HEFCE has recently commissioned work to take forward the measurement of scope 3 carbon emissions. Higher education has a unique and leading role to play in carbon reduction and this project aims to support the sector in this vital area. The project follows the January 2010 publication of a target and strategy for carbon reduction.

The objectives of this work are to:

establish a sector baseline of emissions from procurement
produce definitions for measuring scope 3 emissions at institutional level
provide guidance that helps institutions with the associated data collection.

ARUP and its project partners De Montfort University and the Centre for Sustainability Accounting (CenSA) have been appointed to work on procurement, water and waste, and JMP will focus on commuting and business travel.

The project is due to complete in August 2011 and will be guided by a project group that includes representatives from the Association of University Directors of Estates (AUDE), the Association of Heads of University Administration (AHUA), the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC) and the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). The definitions developed will be considered by the Estate Management Statistics review group for inclusion in the data collection from 2012/13.

The project teams will engage with a wide range of institutions, sector bodies and other stakeholders and would like to hear from those with an interest in these topics. If you would like to contribute to this important piece of work please contact any of the following individuals by 4 March:

Paul Brockway, Project Manager, ARUP 0191 261 6080, [email protected]

Jonathan Green, Project Manager, JMP 0207 536 8091, [email protected]  

Joanna Simpson, Project Manager, HEFCE 0117 931 7411, [email protected]