Our research plays a critical role in understanding and fighting climate change, but it also generates carbon emissions and environmental impacts through the way it’s carried out.

Our teaching empowers students to become future leaders and innovators in our response to the climate crisis, but it also produces emissions in its delivery and the movement of large numbers of students to and from Bath each year.

The University campus is like a small town and, in common with the rest of society, produces emissions from the way our community travel, what we eat, our choices as consumers and the use of energy to heat and power our buildings and equipment.

These carbon emissions make up our carbon footprint.

Our approach to climate change covers our research, teaching and operations.

We’re proud to have been the first UK university to produce a carbon management plan in 2003, where we set out our targets to reduce our carbon footprint and a plan to achieve them. The next plan in 2011 was described as 'exemplar for the sector' by The Carbon Trust.

The 2011 plan outlined our target to reduce direct Scope 1 and 2 carbon dioxide emissions (due to electricity and gas use) by 43% by 2020 from a 2005 baseline.

We achieved this target while expanding the University significantly. Between 2005 and 2020, we cut down:

• carbon emissions by 45%
• emissions per m² building floor area by 61%
• emissions per student and per turnover by over two thirds ¹

In 2020, we raised our ambitions and and declared a Climate Emergency as a University in conjunction with our Students Union.  We launched our ‘whole institution’ approach to climate change as set out in our Climate Action Principles. We also included the even more challenging Scope 3 emissions in our footprint. Our target now is to be net zero carbon in our Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions by 2040.

Commuting accounts for 3% of University of Bath's total carbon footprint, representing a significant area where staff and students' choices can make a big impact on our road to net zero by 2040. Changing our travel mode is also often one of the most significant actions we can take to reduce our personal carbon footprints.

To support this, we work with providers and our local council to make sure there is suitable infrastructure in place for our community to use public transport, walk, cycle or scooter to campus.

We also offer:

• interest-free loans for public transport season tickets
• an electric bike trial scheme for staff and postgraduate students
• cycle to work salary sacrifice scheme for staff
• electric vehicle salary sacrifice scheme and charging points
• free regular basic bike servicing and repairs

Read our guide to sustainable commuting for more information about these initiatives.

The largest contributor to our transport emissions is flying, so we’re exploring how we can mitigate this while nurturing our international learning and research community, and our global impact. Our Business travel and expenses policy helps staff to decide on the best mode of transport when travelling for business by providing advice including:

• the lowest carbon option is not to travel – consider whether you could use phone, email, or a virtual meeting instead
• trains are preferable for longer journeys but where driving is considered the only practical option, consider car-sharing
• for destinations within mainland UK, flying is only permitted where an exemption has been granted

Read our guide to making your international travel sustainable.

To successfully deliver our core activities for our community, it’s important that we continue to develop and maintain our campus infrastructure. This includes devising solutions to use our existing space more efficiently, refurbishing existing buildings and creating new buildings where still necessary.

However, while doing this work, we must account for the environmental, social, and economic consequences we face as an institution and society.

To help us achieve this balance, we implemented our Sustainable Building Standard in 2024.

The Standard sets out our ambition to encourage greater focus on sustainable placemaking and buildings across three pillars:

• environmental health and climate action
• social equity and inclusion
• economic sustainability

The Standard will now be considered at the start of all new building projects and major refurbishments on campus.

The best example of this approach is our new student residence building which is currently being designed to be Passivhaus certified and also BREEAM ‘Outstanding’, the highest possible standard. The project is also a pilot for the new UK Net Zero Carbon Building Standard.

Existing sustainable buildings

We have used the BREEAM Sustainability Assessment Method to design our buildings for many years. The first BREEAM ‘Excellent’ buildings on campus were the new 4 West in 2008 and Woodland Court student residences in 2009. 4 West was the first building in the UK to use a German concrete-cooling system to minimise energy use. The East Building uses a similar system called Termodeck, and Woodland Court originally had our first solar hot water system.

All recent new buildings have been built to high energy standards, with excellent levels of insulation and airtightness, sophisticated heating and ventilation controls, and high-efficiency automated lighting.​

The Chancellors’ Building has solar panels on the roof. These were the biggest in Bath at the time of installation. It also has a mini power station that generates electricity on-site and recycles the waste heat.