Overview

We report annually on the university’s carbon emissions as part of our Net Zero by 2040 commitment. 

The Sustainability Plan 2025-2030 sets out how we are working to reduce our emissions across all the areas which influence our footprint. 

Our emissions include our Scope 1, 2 and 3 boundaries and in 2025-2026 academic year, our total measured carbon footprint was 7,278 tonnes. 


Scope 1 — Direct emissions

Emissions: 1,721 tCO₂e

Change from last year: Down 23.8%

Includes: Fuel gas, refrigerant gases and fleet vehicle fuel.

Scope 2 — Indirect emissions

Emissions: 1,321 tCO₂e

Change from last year: Down 36.1%

Includes: Electricity.

Scope 3 — Value chain emissions

Emissions: 4,235 tCO₂e

Change from last year: Up 617%

Includes: Business travel, waste, water, hotel stays, commuting and student relocation.

  • Our Scope 1 emissions are from heating our campus buildings and from the specialised gases used in the likes of laboratories and in air conditioning. It also includes the fuel used in our fleet vehicles.  

  • Our Scope 2 emissions are from the electricity we buy to power our campuses.  

  • Our Scope 3 emissions are from lots of other areas and include all the travel done for university business – flights, public transport and car journeys and accommodation during this. It also includes the waste produced and water consumed on campus, and the commuting impact of students and staff travelling to the university. We also capture the impact of international students relocating from their home as part of their studies. 

Over the 2025-2026 period we changed how we think about our emissions and introduced new categories - Commuting and Student Relocation into our Scope 3 boundary. Read more about our work on these areas on the Sustainable travel page.  

Our 2025/26 carbon emissions story

Lots has happened over the year to influence our emission story; we made savings in some areas but saw increases in others. 

  1. We saved over 2,460,000kW in gas consumption – that’s about the same as what 258 average Scottish households use annually!  

  2. We saved over 1,580,000kW in electricity consumption – that’s about the same amount of energy that would be used if you ran every single one of the 336 showers in the Paisley Storie Street Residences for three weeks straight! 

We made these savings through an on-going project to reduce energy usage across the campuses.  

Although our emissions went down in key areas, introduction of the new categories created a significant impact on our carbon emissions total. 

The charts below show our emissions since our baseline year in 2012.

Last updated: 28/10/2026