Imperial College London Case Study

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Background

Imperial is one of the world’s most prestigious universities, ranked 2nd overall in the QS world university rankings. It was founded in the early 20th century, with campus locations at South Kensington and White City in London and has a strong international community, with over 60% of students from outside the UK, representing around 140 countries worldwide. 

The university has a new ten-year strategy which places sustainability at its core and sets out the plans to be Net Zero by 2040. This includes the Imperial Zero Pollution (IZP) programme which sets out the journey towards a sustainable, zero pollution future under the four pillars of Our Research, Our Partnerships, Our Education, and Our Campuses. 

Imperial aims to make its university campuses one of the lowest carbon, zero polluting, low consumption and biodiverse ecosystems within the constraints of its urban environments, combining academic strength with a commitment to safeguarding the future. 

Initiatives include becoming substantially more energy-efficient and phasing out gas for heat and power by 2040, with specific measures like the installation of LED lights already underway. Analysis carried out by the university using the new EAUC (Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges) Standardised Carbon Emissions Framework shows that 15% of Imperial’s carbon footprint is from burning gas for heat and power, 5% from electricity, 40% from procurement of goods and services, and 40% from staff and student travel.

The Project 

Recognising that information and communications technology (ICT) is a significant part of the university’s carbon footprint, in January 2024 Imperial engaged sustainability specialists P2zero (www.p2zero.com) to evaluate the carbon footprint of nearly 30,000 end user computing (EUC) devices and printers. 

“The project was designed to help us get a detailed understanding of the energy consumption and carbon footprint of the devices we manage for staff and students across the university. ICT is typically the third highest consumer of campus electricity after lighting and heating, so it is an important part of our campus sustainability strategy.” Imperial  Project Sponsor, Neil Hanham, Head of Digital Workplace & ICT Sustainability Lead

The Results 

The results indicated that the annual energy consumption of the EUC devices and printers at Imperial is responsible for producing over 188 metric tonnes of CO2e each year. To put that in perspective, it is the equivalent of every student at the university travelling the full length of the London Underground each year. 

“Imperial are absolutely world-leading when it comes to scientific teaching and research, so it’s great to see their commitment to sustainability and taking active measures to measure and reduce their operational emissions.” Ewen Anderson, CEO and founder of P2zero. 

As well as the “scope 2” emissions from the electricity use, the project also calculated the scope 3 “embodied emissions” for Imperial’s EUC devices and printers. This figure, which includes the manufacturing and shipping of the devices plus four years of use, came to a total of over 6,000 metric tonnes of CO2e, the equivalent of every member of staff taking an annual return economy flight from London to Sydney.

Benchmarks and Carbon Reduction Planning

The project looked in detail at all the makes and models of EUC devices and printers in use at Imperial to create scope 2 (energy use) and scope 3 (embodied carbon) benchmarks. P2zero also compared the carbon footprint figures with anonymised data from other customers so that the university could see how its carbon footprint compared.  

Overall the data will help the university to include EUC and printing strategies as part of their drive to reduce emissions through the overall Carbon Reduction Plan. 

“We now have the data to put a carbon footprint figure against the devices we provide to our staff and students, as well as getting a better understanding of the impact of our refresh cycles. We’ve been able to use the data provided to enhance our understanding of the estate and its sustainability impact.  We've recently engaged a post-doctorate student to look in detail at the sustainability of our whole ICT estate so this P2zero report has given us the ideal starting point for the wider project.”  Neil Hanham, Head of Digital Workplace & ICT Sustainability Lead 

“Getting this baseline data for the devices is a great first step. We’ve followed it up with on-campus and on-line workshops with the wider teams and it’s been great to see the engagement and enthusiasm that staff have for the topic of sustainability.” Ewen Anderson, CEO & Lead Consultant, P2zero.

Conclusions

The final word on the project goes to ICT Sustainability Lead Neil Hanham:

“The Imperial sustainability champions are actively engaged in looking for potential improvements across every area of campus and operations so it’s great to have the ICT team making such a positive contribution based on real detail.   P2zero have helped us model the potential savings from some of our sustainability initiatives and express them in easy to understand terms to help drive engagement."

“Strategic partnerships at Imperial are key to delivering change and the partnership with P2zero helps us to ensure that ICT is fully engaged with the sustainability strategy."