Part 1: For students and lecturers or academic designers
1.1 Why is it important to have more sustainable higher education teaching systems?
Greening higher education (HE) teaching systems is part of government strategies to reduce carbon emissions and meet the challenges of climate change (Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), 2010). Following the 2008 Climate Change Act, the UK government set demanding targets to reduce CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions by 34 per cent by 2020 and by 80 per cent by 2050 compared with 1990 levels (HM Government, 2009).
National strategies need to be translated into institutional targets. HE institutions are consequently required to monitor the energy consumption and carbon emissions associated with estates management on an annual basis and to return this data to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .
HE institutions are taking a variety of actions to reduce their sources of carbon emissions.