University of Melbourne releases four-year Sustainability Plan

The University of Melbourne has released its first institution-wide Sustainability Plan — an ambitious four-year strategy that is intended to position Melbourne as a sector leader in sustainability.

The plan is the result of a more than 12 months of public consultation process that commenced in late 2015 with the development of the university’s Sustainability Charter. While the charter establishes the high-level principles and values the university wishes to adopt when it comes to sustainability, Sustainability Plan 2017-2020 sets out a range of clear targets and priority actions for how the institutions will meet these principles.

For example, the plan declares that the university will be carbon neutral before 2030, achieve zero net emissions from electricity by 2021 and will report annually on the institution’s sustainability impact and performance. It also pushes for sustainability to become a more prominent part of all undergraduate curriculums and outlines the university’s response to calls to divest from fossil fuel-intensive companies.

“The university has a responsibility to lead strongly and act decisively in addressing global societal challenges, such as building a more sustainable world,” said Allan Tait, vice-principal administration and finance and chief financial officer for the university.

“This Sustainability Plan clearly outlines the university’s commitment to this important task and highlights how Melbourne is acting on this front across all areas of the institution, with holistic actions and targets that will assist in tackling the impacts of climate change.”

Recognising that climate change impacts result in increased risk and potential opportunities for its investments, the university plans to establish within a year a sustainable investment framework for evaluating and managing material climate change risk. This will set out the criteria for divestment from and investment in listed equities, covering factors such as a company’s emissions intensity, emissions reduction plans, alignment to the outcomes of global climate change agreements and investment in and transition to renewable energy.

“Within four years, the university will be divested from, or in the process of divesting from, any material holdings that don’t satisfy the requirements of this framework,” said Tait. “This approach, and that of all of the commitments in this plan, reflects the consolidated efforts and collective will of the university community.”

Other key aims for the plan include:

• Reduce emissions by 20,000 tonnes of carbon per year by 2020 through on-campus energy projects such as solar, wind and geothermal.
• Increase the number of University of Melbourne graduates who can demonstrate a specialisation in environment and sustainability.
• Replace 10% of university car parking spaces with bicycle parking by 2018.
• Publish a university-wide Biodiversity Management Plan.
• Develop industry partnerships that emphasise the university’s resources for sustainability research.

“The plan is more than just a public statement of our commitment to sustainability,” said Tait. “It sets out an ambitious path towards new modes of governance and operations in a warming world and reiterates our desire to work with industry to support and assist the transition to a lower emissions future.”