Accordingly, the language, content and distribution of all sustainability-related communications has been successfully adapted to broaden the appeal of sustainability by raising awareness of its wider relevance and to coordinate and amplify sustainability activities that are happening across all areas of the University. This has assisted with a positive response to a newly formed sustainability governance structure which was launched in September 2024, and which has representation from every faculty and division on either the Sustainability Steering Group or Sustainability Board.

Reflecting the devolved nature of the majority of carbon emissions, this governance structure replaced the previous stand-alone Climate Emergency and Sustainability Group. Its purpose is to coordinate and facilitate activities and awareness that primarily drive a net reduction in carbon emissions over the next ten years, as well as responding to and preparing for increasingly higher expectations of sustainability performance from funders and league tables.

The expectations of both the Concordat and the Wellcome Trust are significant and signal an approach that is likely to become more prevalent amongst all funders over time. This is commensurate with the breadth and depth to which league tables are assessing sustainability from a wide range of environmental, social, and financial indicators.

The Concordat and individual research funders including the Wellcome Trust, Cancer Research UK, and the UKRI are placing greater emphasis on sustainable research-related travel. This has also been observed within Higher Education league table assessments of sustainability, which now seek evidence of a stronger position on business travel, particularly the banning of domestic air travel and more proactive encouragement of overland European travel.

Recognising that there are often conflicting motivators for air travel, these funders include the cost of carbon offsetting as an eligible cost. Lancaster University has intentionally avoided aligning with carbon offsetting schemes due to a lack of transparency and the associated risk of greenwashing. Instead, we gained approval from the Wellcome Trust in 2025 to divert offsetting costs of research related travel from all relevant Wellcome Trust funded projects into the Lancaster University Wind Turbine Community Benefit Fund.

Overall, there has been an decrease in carbon emissions (6.9%) from 73,558 tonnes in 23/24, to 68,481 tonnes in 24/25.

The pie chart provides a breakdown of all emission sources. Those that have seen the most significant change or remain noteworthy are as follows:

1. The consumption of natural gas remains the largest contribution to scope 1 and 2 emissions at 14% of total emissions.
2. There has been a reduction in emissions related to business and academic travel, notably a 20% reduction in flight numbers. Overall, this category accounts for 5% of total emissions.

Though there has been a reduction in emissions associated with international students travelling to and from campus (reflecting the decrease in international student numbers), the remaining emissions still represent 14% of total emissions.

Scope 3 carbon emissions relating to the procurement of goods and services remain the most significant emissions source for the University, accounting for 57% of total emissions in 2024/25. Significant changes in scope 3 procurement emissions in 2024/25 include the following:

1. Emissions related to construction increased by over 400% compared to 2023/24, reflecting the significant investment in major energy infrastructure and construction projects in 2024/25, and a more accurate assessment of supply chain carbon emissions for key infrastructure projects.
2. IT and Comms related emissions and Business Services emissions were calculated to be approximately 40% lower in 2024/25 as new methodologies were introduced to improve the accuracy of emissions calculations for suppliers in their procurement categories.
3. Carbon emissions relating to ‘Medical and Precision (Scientific) Instruments’ purchases reduced by 70% in 2024/25 due to the significant reduction in spending in this area.

When the carbon reduction targets were set in 2019/20 there was a reasonably developed plan for reducing scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions, however the university and sector’s understanding of scope 3 was only just emerging.

As already outlined, there is complexity not just within scope 1 and scope 2 future mixes, but also how expenditure to reduce these emissions will impact on our scope 3 profile. This can be seen already by the business services associated with the solar farm and Net Zero Energy Centre contributing to an overall gain in the scope 3 category.

It is unclear how the scope 3 trend will evolve under the current budgetary pressures; however, it should be noted that since emissions are currently largely proportional to expenditure, any temporary reductions in the latter cannot be relied upon to deliver sustained emission reductions.

The success of the University’s Scope 3 net zero target relies upon engagement, behavioural and cultural changes by staff, suppliers, and to a lesser extent, students. The Procurement and Sustainability teams continue to focus on scope 3 activities within four workstreams:

• Workstream 1: improving visibility of carbon data through the use of a Carbon Dashboard tool and enhanced reporting via the Finance System. The Carbon Dashboard is available to all budget holders and provides an up-to-date, visual snapshot of estimated Scope 3 emissions based on Procurement and Travel activities for their areas.

In 2024/25 the teams have continued to improve source data by moving from HESCET estimates to more accurate emissions data provided by our suppliers where possible.

• Workstream 2: staff engagement on procurement and travel. We work to raise awareness by publicising the Scope 3 data on associated intranet pages, at staff meetings, and hold training events.

• Workstream 3: providing guidance and collaborating with sector colleagues to develop knowledge. Building on a pilot project in 2023, the Procurement and Sustainability teams have continued to work with a number of other universities to establish the Net Zero Carbon Tool as an HE-wide database of supplier emissions data and carbon reduction plans. Through this collaboration, we have helped to develop a sector approach for scope 3 reporting.

• Workstream 4: working with our supply chain to understand existing spending impacts. All contracted suppliers are asked to sign up to the Net Zero Carbon Tool to report on their carbon emissions and to share carbon reduction plans. Sustainability forms part of the agenda for all contract review meetings. For selected suppliers, we track more detailed KPIs and carbon reduction plans. An annual Sustainability Questionnaire capturing additional information around carbon emissions, as well as wider sustainability information, is sent to contracted suppliers. In 2025, we have continued to extend this to all suppliers.

Our other engagement activities and methods of communication are categorised as below:

Staff meetings, events and awards

1. Winner of the Climate Action 2030 category award in the 2025 Green Gown Awards.
2. The Sustainability team led on the delivery of another successful Don’t Ditch It project.
3. The Head of Sustainability and the Head of Campus IT co-delivered a session on Sustainability at the 2025 THE Digital conference.
4. A LEAF celebration event was held in September to mark the achievements of our technicians in gaining Bronze and Silver LEAF accreditation for many of our laboratories in FST and BLS.
5. The team has supported a significant amount of internal and external engagement with the campus infrastructure projects through the delivery or co-delivery of workshops and site visits for students, sector peers, and Lancaster University staff.
6. We have provided guest lectures and career talks on a number of discipline specific topics, and supervised formal UG and PG projects. The Head of Sustainability has also co-developed and delivered module content for a new FHASS taught Master's course.

Communications

1. Internal and external sustainability websites are under continuous review, with changes made to improve accessibility, accuracy and presentation of information.
2. A monthly round-up of sustainability stories from across the University within LU Text was established early in 2024. These updates have successfully showcased smaller sustainability stories from both the Sustainability Team and departments – with positive feedback coming from many staff members who like the updates in this easy-to-read format.
3. In March 2025, we ran Global Positive Change Week, a sustainability-themed week of events, in collaboration with the Global Engagement Team. The week was a great success with over 25 different events both online and in-person on campus that brought students and staff together to discuss various sustainability or positive change topics.
4. Held three Sustainability Knowledge Exchanges in the 2024/2025 academic year, with contributions from each faculty, several divisions, and students.