Borders College has reached its goal of halving its climate-change-causing greenhouse gas emissions by 2025.
The College’s outgoing Sustainability Strategy for 2020-2025 included a target to reduce greenhouse emissions to 50% by 2025, compared to baseline figures from the 2014/15 academic year.
This target included emissions from heating, electricity, water, refrigerant leaks, waste and business travel. In 2014/15, these totalled 806 tCO2e (tonnes of CO2 equivalent).
Each November, public bodies in Scotland report their greenhouse gas emissions for the previous year. Data collected for the 2024/25 academic year showed that emissions from the target sources had dropped to 374.67 tCO2e or 46% of the baseline – meaning that the College’s target for 2025 had been achieved. This decrease has been observed across all target emissions sources.
While the College has undertaken some significant projects to reduce emissions, such as installing the SHARC wastewater heat pump at the Galashiels Campus, the savings generated during the 2020-25 Sustainability Strategy have been thanks to incremental changes from across the College. The amounts of heating fuels, water and refrigerant gases used and waste produced all decreased compared to previous years. At the same time, resources used by the College, including electricity, have become less greenhouse gas-intensive. Combined, these factors have reduced emissions and helped to achieve the 2020-25 Sustainability Strategy’s target.
Moving forward, the College will continue to reduce emissions to reach the Scottish College sector’s target of net zero by 2040. In support of this, Borders College has published a new 2025-2030 Sustainability Strategy, which outlines the steps the College will take to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote sustainable practice throughout the College. This includes a target to reduce baseline emissions to 40% by 2030/31.
Robert Hewitt, Director of Estates and Facilities at Borders College, said:
“Reaching our target to halve our greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 is a significant milestone for climate action at Borders College. The fact that we have gone beyond this target, cutting emissions by 64%, is a testament to the changes taking place across the College to reduce our contribution to climate change and shift to more sustainable practices.”