Annual follow-up of environmental objectives – 2023

So, where are we today? The annual follow-up of our environmental objectives has been concluded, and for several objectives, things are looking good.

Energy consumption

Our objective is that by 2027, 50% of electricity consumed will come from renewable sources. This applies to all properties managed by SLU. At the end of 2023, this figure was 46%. Another objective is to produce 95% of the energy used for heating, and here we reached 99%. In the buildings we rent from Akademiska hus, energy consumption decreased 9% compared to 2019, however, energy consumption in properties we manage ourselves increased in 2023.

Business travel

By 2025, SLU will have reduced fossil fuel emissions from air travel by 60%, compared to 2019. At the end of 2023, emissions had dropped by 19% per full-time employee.

Environmental considerations in purchasing

An environmental risk assessment has been performed for all procurements that resulted in a signed agreement in 2023; in 15 of these cases, the analysis resulted in the introduction of environmental requirements. Every year, a follow-up is done on three procurements to ensure that the environmental requirements have been fulfilled. One of the objectives in this field is to increase the proportion of fossil-free fuels at station refuelling. During 2023, the proportion of fossil-free fuels in relation to the total volume of fuels at station refuelling has increased slightly, from 6.7 per cent in 2022 to 6.9 per cent in 2023. At the same time, the total volume of station refuelling has increased by 21 per cent.

Incorporating sustainability in teaching

All three interim objectives were fulfilled. The question in course evaluations on whether sustainability has been incorporated in teaching got an average rating of 4.22 out of 5.

Environmental assessment

The objective that 90% of participants in SLU’s quality enhancement activities publish their data as open data was not fulfilled. At the end of 2023, 65% of participants published open data; however, as an action plan has now been approved, we expect the objective to be reached as planned.