草榴社区地址

We recognise the need for investment in technology to reduce our carbon impact and have a digital transformation strategy in place to enable this.

We have a digital first strategy when it comes to printing and communications. For example, we no longer give out printed prospectuses and booklets and use digital screens instead of leaflets for sharing information amongst our campus community. Our reprographics unit on campus has been closed, and we have developed a new app for students called MyExeter that aims to become a one stop shop for all staff and student information.

Our digital transformation strategy recognises the importance of investing in technology to allow for a shift in working practices. For instance, improving video conferencing to reduce travel and improving remote connectivity to optimise the sharing of office space and hot desking.

In 2025 a new working group was created with the FX Plus IT team to identify opportunities to take a more circular approach to digital activity. This aims to:

• Capture emissions and impact data from campus digital activity
• Ensure all suppliers we engage with have sustainability and decarbonisation at the core of their business
• Ensure that all on-campus digital technology supports energy efficiency measures, including servers and data capturing systems
• Explore routes to extend the lifecycle of campus digital equipment through in-kind donations.

We encourage students and staff to travel on public transport, walk or cycle to campus as well as car share. 

In Penryn, we have electric bikes for hire, bike shelters, shower facilities and electric vehicle charging points.  We also support working from home where possible.

Electric bikes
Electric bikes can be hired on campus, as part of a county-wide scheme funded by Cornwall Council.  are available at 21 stations across Falmouth and Penryn, including on Penryn Campus outside the Exchange opposite Heart Reception, and along the Old Drive.

In 2024-25, 250 free Beryl Bike codes were distributed across our campus community to promote the scheme.

E-bike charging
In 2024-25, we also installed e-bike charging units in Glasney Village for students and staff.

Bike Maintenance and Repair Stalls
In 2024/25 eight bike maintenance sessions were held at Penryn Campus in collaboration with the . These sessions help ensure bikes are safe and roadworthy and promote this mode of transport. The stalls offered free bike safety checks and adjustments, bike security marking, local walking, cycling and public transport advice, plus free maps. A total of 128 bikes were repaired, 60 bikes were security marked, and 132 meaningful conversations took place, whereby active travel advice or information was exchanged.

Gold Cycle Friendly Employer Accreditation
Cycling UK has awarded Penryn Campus a Gold Cycle Friendly Employer Accreditation through its national Cycle Friendly Employer program. The gold award is the highest standard available and demonstrates the campus’ commitment to active travel, combatting climate change and improving staff and student wellbeing.

Car Sharing
A for anyone studying or working on our Cornwall Campuses to has been created to reduce single occupancy journeys, carbon emissions, congestion and the cost of travel. 

Electric vehicle charging points
Electric vehicle (EV) charging points are available at Penryn Campus. While we encourage walking, cycling, or using public transport, we recognise that this is not always practical in Cornwall. These EV points support owners of more sustainable vehicles.

Fleet electrification
The vehicle fleet at Penryn Campus is currently 34% electrified, with plans to increase this to 50% in 2025.

If you are planning travel to Penryn Campus you can find

We recycle wherever possible running projects to recycle food waste and encouraging the use of our recycling points, with actions like ban the bin, and donating unused furniture.

Recycling on campus
Our waste and recycling team on Penryn Campus work hard to reduce our waste and increase our recycling. In 2024-25 recycling increased by 10.8% and general waste reduced by 17% on Penryn Campus. Tetra-pak recycling also increased, with retail outlets doing an excellent job of recycling empty soya milk and oat milk cartons.

Hard to recycle items
Recycling of items such as medicinal blister packs, pens and toothpaste tubes has increased significantly. These are turned into items such as planters, chairs and picnic benches.

Improvements to waste and recycling management
The installation of a new compactor, along with the addition of a second unit, has significantly improved waste and recycling management. Together, these compactors have led to an 80% reduction in transport-related emissions for waste and recycling removal from campus, while also delivering substantial cost savings.

Food recycling
Our main campus catering outlets on Penryn Campus already have food waste collection in place and a project to recycle food waste in Penryn student residences has been so successful it’s being rolled out further. Working with Cornwall Waste Solutions we encourage students on campus to separate food waste, which is sent to an anaerobic digestion plant where it can be turned into electricity, fuel and fertiliser.

In 2024-25, food waste recycling increased due to new food recycling facilities being added on campus, including in Penryn Nursery and AMATA.

Pack for Good campaign
Each year we support the British Heart Foundation’s pack for good campaign which encourages students moving out of residences to donate unwanted items like books, clothes or household goods so they can be diverted from landfill. Unopened, non-perishable food is also collected and donated to our local food bank. In 2024, 220 bags were collected from Exeter students on Penryn Campus saving two tonnes from landfill.

Penryn Campus Swap Shop
At other times of the year swap shops have been run on campus where students and staff have donated re-usable items they no longer needed. The Swap Shop included almost anything, from kitchenware and clothes to decorations, textbooks and more. The aim being to reduce waste, by helping students choose second-hand and save money, thus embracing a more circular and sustainable way of living. Over 1,000 items were redistributed in 2023/24. A swap shop for field course equipment took place more recently.

Food outlets on campus aim to source local suppliers whenever possible, promote vegan and vegetarian menu choices and look to minimise plastic packaging and food waste.

The Food and Drink team actively engages with suppliers to reduce the environmental impacts of its operations, and Fairtrade and south-west suppliers are sourced whenever possible. Using local suppliers helps reduce carbon emissions associated with transport and supports the local economy.

The menus in the food and drink outlets on campus have been updated to include more vegan and locally sourced produce, and the Sustainability Café currently has a fully vegetarian and vegan menu. 

To minimise plastic waste on campus, a sustainable milk refill initiative is open to all, and we encourage the use of reusable cups by offering a 20p discount on hot drinks if you use your own reusable cup. Takeaway purchases have a 20p surcharge and all disposable food boxes, cutlery and cups are eco-friendly.

Returnable cup scheme
The Sustainability Cafe has partnered with to bring a returnable cup scheme to campus. You can pay a £2 deposit (small) or £3 deposit (large) for a reusable cup and get your money back when you return it.

The Penryn Campus Shop offers a Bring Your Own (BYO), self-service refill section to reduce unnecessary packaging and waste. The refill range includes cereals and breakfast food; pasta; rice and snacks. Meat is locally sourced and there is a vegan food section. The shop also uses the Too Good To Go app to try and reduce food waste.

We seek to halt and prevent nature loss by addressing our own impacts. Our campus gardens and grounds are precious to us, and we work hard to develop their biodiversity.

Nature underpins our communities, our society and global business, and the University has committed to delivering environmental net gain in parallel with our Climate Strategy. 

Biodiversity Footprint
A biodiversity footprint is in development for the whole University, including our activities on Penryn Campus. This will be a measure of how much we impact biodiversity via all our activities, not just those on our estates. Exeter academics from the led by Professor Kevin Gaston, based in the Environment and Sustainability Institute, are working with us to carry out this analysis.

Nature Positive
We are part of the  the members of which aim to halt, prevent and reverse nature loss through addressing their own impacts and restoring ecosystems harmed by their activities.

In 2022 we signed the . This is a commitment to start a nature positive journey, incorporating a biodiversity baseline, targets, actions and annual reporting. 

Our Nature Positive Strategy 2024-30 outlines how we will support and renew biodiversity on campus and connect our community with nature through teaching, volunteering, and research. 

Forest for Cornwall Planting Project
With the help of funding, 106 trees have been planted across the Penryn Campus with support from volunteers and the sustainability and grounds teams. Species were carefully selected to suit local conditions, including exposed and waterlogged areas. Campus mulch was used on pot-grown trees, which were protected with guards, and whips have been planted in gaps in hedgerows. This collaborative effort contributes to biodiversity and landscape resilience on campus.

Hedgehog Friendly Campus
Penryn Campus follows the principles of the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS) Hedgehog Friendly Campus programme. We aim to create grounds where hedgehogs can thrive.

Grounds recognised by the Green Flag scheme
The gardens and grounds at Penryn Campus are recognised by the international Green Flag Award Scheme, which rewards well-managed parks and green spaces, setting the benchmark standard for the management of green spaces across the United Kingdom and around the world.

Wildflower Meadows
Our Grounds and Sustainability teams work hard to encourage biodiversity on our campuses. This includes creating bee hotels; planting bee friendly plants; leaving areas unmown and seeded with wildflowers and leaving dead trees in situ so creatures can make them their homes. We have also dedicated 4.5 acres of land on campus to wildflowers.

In 2024-25 FX Plus Grounds and Garden team planted 290m² of Wildflower turf on Penryn Campus, including 100m2 of wildflower meadow. These have a mixture of native and near-native species which are specially selected to be brightly coloured, attractive and provide resources for pollinators. In addition to this, the team planted an amazing 3,358 wildflower plugs and 120 trees.

This planting effort - featuring species like ox-eye daisies, mallows, self-heals, and yellow rattle - supports biodiversity by creating habitats for goldfinches, meadow brown butterflies and buff-tail bumblebees.

Wildflowers encourage more insects which, in turn, support more birds and bats. We have seven species of bat on campus, including pipistrelle, long eared and horseshoe and they regularly feed on insects in the wildflower areas around Glasney Student Village.

You can find out more about our gardens in the  which includes a history of the grounds, information on wildlife and key points of interest.

We are working with our suppliers to develop sustainable procurement plans and ensure our suppliers' actions reflect our commitment to carbon reduction. 

Our Responsible Procurement Strategy has driven significant supply chain engagement. Within our tender criteria, 20% of the overall scoring process is attributed towards responsible procurement activity.

• 92% of our core suppliers now hold a social value strategy
• 87% of our core suppliers hold a carbon reduction policy
• 94% of our core suppliers have joined our NET Positives supplier engagement platform, which enables suppliers to submit or create their own sustainability action plans.
• 37% of our suppliers and 54% of our supplier spend is based in Cornwall and Devon

We are installing solar panels on our buildings, upgrading our lighting, have achieved LEAF accreditation for our labs and are looking at ways to decarbonise our heating. 

Penryn 2.0
This project to refurbish existing spaces across the Penryn Campus aligns with a circular economy approach and will result in considerably lower embodied carbon, whilst also offering an opportunity to make improvements to energy demands. The project will apply the existing Sustainability Design Guide as well as some of the principles proposed within the new Sustainable Design and Construction Standard. Learn more about the project here.

Solar panels
In July 2024, a new PV system was installed on the Academy of Music and Theatre Arts (AMATA) roof at our Penryn campus, boosting our renewable energy capacity by 13% and saving an estimated £30,000 per year. Now fully operational, this addition is expected to cut our annual carbon emissions by 20 tonnes, in line with our ongoing carbon reduction goals.

With PV panels now featuring on four buildings, including Daphne Du Maurier, Peter Lanyon and the Sports Centre, our Penryn PV network is helping us avoid around 169 tonnes of carbon emissions each year, contributing to a massive 60% decrease in our energy emissions since the 2005 baseline.

DDM / SoFT solar panels 
In August 2025, a new PV project was completed on the Daphne Du Maurier (DDM) and School of Film and Television (SoFT) building roofs. The non-operational PV array was replaced on the DDM roof, and a new system was installed on the SoFT roof. The planned capacity for the new array is 164 kWp, which almost triples the capacity of the old array. The planned capacity for the SoFT PV array is 59 kWp. Combined, the two systems will provide 223 kWp of installed capacity, generate an estimated 193 MWh annually, and deliver carbon savings of around 40 tCO2e per year.

Penryn Wind Turbine
Planning permission has now been secured, and the grid connection process is underway for the installation of a 1 MegaWatt wind turbine, which is scheduled to begin in late 2026, with commissioning expected by Easter 2027.  Once operational, the turbine is projected to generate approximately 2.8 GWh of renewable electricity annually. You can learn more about the Penryn wind turbine project here.

Lighting upgrades
The Peter Lanyon building lighting and controls have been upgraded with LED lighting being installed.

In 2024-25 Glasney Parc phase 1 Lighting upgrade was completed, with all corridors and main room lights replaced with LEDs. This upgrade reduces energy use, lowers maintenance needs, and improves lighting quality – contributing to carbon savings and a better living environment.

Decarbonisation
In May 2025 we completed a project to replace five gas boilers with four air source heat pumps in our Science and Engineering Research Support Facility (SERSFS) and the Stella Turk building on Penryn Campus. We hope the new system will deliver annual savings of over 102 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

Sustainable labs
All eligible laboratories on campus have now achieved Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF) accreditation. This accreditation aims to help labs become more efficient, thus reducing costs, waste and carbon emissions. Eight of our labs In Truro and Penryn have achieved bronze status and we also have a gold status lab plus two silver status labs on Penryn Campus.

Fish labs lighting and filtration upgrades
An investment of £5,700 has allowed the replacement of ageing and discontinued lighting systems and air conditioning pumps in our Penryn Campus fish labs, with an estimated reduction in energy usage of 30-50% per unit.

Embedding sustainability into teaching and learning on our campuses is key to influencing the behavioural change needed to meet our net zero targets.

Responsible Futures Framework
In 2024 the University of Exeter and the Students’ Union were awarded joint SOS Responsible Futures accreditation, reflecting a shared commitment to embedding sustainability across all aspects of student learning.  Exeter was the only Russell Group university to have full accreditation.

Responsible Futures is a whole-institution supported change programme and externally assessed accreditation mark to embed sustainability across all aspects of student learning.

Sustainable Development Goals
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity. Not only do we have dedicated programmes and modules covering Environment and Sustainability, we are working to embed the SDGs and the Environment and Climate Emergency agenda across our undergraduate and taught postgraduate portfolio, as well as linking them to our research strengths.

In the 2024-25 SDG Teach in Exeter ranked second for the number of learners reached, and fifth for the number of educators who pledged.

Future17
The Future17 programme unites multinational organisations, a consortium of leading universities and teams of students to participate in projects that aim to advance the UN SDGs. Each university selects up to 50 students per cycle to work on an SDG team challenge set by an international partner. 

The Graduate School of Environment and Sustainability
Programmes from our Graduate School of Environment and Sustainability are all designed with a focus on developing solutions to global challenges and creating a better future for our planet and its people. Based on Penryn Campus, the school brings together experts from across the spectrum of earth and life sciences, engineering, humanities, social sciences and business. 

Embedding sustainability into career development
Our Career Zone offer a number of environment and sustainability opportunities including Grand Challenges a project week in which students work in interdisciplinary groups to design innovative solutions to real world challenges.

Green Consultants is an award-winning programme designed to provide students with the additional skills and experience required to work in the highly competitive environmental and sustainability sector. There are also sustainability themes that count towards the Exeter Award, an employability achievement award.

Low carbon field courses
For the past seven years, Renewable Energy Engineering field courses have become entirely no-fly. This has meant replacing overseas trips to places like Barbados, Tenerife and Greece with immersive, local experiences focused on real-world energy transition projects. Students now work with remote and often overlooked communities – such as those in the Channel Islands, the Aran Islands in Ireland, and the Hebrides – applying their engineering skills to practical sustainability challenges.

Alongside this, students are encouraged to engage in outreach during the trip, visiting schools and local businesses and giving public talks to support community education around sustainable energy. The result is significant carbon savings to our activities and a legacy of contributions to real world efforts. Just as importantly, the field course delivers life-changing opportunities and gives our students the confidence to apply their education and develop into tomorrow’s energy leaders.

We have created to ensure they are informed by sustainability principles.