of Britain’s oldest universities is an elaborate undertaking that requires a great deal of capital investment.
Financing smart transformation at The University of Birmingham
• The University of Birmingham (UoB) had big ambitions to transform its Edgbaston and Dubai campuses by combining connected digital technologies, artificial intelligence, decentralised energy generation and storage, and renewable energy.
• However, without the capital budget to invest outright, the project wasn’t financially viable.
• Siemens Financial Services (SFS) supported UoB as part of a strategic partnership with multiple Siemens business units.
• SFS worked within the university‘s financial requirements to create a ‘Building Efficiency as a Service’ (BEaaS) solution wherein UoB can spread the cost of the investment over a 10-year period, covering both equipment and services.
• This agreement seamlessly aligned its commercial and environmental goals and removed the need for any upfront payment.
• The UoB is the first university in the world to roll out Internet of Things (IoT) technology at scale, and its ‘Living Lab’ will be used to accumulate data for innovation and research, and help eradicate CO2 emissions by 2035.
• The project is expected to reduce the global campus’ emissions by nearly 3,000 t CO2 per annum.
14 BUILDING SERVICES & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER JULY 2024
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