Sustainability

Our target is to achieve net-zero emissions in our energy (scope 1 & 2) emissions by 2040. The 2024/25 energy recordings identified:  

Reviewing our carbon emissions based on gross internal area (CO2e per m2) against a 2005/2006 baseline, Penryn Campus has now seen a 65% reduction, with Falmouth Campus just behind with a 69% reduction – ahead of our target of a 50% reduction by 2025.  

Across both campuses, our estates team have been delivering a programme of energy decarbonisation projects. A pilot scheme is underway to convert Glasney Village Block A into an ‘eco-block’, combining an air source heat pump system, solar photovoltaic (PV) panels and a building management system (BMS) with automatic monitoring and targeting to generate energy efficiency. LED lighting has been installed throughout corridors and main rooms in Glasney Parc phase one, reducing energy use and improving living conditions for students. New solar PV infrastructure has also been installed on the Daphne Du Maurier (DDM) building, providing 215.1 kWp of installed capacity and generating an estimated 193 MWh of renewable energy annually, delivering carbon savings of around 40 tCO₂e per year. Sub-metering upgrades 12 have continued across Glasney Village residential blocks, ensuring all meters are accurately recording and transmitting data to support future efficiency improvements.

What our plans are: Penryn Campus is advancing sustainability through various decarbonization projects. Glasney Village, a significant carbon emitter, is the focus of an eco-block pilot project at Glasney Parc Block A, incorporating technologies like solar PV, heat pumps, and battery storage. LED lighting upgrades planned across key areas, including ESI and exchange, with further phases planned as resources allow. Additionally, the campus is expanding EV charging infrastructure to meet rising demand, with feasibility studies and new installations planned for Car Park F. 

Other initiatives include a University of Exeter-led wind turbine project, aiming to install a single turbine at Treliever Research Field, to potentially generate 2,803 MegaWatts an hour of clean electricity each year. This is equivalent of around 750 domestic households’ annual electricity usage each year (based on UK averages).

Heating system decarbonization for the SERSFs and Stella Turk buildings is also under review. Collectively, these projects reflect a robust commitment to reducing the campus’s carbon footprint and transitioning to sustainable energy practices.  

As part of the Universities’ net-zero plans, students and staff are encouraged to use public transport and active travel modes. This helps support our efforts on decarbonisation as well as reducing local traffic congestion and pollution.  

Campus bike storage and changing facilities: 

Both of our campuses have plenty of bike storage facilities including fully covered bike shelters. At Penryn campus, our Sports Centre shower rooms and changing facilities are free of charge for all students and staff to use.  

Electric bike hire scheme & charging points:  
Electric bikes can be hired on campus. As part of a county-wide scheme funded by Cornwall Council, fifty Beryl Bikes are available at 21 stations across Falmouth and Penryn, including on Penryn Campus, outside the Exchange opposite Heart Reception and along the Old Drive. 

If you have your own personal electric bike, you can charge these in Glasney Village. Please visit Glasney Lodge for more information on how to access these.

Buses and trains 
We recommend downloading the Transport for Cornwall app to purchase the most suitable bundles for your commute. This will help save you money over the year rather than paying for the bus for each individual trip. There is also a train station at the bottom of campus which links through from Falmouth Docks Station ending at Truro Train Station.  

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. 

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. 

For more information, please see our Travel and Transport page.  

Our Hospitality & Retail team is committed to sourcing local suppliers wherever possible and embedding sustainability across all aspects of food provision, packaging and waste management.

The team works closely with suppliers to reduce the environmental impact of operations, prioritising Fairtrade products and suppliers from the Southwest whenever feasible. By sourcing locally, we help reduce transport-related carbon emissions while supporting the regional economy.

Menus across campus have been enhanced to include a wider range of vegan options and locally sourced ingredients. The Sustainability Café offers a menu that is entirely vegetarian and vegan, providing sustainable and nutritious choices for students, staff and visitors.

Our ESI Café serves a vibrant, ever-changing menu that celebrates fresh, seasonal ingredients while minimising food waste. Menus evolve daily based on available produce, embracing a creative and environmentally conscious approach to dining. Surplus ingredients are transformed into innovative dishes, such as roasted tomato and caramelised onion quiche made from heritage tomatoes, ham hock terrine reinvented as golden sausage rolls, and leafy salads blended into zesty dressings. The result is food with purpose – delicious, imaginative and planet-friendly.

We also offer milk alternatives for hot drinks across our catering outlets, with the ESI Café serving non-dairy options as the default choice.

To reduce single-use plastic waste, both the Sustainability Café (Penryn Campus) and the Fox Café (Falmouth Campus) operate a reusable cup scheme. Customers pay a small deposit for a reusable cup, which can be refilled and reused across campus. Cups can then be returned for a full deposit refund or exchanged for a freshly cleaned cup.

Where disposable cutlery is required, Vegware compostable products are used. To further reduce waste, a small surcharge is applied to encourage customers to dine in and use reusable crockery and cutlery.

The Penryn Campus Shop stocks a range of Fairtrade products, sustainably sourced university-branded clothing, locally sourced meat and a dedicated vegan food section. The shop also partners with the Too Good To Go app to help reduce food waste by making surplus food available to customers at reduced prices.

Our campus biodiversity is one of the defining features of Penryn Campus and an important part of the experience for students, staff and the local community.

Set within 100 acres of countryside, the campus combines historic sub-tropical gardens with diverse natural landscapes. Visitors can explore the Walled Garden, a fruit-producing orchard, the Italianate Garden and Terraces, the 18th-century Lime Avenue, the old drive and its Pinetum, native woodlands, and historically rare rhododendrons cultivated on-site during the Victorian era. Together, these landscapes create a unique environment that supports biodiversity and connection with nature.

Penryn Campus recognised by the Green Flag Award Scheme

For eight consecutive years, our Penryn Campus has achieved the international Green Flag Award, which recognises well-managed parks and green spaces, and is one of just 5 locations in Cornwall to do so. The scheme sets the benchmark standard for the management of green spaces across the United Kingdom and around the world. 

Measuring biodiversity

We recently undertook a biodiversity survey of Penryn Campus using the Natural England biodiversity metric tool to better understand the ecological value of the campus and identify opportunities for further enhancement.

Research undertaken by ecological consultants Plan for Ecology Ltd found that Penryn Campus currently contains 289.18 habitat units, 3.88 river units, and 66.53 hedgerow units, and identified opportunities to increase this value to 346.46 habitat units. 5.33 river units, and 73.45 hedgerow units. Potential improvements include: planting new, urban tree species and Cornish hedgerows, improving the quality of our on-site heathland and scrub, and creating a waterway management plan.

This work provides a baseline for understanding and improving biodiversity across the campus landscape over time.

Habitat management

Since 2020, we have adopted a more relaxed mowing regime across large areas of campus to support wildflowers, pollinators and other wildlife. More than five acres of grassland are now cut only once or twice annually, with areas left unmown from March through to late summer so flowering plants can bloom and set seed and insect larvae can complete their life cycles.

These wildflower areas can be found across campus, including around the Lime Avenue and veteran oak trees, helping to create structurally diverse habitats while still maintaining paths and open spaces for students, staff and visitors to enjoy.

Some lawns are also managed seasonally, remaining unmown through winter and spring to allow carpets of primroses and bluebells to flourish before being cut later in the year for campus events and graduation activities.

Wildlife support

Alongside habitat management, we are creating dedicated spaces and features to support wildlife across campus.

This includes:

• Introduction of hedgehog houses and monitoring activities
• Bat and bird boxes installed to support nesting and roosting
• Bee bricks installed in the walled garden and across campus
• Native tree and hedgerow planting
• Planting of species-rich wildflower turf and plugs to support pollinators
• Habitat enhancement around woodland, grassland and scrub areas

In 2026, thanks to funding from Forest for Cornwall, we planted 106 new trees from 16 species chosen for their suitability to local conditions on the Penryn Campus, including the creation of a new orchard area. These initiatives help provide structurally varied habitats for birds, pollinators and small mammals while also contributing to climate resilience and carbon sequestration.

Community engagement

Supporting biodiversity at Penryn Campus is a collaborative effort between the Grounds team and the wider community.

Between February and May 2026, biodiversity volunteering events were delivered to engage students, staff and local community members in practical conservation activities across campus, including tree planting, wildflower planting and seeding, hedgehog tracking surveys, habitat restoration work, and biodiversity and nature engagement activities.

During these events, 106 trees from 16 species were planted, 80m² of species-rich wildflower turf was laid, and over 200m² of land was cleared and seeded with native wildflowers.

Additional biodiversity engagement activities have included: BioBlitz and biodiversity recording events, foraging walks, and Biodiversity Day activities.

We are pleased that our responsible procurement strategy continues to deliver sustainability across our supply chain and procurement process.  Each quarterly meeting with our suppliers now includes an agenda point on carbon reduction, social value and general sustainability actions. This ensures that we are following up on their progress. As part of these meetings, we also request suppliers to look at what value-added benefits they can incorporate into the contract.  This can range from free professional services or workshops for students. 

90% of our core suppliers hold a carbon reduction policy, and 95% have committed to a social value strategy.

37% of our overall supply chain is based in Cornwall and Devon — with 54% of our total supplier spend also based in the two counties.

While our goal is to have 100% of our core suppliers enrolled in the NETPositives supplier engagement platform this year (enabling them to create their own sustainability action plans), we’re pleased to have reached a strong 94% and are aiming for full participation by 2026   

Recycling and Waste management systems are integrated across our campuses to maximise recycling, reuse and the responsible disposal of any material or product waste. Anything that cannot be recycled is sent to an energy from waste plant in Cornwall which generates electricity and captures harmful emissions. Measures are also in place to ensure hazardous waste is managed in accordance with the UK environmental regulations.  

Recycling 

All campus facilities are equipped with bins for recycling and general waste disposal with clear signage providing guidance about what waste goes into which bin. In the 2024/25 academic year, our total cross campus recycling rate was 41.2%.  

Food Waste 

Our main campus catering outlets and accommodation blocks at Falmouth and Penryn campuses have food waste collections in place. This is sent to an anaerobic digestion plant in Plymouth where it is turned into electricity, fuel and fertiliser. 

Tetra Paks (cartons)

Tetra pak cartons (e.g. soya milk, oat milk etc.) are unfortunately not recycled by our main supplier. However, special tetra pak bins have been setup around the campuses to capture these and send them for recycling via a specialist contractor. Each year approximately 14,000 cartons are sent for recycling from both campuses.  

Donation Points and Reuse

To maximise the recycling and reuse opportunities when students move out, there are temporary donation point at Glasney Lodge. You can take any clothes, accessories and books in good usable condition and donate them to the British Heart Foundation. For hygiene and safety reasons they are unable to accept some items such as knives, pillows, duvets and large electricals. There is also a Food Bank collection trolley for in-date, unopened food items.

Nine buildings across our campuses have obtained either an excellent or outstanding BREEAM rating. BREEAM is an internationally used sustainability assessment method for the built environment.  

BREEAM awards by building:  

• Environment Sustainability Institute (ESI): Outstanding  
• Tremough Innovation Centre (TIC): Excellent  
• The Exchange: Excellent  
• Academy for Innovation and Research (AIR): Excellent 
• Fox 4: Good 
• Science & Engineering Research Support Facility (SERSF): Excellent 
• Launchpad: Excellent 
• Renewable Energy Engineering Facility (REEF): Excellent 
• Stella Turk: Excellent