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A greener, cleaner MMU

Carbon Trust Standard

A GREENER, cleaner MMU has earned it the prestigious Carbon Trust Standard mark.

Manchester Metropolitan joins an elite group of large organizations to merit the Standard for cutting its carbon footprint and implementing sustainability policies and procedures.

The University is now poised to establish official targets for carbon reduction to drive down carbon further and complement plans for a new ‘green’ business school and a low carbon campus in Manchester's Hulme district.

Vice-Chancellor Professor John Brooks said: "This is a tremendous achievement. We are proud to be among the first group of universities to be accredited and to join the likes of Marks & Spencer, Dyson and The Guardian who are recognized for their approach to environmental sustainability as a crucial ingredient of success."

The independent audit of MMU’s energy consumption showed the university had consistently reduced its carbon footprint over the last 3 years - a total cut of 5.3% in emissions from utilities consumption and transport.

Other key achievements included:

- The installation of photovoltaic solar panels at All Saints (pictured) which saves around 22 tonnes CO2 each year.
- The winning of a £650K Revolving Green Fund, including £150K from MMU, for measures such as heating controls, PC shutdown software, lighting upgrades, pipe and loft insulation
- The successful Student Switch Off! campaign where students in halls were encouraged to save 6.5% in electricity year-on-year – a massive 75 tonnes of C02.

John Hindley, Environmental Sustainability Manager, said: "Achieving the Carbon Trust Standard has been a rigorous process and has involved a lot of hard work from the Facilities Environment Team and others within Facilities Property Services.

"Everyone knows what saving the environment means but they will be pleased to know that the Standard will also have a direct financial benefit to MMU by reducing the impact of new Carbon Reduction Commitment legislation.”

For more about MMU's green record, go to www.mmu.ac.uk/environment

You can also follow the MMU Environment Team on Twitter.

Published Friday, 28th May 2010