Decarbonisation

In a significant step towards carbon neutrality, York St John University has completed the first phase of our decarbonisation project on campus.

This comes after a successful bid for funding worth over £840,000 from Salix Finance, a government-backed scheme to support sustainability projects in the public sector. CorEnergy Limited, which specialises in renewable energy generation and battery storage projects, was the main contractor for the project.

The project has seen York St John named joint 1st for carbon reduction in 2021 by People and Planet, the largest student network campaigning for social and environmental justice in the UK.

Upgrades

We have made a range of upgrades to energy systems across campus. These include:

• Roof mounted solar photovoltaic panels on buildings including St Anthony's House, Foss, Skell, De Grey, Fountains, and St John Central
• Solar carports and battery storage at York St John University Sports Park
• Air source heat pumps on campus and accommodation sites

Estimated impact

Impacts of these improvements include an estimated:

• Annual saving of 640,000 kilowatt hours (kWh)
• Reduction of 82 tonnes of CO² emitted per year
• Reduced gas consumption

We are continuing to work on our decarbonisation efforts. Our next phase includes further reduction of gas consumption and installation of air source heat pump technology. Through power purchase agreements, we also plan to increase the proportion of our electricity consumption generated by wind farms.

Energy usage on campus

We use the SolarEdge monitoring system so that you can see the solar panel energy generation and usage on buildings across campus. Use the links below to view energy data for our buildings.