Despite the creation of new facilities, including a 24 hour library, the University has still managed to reduce its carbon emissions from 7,026 tonnes last year to 6,089 tonnes this year.

The University’s Head of Environmental Strategy & Sustainability Adam Higgin said: “We are delighted to see that our carbon emissions are coming down so much. Even though the University has grown over the years we have still found ways of cutting down our emissions, which is great news.”

Despite the University being 30% bigger than it was in 2009, it is spending exactly the same amount on gas and electricity today as it was back in 2009.

“We’ve worked hard over the past six years to bring our emissions down. All of our new buildings are designed to use as little energy as possible with more than 10% of the energy they do use coming from renewable resources such as solar panels and air source heat pumps,” said Adam.

A new green initiative for the University is a Combined Heat and Power plant (CHP) being installed at its Bedford campus, which generates electricity at a much lower carbon intensity than electricity taken from the National Grid.

The by-product of this process is heat which can then be used to heat up to 60% of the Bedford campus.

The University has committed to going even further and aims to cut its carbon emissions by half (48%) by 2020, compared to its 2005 baseline figure of 6,540 tonnes.

“There’s still more we could do. We are looking into investing in a CHP at the Luton campus which will bring our emissions down even further,” said Adam. “We are also working with the Students’ Union to launch a campaign to encourage staff and students to ditch the lifts and take the stairs, if they are able to, which will only help us to bring our emissions down.”