At Keele we’re committed to embedding sustainability into everything that we do.

Our “Root and Branch” campaign, launched last year, strengthens this pledge as part of our continued ambitions to become a more sustainable university and be genuinely sector-leading in the area of sustainability. It captures the full breadth of our sustainability activities across our research, education, business processes, campus and wider local community and alumni networks, as well as our external engagement with partners and business.

Keele is at the forefront of energy research, and as such the University launched the HyDeploy project - a green energy trial in partnership with Cadent - in Westminster recently to explore the potential of injecting zero-carbon hydrogen into the natural gas network in a bid to help cut the UK’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions caused by heating homes.

Furthermore, this year our campus will start to be turned into Europe’s first “living laboratory” for research into new smart energy, gas and heating technologies. The £15 million Smart Energy Network Demonstrator project is an innovative example of how new energy-efficient technologies can be researched, developed and tested in a real world environment.

For the second successive year Keele has been ranked in the top 20 universities in the UI Green Metric league tables, one of only a handful of UK universities to feature at the top of this global list. Keele was also ranked 5th in the ‘Energy and Climate Change’ category in this league table, which reflects the University’s sector-leading performance in the efficient use of energy, and a commitment to invest in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and carbon reduction on campus.

Professor Mark Ormerod, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost at Keele University, said:

“We are very proud of everything that Keele is working towards as part of its genuine overarching commitment to environmental sustainability, with world-leading research in sustainability, increasingly strong business engagement, including major partnerships with Siemens around our Smart Energy Network Demonstrator and Cadent on the HyDeploy project, sector-leading education in environment and sustainability, as well as embedding sustainability in all aspects of our campus and community. We have already invested £1.2 million into a wide range of very successful carbon reduction initiatives over the last six years, and have developed a new strategy to deliver further very substantial CO2 emission reductions on campus.”

Dr Zoe Robinson, Director of Education for Sustainability, said:

“Our impressive rankings in green league tables demonstrate the genuinely strong commitment that everyone at Keele has towards sustainability.

“We want all of our students to be able to look at issues and make decisions through a sustainability lens, no matter what degree they are studying. We are seeing staff from right across the University embed sustainability into their own teaching. Students also have the opportunity to add sustainability into their own formal learning through option modules available to all students, such as one on greening business. There are also a whole host of other opportunities for students to engage in sustainability-related initiative outside of their formal curriculum, driven by different parts of the university and the Students’ Union.

“When our students graduate they have a great understanding and awareness of the difference they can make through individual actions and can take their awareness of sustainability into their professional and personal lives and really make a difference.”