For most universities, creating a sustainable estate is high on the list of strategic priorities. Our team are at the AUDE Showcase 2024 to share experiences, best-practice approaches and solutions in achieving this.

What students want from their university is changing; according to research carried out by the NUS, 87% of all students want universities to take sustainability seriously. Other challenges facing universities are similar to those faced by society in general, such as how to improve the health and wellbeing of people, how to create a feeling of 'place', how to harness digital technology to enable more diversity and creativity, and how to limit our impact on the planet - net-zero carbon target deadlines are also looming.

The latter has never been more so at the front of university strategies, with the challenge of decarbonising estates being a big task. Add to that the fact that a lot of universities have older and heritage buildings, and how energy-hungry leisure centres and research labs can be, and it shows how much there is still left to do. Many universities have committed to ambitious aims in their sustainability strategies to address this.

What can universities learn and adopt from other industries when it comes to improving sustainability across their estate?

Kelly Crews, Head of Decarbonisation, shares some of the decarbonisation and retrofit approaches that we’ve implemented in other industries that could translate well to a university estate in her blog here.

She talks about three distinctively different types of projects, including:

• Commercial buildings: implementing circular economy principles to reduce embodied carbon, using TBC.London - a back-to-the-frame retrofit project in central London, as an example
• Listed and heritage buildings: taking a sensitive approach to decarbonisation, using Willmott Dixon Interiors' scheme at the Grade II Old Admirality
• Hotels: an efficient approach to retrofitting student accommodation, using Willmott Dixon Interiors' approach to Travelodge

Click here to read Kelly's blog.

A journey to a sustainable university estate

We've been working with the University of Warwick for over 15 years. During this time, the importance of sustainability has increased significantly, particularly in the last 10 years. This is evident in the projects that we have delivered together.

Find out more about how we've navigated the sustainability journey together in our latest Brilliant Buildings here or by watching the video below.