At Regent’s, our mission is to have a positive impact on people and planet. A key part of this is identifying, implementing and measuring solutions and actions which will support our carbon reduction goals and ensure that an environmental culture is embedded across the University.
To mark B Corp Month which falls annually in March, we are sharing an insight into our environmental strategy and celebrating key achievements in this area over the last year, as well as looking ahead to what’s next for our carbon reduction ambitions.
Our Environmental Strategy: what’s our focus?
Our vision is: ‘to adopt an integrated approach to managing all aspects of Environmental, Energy and Sustainability for all, including the activities undertaken by this University and developing and championing an environmental culture.’
As part of this vision, we have a dedicated carbon reduction strategy where we aim for a 4.2% reduction per year in our emissions (namely from electricity, gas, water and waste), with the aim of leading us to carbon net zero by 2050.
To help us achieve this, we work with consultants and experts to identify the most impactful solutions in support of our goal of reducing carbon emissions. These solutions then form part of our annual capital improvement programme - putting our commitment to the environment at the heart of our overall strategic ambitions and organisational investments.
Alongside this, we ensure that we comply with ESOS (Energy Savings Opportunities Scheme), we share information with GGE about our environmental performance, and we strive to comply with and improve on factors within our successful B-Corp accreditation.
Key achievements: what have we done so far?
We’ve reduced our carbon by 41.38 tonnes between July and December 2025 – a 7.5% decrease against our 2022/2023 baseline, the starting point used for comparisons over a specific period of time and reviewed periodically to ensure it remains valid. This is equivalent to the carbon consumption of 9 3-bed terraced houses or over 8 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
We’ve reduced our electricity usage by 14.6% against the previous year – this is equivalent to a saving of £18,995 against our 22/23 baseline.
We’ve reduced our gas usage by 14.5% against the previous year – a 14.4% reduction against our baseline and a saving of £6,424.96, a big win mostly made possible by our Winter Variable Temperature shutdown across campus.
We’ve installed over a hundred electrical submeters and five additional water submeters across the campus in 2025 alone - providing invaluable data to help us target and reduce consumption and identify the source of any spikes in consumption.
As part of our Next Generation classrooms project specifically, we have:
- Installed Smart Sockets in all 8 Next Gen classrooms – providing data on electrical loads, helping control areas where items were frequently left switched on and helping support ‘behaviour change’ when it comes to ‘day-to-day' electricity use on campus.
- Installed smart blinds in 6 classrooms – helping to detect brightness levels and adjust accordingly, which reduces the need for additional heating or cooling within these rooms.
- Repurposed 573 items of furniture through Waste to Wonder, benefitting organisations in need around the world and minimising unnecessary waste.
We’ve installed 10 smart bins, meaning that the general waste stream compacts the waste, and the cleaning team are notified when the unit is full and needs to be emptied of waste and recycling, saving plastic, resources and leaving the campus a lot tidier as a result!
We’ve introduced chemical-free cleaning through our contracted cleaners – hugely reducing waste packaging, improving air quality, and having a smaller environmental footprint and impact on our waste streams.
We’ve replaced fluorescent light fittings with LEDs, specifically in our Acland building on campus – reducing the overall number of fittings by a third but also reducing wattage per fitting by half giving a projected energy saving of over 60% per year.
Our Grounds team have swapped to Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil fuel (HVO) from diesel, decreasing our emissions by 42% against the same period last year.
The Library team have repurposed 35 boxes of books to ‘Better World Books’ between July and December 2025, reducing waste and giving these resources a new lease of life.
We’ve replaced our mains water pump inverter, helping to manage water usage by running on demand only.
We’ve sourced a state-of-the-art environmental reporting programming so that we can capture and analyse the data to drive further improvements.
What’s next?
We’re installing secondary glazing units in all bedrooms and corridors in Reid Hall before June 2026, and we want to install further secondary glazing in Darwin and some further areas in Oliver.
We’re exploring installing Solar Power (PV) on Jebb Roof and other suitable roof spaces on campus.
We have ambitions to replace the bathrooms in Reid Hall's bathrooms, with a focus on reducing energy wherever and however possible.
We’re installing further inverters on those water pumps which don’t already have one.
We are continuing to evolve our teaching spaces, renovating more classrooms into Next Generation spaces and utilising all the great smart solutions of our previous renovations.
Most importantly, we’re focusing on creating and encouraging a culture and behaviours which utilise the technology and software at our disposal to track, analyse and assess the impact of our environmental vision and mission around carbon reduction on our campus.