Author Archives: Evan

Sustainable innovations: designing the homes of the future in the _OME

Completed in June 2021, the _OME is the flagship research and showcasing facility of the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment (HBBE), an innovative research partnership set up between Newcastle and Northumbria Universities. With funding from Research England, the HBBE combines expertise in biosciences, design, architecture, and engineering to advance cutting edge research on biotechnology. As part of this, the team, now made up of nearly seventy researchers and support staff (HBBE, 2022), are constantly testing ways to improve the health and sustainability of our homes by researching everything from controlling the spread of pathogens to innovating on sustainable technologies. This diverse and hugely beneficial work is centred on the state of the art _OME facility, so how exactly are these exciting projects designing the living spaces of the future?

Image: a front elevation showing the interior spaces of the _OME and their uses, including the experimental apartment, biotechnology laboratory, and testing/showcasing spaces for new technologies. Credit: Armand Agraviador.

Located on Devonshire walk, next to the Great North Museum: Hancock and the Devonshire and Drummond buildings, the _OME houses an in-house experimental apartment, accompanying laboratory, and display space for innovative materials and technologies. The HBBE’s research is organised into four key themes and utilises concepts including the genome, biomes, and home, hence the name: _OME. The four research themes being undertaken in the facility touch on a variety of repurposed, improved, and novel technologies and practices to lower carbon footprints and keep us healthy by design. So what do they all involve?

Theme 1: Building Metabolism

The first theme focusses on building-wide methods to achieve a higher degree of sustainable self-sufficiency by creating an artificial ‘metabolism’ in the structure and systems of the house itself. Practical examples of how this metabolism works include generating renewable electricity on site via solar panels on the building’s roof and utilising greywater to lower water use by, for example, reusing water from sinks or the shower to flush the toilet. Additionally, other technologies being woven into this metabolism include rainwater harvesting from the roof gutters and developing waste handling systems within homes that can deal with waste on site and even generate heat and other useful resources from it! When combined, these technologies could work to maintain a living space with a fraction of the energy and water requirements of a standard home, helping to save on both carbon and bills!

Theme 2: Living Construction

The construction sector is a major emitter of carbon globally and commonly used materials including steel and concrete require an awful lot of energy to produce (Wang and Ramakrishnan, 2021), leading to homes with high embodied emissions. Thankfully, lower carbon materials, including cross-laminated timber, are becoming more commonly used (Ahmed et al., 2024), but researchers at the HBBE are looking to advance construction even further by developing intelligent materials. The focus of this research sits squarely on bio-materials, including biominerals, biopolymers, and hygromorphs, which promise not only to lower embodied emission further, but also to offer other advantages. One exciting potential feature of these biomaterials would be to respond to certain stimuli and regrow their structures when damaged – creating self-repairing buildings! These innovations would further add to the construction sector’s arsenal of sustainable building techniques, giving architects more tools to create buildings that are good for both people and planet.

Image: a view of the side and main façade of the _OME laboratory, exhibition space, and experimental apartment. The apartment is located in the central upper floor section, behind the large opening for natural light. Credit: Professor Ben Bridgens.

Theme 3: Microbial Environments

The third theme touches on the _OME’s creation mid-way through the Covid 19 pandemic. Here, research teams are designing homes to better support healthy microbiomes and passively reduce the spread of illnesses, including pandemics. Proposed technologies for achieving this include smart ventilation, antimicrobial materials, and advanced microbiome monitoring systems to better understand what’s going on in the home. Not only will these innovations improve people’s health, but they could also reduce the environmental costs of dealing with illnesses and epidemics (see our sustainable medicine blog here) by creating environments that are far better at handling these issues by design.

Theme 4: Responsible Interactions

As seen previously, the HBBE is working on a variety of innovative technologies, but implementation of these isn’t always smooth sailing. To help ease biotechnologies’ transition from research to widespread use, therefore, researchers are investigating a variety of potential potholes, from accessibility concerns to unintended environmental effects. Additionally, ensuring these new technologies can seamlessly integrate with existing practices and standards, and making sure that people are culturally on board to accept innovations such as biomaterials, remains an important challenge. The _OME is major part of the solution here, as novel technologies can be tested out in the living laboratory and new materials can be shown off to unsure potential adopters, helping to tackle challenges before they become significant issues.

Thank you to the amazing HBBE team for their innovative work and their dedication to improving the sustainability of our built environment. Upon its completion in 2021, the _OME joined a series of Living Labs associated with Newcastle University across campus and elsewhere. These facilities look to continually generate high quality research and data as part of their site’s design (often while being used for a variety of other useful purposes) and you can learn more about them here. Additionally, further information on the HBBE’s activities, including its publications and additional research groups, can be found here. If you’d like to find out more about sustainability at Newcastle University, you can explore our website and other pieces in this blog, and sign up to our newsletter here.

References

Ahmed, S., Dharmapalan, V., and Jin, Z. (2024) ‘A Subject Review on the Use of Mass Timber in the US Construction Industry’, Construction Research Congress 2024: Sustainability, Resilience, Infrastructure Systems, and Materials Design in Construction. pp. 287-295.

Dixon, T., Connaughton, J., Green, S., (eds) (2018) Sustainable Futures in the Built Environment to 2050: A Foresight Approach to Construction and Development. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell.

Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment (HBBE) (2022) Annual Report 2022. URL: http://bbe.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/HBBE_2022_Annual-Report.pdf (accessed 29.08.24).

Wang, X., and Ramakrishnan, S. (2021) Environmental Sustainability in Building Design and Construction. Cham: Springer International Publishing.

International Sustainability: how our university’s global operations are responding to global challenges

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We in the Sustainability Team do a lot of work alongside colleagues across the University to maintain and improve the sustainability of both our beautiful Newcastle city centre campus and our additional, specialist facilities across the North East. Another vital aspect of our university’s operations, however, are our many international connections. These ties include not only our thousands of wonderful international students, but also our overseas research and teaching communities: Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia, and Newcastle University in Singapore.

These connections and facilities generate a wealth of ideas and relationships, helping our university to achieve its aims of pioneering research and cutting-edge education. Maintaining these links and facilities also presents unique challenges in the field of sustainability, though, and so, in this blog, we’ll look at the projects, programmes, and innovations being implemented to maintain our global network sustainably.

Image: A member of the International Welcome Team greets new international students arriving at Newcastle Airport. Credit: Chris Bishop.

CABie

The Climate Action Barometer for international education (CABie) is a large scale, continually rolling study being run by the International Education Sustainability Group (IESG). The study has a variety of aims and foci, but its key objectives include:

Gathering data on higher education institutions’ approaches to climate action in their international operations,
Contextualising and contrasting different policy approaches and practices, and
Sharing insights, creating resources, and tracking results to help inform and drive decision-making in a community of higher education providers with international portfolios.

These objectives cover a range of operations and aspects of higher education, from student and staff engagement to assessing the emissions of international programmes and how these can be reduced through methods such as incentives and careful planning of teaching.

To learn from this collaborative exercise and contribute our own insights and work, Newcastle University have signed up to be part of the Founders’ Group for CABie in the UK. As part of this so far, we in the Sustainability Team have attended meetings to help shape the study and we have provided interviews, survey responses, and University data to add more depth to the research. The Autumn will bring the first fruits of this work, as IESG convene the group again to present the research’s findings so far and create a space for ourselves and our fellow founding universities to discuss ideas and action plans based on the data. This exciting work should provide a useful foundation of considered, data-driven proposals for reducing the environmental impacts of our international operations and we look forward to contributing to it further in future.

Singapore

The University’s operations in Singapore centre on Naval, Electrical, Chemical, and Mechanical Engineering, and our colleagues in the country have developed an impressive hub of research and teaching expertise with their work. Based across two campuses and a research institute, Newcastle University in Singapore offers a range of undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in partnership with the Singapore Institute of Technology. Additionally, our strong industrial connections in the region help to apply the research and teaching we carry out to provide practical insights across a variety of sectors.

As part of the work that’s being done in Singapore, our colleagues have maintained a strong focus on the environment in a variety of ways. Initially, specific foci on renewable infrastructure and environmental design in the Electrical and Chemical Engineering departments respectively help to catalyse progress in these areas. Meanwhile, for colleagues working in Marine technology and engineering, climate change, alternative fuels, and offshore renewable energy structures all constitute important research themes in their work. Finally, events focused on sustainability are regularly run across the departments on topics including data, entrepreneurship, and sustainability, and water security and sustainable development. These events and research themes are contributing substantially to environmental research across a variety of engineering sectors and are helping establish Newcastle University in Singapore as a leader in sustainability expertise in the region.

Image: Members of the NUMed community in discussion in front of the arches of the Bell Building. Credit: Choi Chee Seng.

Malaysia

Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia (NUMed Malaysia) is a purpose-built medical school in southern Johor State. The campus offers a range of high quality undergraduate and masters programmes in medicine and biomedical sciences and has expanded and developed over more than a decade to become one of Malaysia’s leading medical education providers. As this development has taken place, NUMed Malaysia has also been working on enhancing the sustainability of its operations.

Here, the school’s Environment and Sustainability Campus Committee works hard to implement and maintain environmental projects across their beautiful, green campus and this work is supported by a range of other sustainability commitments. For instance, NUMed Malaysia was one of the first organisations to sign up to both the Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education and the British Malaysian Chamber of Commerce Climate Pledge. Additionally, the school has built on these memberships to put climate awareness at the very centre of their campus with their Eco Lounge project. The opening of the lounge was accompanied by talks given by senior colleagues on the importance of sustainability in medicine (a topic also discussed in this blog) and the space now offers students an important hub in which to relax and learn more about the climate and its impacts on Malaysia. These different projects and commitments are combining in NUMed Malaysia to help equip a new generation of doctors and nurses not only with expert medical knowledge, but also a wider awareness of medicine’s unneglectable relationship with our changing climate.

This wide variety of sustainability work being undertaken by teams across all three countries highlights our shared dedication to sustainability as part of the wider Newcastle University community. A huge thank you to the brilliant teams and interested colleagues in both Malaysia and Singapore for helping to drive this work in their own operations. If you want to find out more about how the University manages its environmental impacts here in Newcastle, you can explore our website here, or sign up to our Sustainability Network newsletter by emailing us in the team.

Redeveloping sustainably: supporting the community at Castle Leazes

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As works progress on redeveloping the University’s vast Castle Leazes student accommodation, sustainability is being considered at every step. Examples of this work include plans for Biodiversity Net Gain on the site and the decision to deconstruct the halls rather than demolishing them to reuse and recycle as many of the buildings’ materials as possible. Amongst these efforts, the Accommodation Team has been doing some incredible work to ensure that the hall’s furnishings are being sustainably reused rather than thrown away.

Image: A visual of the redevelopment of Castle Leazes student accommodation. The project will preserve existing habitats where possible and create further new ones to ensure that the site achieves a biodiversity net gain. Credit: Newcastle University.

A sustainable Legacy

Castle Leazes Halls is one of the University’s largest and oldest halls of residence, with over 1000 student bedrooms across the site, and so the volume of furniture that needed to be reused was enormous. This prohibited colleagues’ usual route of reusing items within the University due to a simple lack of sufficient demand, so colleagues in Accommodation worked hard to organise a mass donation of items to other organisations across the region. Utilising the City of Sanctuary network, a variety of charitable, public, and non-profit organisations were invited to pick out what they needed from the accommodation’s stock, resulting in thousands of items being reused.

Included in this list of benefitting organisations were schools, The People’s Kitchen, and even the City Library. Additionally, Urban Green also attended the site to accept donations of hundreds of pounds worth of plants which will now be replanted in parks throughout the city. The teams that came out to collect items were hugely appreciative of the donations and many left messages of gratitude for our wonderful accommodation colleagues:

“I just wanted to say thank you for all your help and donations, it is really appreciated and our schools in the NEAT Academy Trust will really benefit from what we have collected over the last few days.”

“The People’s Kitchen are massively appreciative for everything. We’ll send you through an update of what we’ve managed to do with the equipment but we’re very excited about the difference it’s going to make.”

“On behalf of the Cadets of Northumbria ACF, I would like to thank you and your team for all the fantastic furniture for our new Cadet Rest Area. I was in Otterburn during its first use at the weekend and I can tell you, the Cadets absolutely loved it. This is the first time in the history of NACF that they have had a proper kitted out rest area where they can truly relax, so it is amazing for them.”

Image: Chairs, tables, and other items from Castle Leazes are pictured in situ in their new home. Credit: Northumbria Army Cadets.

Image: Sofas and bean bags from Castle Leazes are pictured in situ in their new home. Credit: St Paul’s Church of England Primary School.

A massive thank you to Helen Davis and the entire Accommodation Team for their hard work organising this amazing donation project. In addition to the dedication of the teams involved, this work highlights the incredible co-benefits that sustainability and the circular economy can bring to projects and communities.

If you want to learn more about sustainability at our University, you can explore a variety of subject areas on our website, in our Climate Action Plan, and on this blog. Additionally, sign up to the Sustainability Network newsletter for a monthly summary of the environmental work happening in our organisation.

Supporting ecosystems: Biodiversity Net Gain at Newcastle University.

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Biodiversity is a complex term with a range of definitions and contestations and a powerful reach across environmental work, legislation, and popular culture (Callaway, 2020). Understandings of the concept include the variety of different species in an ecosystem, the nature and intensity of their interactions, and the roles each species plays. These understandings are complex because biodiversity is complex (a fuller guide and definition can be found in our introduction blog here). However, across these definitions a key takeaway is biodiversity’s central importance to the health of both ourselves and the environment (Perrings, 2014; Bonneuil and Fressoz, 2016). Due to this, preserving biodiversity is crucial to supporting ourselves and the natural world and a recent approach to achieving this is biodiversity net gain.

*Image: The sunshades of the University’s Ridley 2 Building shield teaching spaces amongst the greenery of Lover’s Lane. Credit: Chris Bishop.*

What is Biodiversity Net Gain?

Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) is a policy approach that was adopted by the government in 2021 and came into force in February this year. Unlike previous legislation, this approach stipulates that development projects must create an increase or improvement of biodiversity, rather than just preventing a loss. Therefore, if executed well, this legally-binding process could lead to an ever-expanding spread of biodiversity across our cities. There’s plenty of work involved in achieving these improvements in a meaningful way, however (Bull and Brownlie, 2017).

Following BNG, the first step for any development project is to establish a record, or baseline, of how many biodiverse habitats there are on the relevant site(s). This method, focussing on habitats, is just one approach to baselining and we’re working to gather this data alongside other baselining efforts we’re making to meet the University’s Nature Positive Pledge. There are Lots of things to consider when measuring this data as, when it comes to biodiversity, human impacts and ecosystem complexity make it hard to measure everything (Allard et al., 2023). Consequently, to get as informed an idea as possible of the ecosystems on our estates, we’re focussing not only on the presence of habitats, but also on factors including the campus’s physical context in the city and the types of species that need extra support in our urban environment.

Collaborations with institutions including the City Council, Northumbria University, North East Ambulance service, and the Newcastle NHS Trust have proven important in this process. An example of the power of these partnerships is the Newcastle Biodiversity Group (of which all the above are part), which has helped to join up biodiversity efforts including mapping species migration and habitat corridors across the city. This work has led to the planning of a series of green infrastructure opportunity areas and biodiversity enhancement corridors across the city – and our campus is part of both.

This work is important as, when we then look to improve our estate and add new facilities, such as our cutting-edge Stephenson Building refurb or the sector-leading Health Innovation Neighbourhood, we have an informed view of how best to deliver BNG on these developments. Drawing on expertise from across the region, we can link our efforts to work such as the Newcastle and north Tyneside Biodiversity Action Plan, and, through this, ensure the maximum possible gain in habitat quality, while meeting the legislative requirements of BNG.

Image: The University’s ‘bat house’ shelter for roosts of local Pipistrelle bats. The shelter is pictured under the shade of a nearby tree at the Park View Student Village. Credit: Charlotte Robson.

A huge thank you to my colleague Charlotte for her help with this blog and all the amazing work she does on biodiversity. While we don’t yet have any case-studies of BNG being implemented on campus, we’re always working hard to help improve biodiversity on our estates. You can read about the special care taken to preserve trees as part of our recent Stephenson Building refurbishment here, or learn more about our biodiversity work on our website and our other blog posts.

References

Allard, A., Carina, H., Keskital, E., and Brown, A. (2023) Monitoring Biodiversity: Combining Environmental and Social Data. Taylor and Francis International Publishing.

Bonneuil, C., Fressoz, J-B. (2016) The Shock of the Anthropocene: The Earth, History and Us. Fernbach, D. (translator). 1st edition. New York, N.Y.: Verso Books.

Bull, J.W., and Brownlie, S. (2017) ‘The transition from No Net Loss to a Net Gain of biodiversity is far from trivial’, Oryx. 51 (1). pp. 53–59.

Callaway, E. (2020). Eden’s Endemics: Narratives of Biodiversity on Earth and Beyond. Charlottesville, V.A.: University of Virginia Press.

Perrings, C. (2014) Our Uncommon Heritage: Biodiversity Change, Ecosystem Services, and Human Wellbeing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Combining energy and sustainability: upgrading Newcastle University’s Merz Court Energy Centre

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Heating and powering our campus is one of the University’s largest sources of carbon dioxide emissions and so work to improve the efficiency of these systems is very effective at reducing our institution’s impact on the environment.

To this end, a major project the University is currently undertaking is the installation of a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant in Merz Court’s Energy Centre. This new infrastructure has required the work of a variety of University teams alongside multiple external companies to plan this major energy upgrade and coordinate its installation. Now, as the completion of the project is coming into view, this blog will explore how CHP systems work, and how the University’s new power plant is set to save significant emissions for years to come!

Video: A timelapse of the night-time delivery and craning of the CHP unit into the underground Merz Court Energy centre.

What impact will this have?

Combined heat and power or ‘cogeneration’ plants increase efficiencies by utilising the waste heat generated when creating electricity to warm buildings. These systems are especially effective when hooked up to district heating networks – where one energy centre powers multiple buildings. So, when different teams were coming together to plan the power supply for the newly refurbished Stephenson Building, an upgrade to our existing district heating network centred in Merz Court fit the bill nicely.

Now, after lots of hard work from many colleagues across the University, the new 27-tonne CHP engine has been successfully installed in Merz Court’s Energy Centre! On top of the improved efficiencies of cogeneration systems, the University’s new CHP uses greener biofuel to generate its heat and electricity – greatly reducing carbon emissions as compared to conventional systems.

Additionally, the CHP’s impact on carbon savings will be further reinforced as Merz Court Energy Centre’s district heating is connected to a whole swathe of the campus, including the:

Henry Daysh Building,
Stephenson Building,
King Edward VII Building,
Percy Building,
Old Library Building,
And Merz Court itself!

Across these buildings, the CHP’s lower carbon factor energy will pull down our campus’s carbon emissions by thousands of tonnes a year. Additionally, after recent progress, the first batch of biofuel has now been delivered and we’re happy to announce that the new system will be generating power for the next heating season!

Image: The entrance to Newcastle University’s School of Electrical and Electronic engineering housed in Merz Court above the newly upgraded Energy Centre. Credit: Chris Bishop.

Find out more

Many thanks to all the teams involved in delivering the various stages of this project. If you’re interested in finding out more about the University’s power system and how we’re reducing emissions, explore our energy and carbon webpages. Additionally, this blog has information on the University’s renewable power projects and research and our institution-wide, accredited Energy Management System. Finally, the University’s Energy Policy can be found here, and you can get involved with a variety of sustainability programmes and groups across the University as either a student or a colleague.

Celebrating World Environment Day at Newcastle Univeristy

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This Wednesday was World Environment Day – an initiative run by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) since 1973 to recognise the beauty and importance of the natural world and to fight for its preservation and restoration. The programme is important for its ability to raise awareness and bring together solutions for a range of environmental concerns, and each year’s events focus on a particular theme.

Here at the University, in addition to the cutting-edge research of our academic colleagues, a wide variety of work is done year-round to help reduce environmental impacts both in our institution and beyond. All sorts of teams and individuals contribute to these efforts and so, to recognise this work and celebrate World Environment Day, the University hosts an Environment Awards Ceremony each year. This year’s awards have unfortunately had to be postponed (hence a delayed blog!), but we thought it’d be remiss to not highlight at least some of the sustainable action that’s taken place in our University over the last year!

Image: An aerial shot of the campus-adjacent Leazes Park, bathed in the late afternoon sun. Credit: Elemental Photography.

LEAF

Run by University College London, the Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF) is a programme designed to help laboratories in a variety of different disciplines to reduce the environmental impacts of their work. We’ve supported LEAF here at the University for several years now and I’m happy to announce that we’ve seen a number of new labs signing up and receiving awards this year!

Since last June, 10 new lab groups (some consisting of multiple different labs) have signed up across the Faculties of Medical Sciences, and Science, Agriculture and Engineering. Additionally, in this same period, we’ve seen a range of labs gain awards at different levels across the University for their sustainable action. Throughout our organisation, we have gained:

5 new Bronze awards,
1 new Silver award, and
4 new Gold awards!

These achievements reflect the hard work done by technicians, researchers, and lab users and they demonstrate:

An impressive waste reduction in labs, especially those achieving Gold.
A commitment to reuse wherever possible, including working with suppliers to reduce waste.
The sharing of equipment and supplies with other labs in the same buildings.
The efficient use of equipment, including influencing all lab users to adopt sustainable practices in their work.
The non-stop encouragement to those around them to get involved!

Green Impact

This year also saw the launch of our first ever Green Impact programme at the University! Over the last half year, teams from throughout the University have been implementing sustainable changes in their varied workplaces to keep environmental action high on the agenda and make real savings in resource use.

This initial programme has seen involvement from senior leadership and teams as diverse as maintenance colleagues and lab researchers! Thanks to their efforts, we’ve seen some brilliant progress in the new year and I’m happy to announce that teams have achieved multiple bronze, silver, and gold awards across the University!

Continuing climate action

Work is continually progressing to improve the sustainability of our campus and operations. A list of important steps taken in our 17 years of sustainable action so far can be found here and you can also explore information specific to a variety of different environmental themes on our sustainable campus website.

A huge thank you to everyone involved in LEAF, Green Impact, and all the other sustainability projects that have achieved so much this year. If you want to find out more about our work, sign up to the Sustainability Network newsletter by emailing us, have a look at our Play your Part pages, or continue to explore our variety of blog pieces, covering everything from sustainable waste to farming for the future!

Solar power on campus: Harnessing renewable energy to power our university.

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Why is renewable energy important?

As attested in UN Sustainable Development Goal 7, ensuring that our power is being generated renewably is a vital part of meeting climate goals, whether national, international, or across individual organisations (White, 2024). Here at Newcastle University, lighting accounts for around 20% of our energy use alone, but electricity is also used to power many building’s heating, cooling, and ventilation systems, our fleet of electric vehicles, our PCs, server banks, lab equipment, and more. With so much of the University drawing on electrical power, therefore, generating renewable energy on campus can have a huge impact on reducing the emissions of our facilities and operations. One technology that has proven invaluable in our efforts to increase local renewable energy production is solar power.

Image: A view of the Frederick Douglass Centre’s solar system with the Catalyst, Core, Lumen, and Spark buildings in the background. Credit: Author.

What’s happening at our university?

Solar Photovoltaics (PV) have been producing power since the 19^th Century but have only really become commonplace in the last few decades as lowering costs and improving efficiencies have made the technology increasingly commercially viable (Mulvaney, 2019). One of the chief benefits of solar PV is its versatility. Solar arrays can produce power wherever there is good access to daylight (a full explanation of how solar PV works can be found in this blog) and can be deployed on building rooftops to easily integrate power production into dense urban environments (Hayat et al., 2019). This adaptability has allowed the University to install solar arrays on a wide variety of buildings across our city centre campus, and these systems generate power right where it’s needed most.

Image: Maps of the University’s city centre estates. University owned buildings have a thicker border around them, those highlighted in solid yellow have solar power systems installed, and those highlighted with yellow stripes have solar systems currently under construction. Credit: Author.

As the above maps show, solar arrays have been installed across campus including on buildings such as the Henry Daysh, Great North Museum Hancock, the Catalyst, and every block of the Park View Student Village. Our teams are also continually working to expand the amount of solar power we generate at the University and we’re currently constructing a new system on top of the Philip Robinson Library. Additionally, as we add new arrays, we’re constantly looking to expand their capacity and our recently finished Sports Centre system, now the largest at the University, generates as much power in under 2 days as an average UK household consumes in a year! Elsewhere, arrays have been designed to meet the entire daytime power demands of buildings – such as in our Frederick Douglass Centre, who’s generation data can be seen below.

Image: A graphic displaying the amount of energy at the University’s Frederick Douglass Centre that is being pulled from the grid vs from the building’s solar array in the early afternoon of 13.05.2024 (note: all values are estimates). Credit: Author.

A combined approach

The effects of the University’s solar power arrays are already being felt across our organisation. In addition to the savings on energy bills these systems are creating, the University is also saving tens of thousands of kilograms of CO2e across our facilities. Following these successes, we’ll continue to install new solar PV systems across our campus and beyond while working to complement these projects with other renewable and low carbon infrastructure initiatives. Examples of these complimentary improvements include:

Our low carbon factor combined heating and power engine in the Merz Court Energy Centre which utilises biofuel to provide electricity and hot water with a high degree of efficiency and a far lower comparative carbon footprint.
Projects to link the district heating networks we have across our city centre campus, improving efficiencies and reliability as systems help to pick up each other’s slack and can optimise over a wider area.
Our long-term campus-wide LED works to replace all indoor room lighting across our organisation with energy efficient LEDs. We’re now well over halfway through this decade long project!
The energy supply deal we’ve struck with The Energy Consortium to supply our buildings and facilities with zero carbon power from the grid.

Image: Solar panels on top of the Henry Daysh Building with other University buildings, including the Bedson and Armstrong Buildings, as well as St James’s Park, visible in the background. Credit: Charlotte Robson.

Many thanks to Irene Dumistrascu-Podogrocki and Luke Whittaker for helping with this blog and enormous thanks also to colleagues from the various teams, including projects and improvements, that are working hard alongside ourselves to bring renewable and low-carbon power to our campus. If you’re interested in finding out more, our website has further information on carbon and energy, we have blogs on our energy management system and wind power at the University, and the Sustainability Network gives regular updates on our projects and work across campus.

References

Hayat, M.B., Ali, D., Monyake, K.C., Alagha, L., Ahmed, N. (2019) ‘Solar energy – A look into power generation, challenges, and a solar-powered future’, International Journal of Energy Research. 43 (3). pp. 1049–1067.

Mulvaney, D. (2019) Solar Power: Innovation, Sustainability, and Environmental Justice. 1st ed. Oakland, California: University of California Press.

White, J.K. (2024) The Truth About Energy: Our Fossil-Fuel Addiction and the Transition to Renewables. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hedgehog Awareness Week at Newcastle University!

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This week is national Hedgehog Awareness Week – a celebration of the role these wonderful animals play in our endemic ecosystems, and a call to action to help protect them from the threats they face. According to the Mammal Society, the Western European Hedgehog has been vulnerable to extinction in Britain since 2020. The species’ continual decline in Britain has been suffered despite its numbers remaining stable in much of the rest of Europe. So, what can we, both as individuals and as a University, do to support hedgehogs at home and on campus to restore them to the healthiness of their European cousins?

Image: shade beneath the boughs of a tree on the edge of Claremont Quad. Credit: John Donoghue.

The challenges

Hedgehog numbers in rural areas have been dropping for many years and, according to the State of Britain’s Hedgehogs 2022 report, have declined by 30-75% since 2000, depending on the area of the UK. Population decline in urban areas is slower – likely aided by awareness raising campaigns by organisations such as the People’s Trust for Endangered Species and the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS), but hedgehogs still face many challenges here, including:

Increasing traffic volume making streets more perilous,
Habitat loss and fragmentation as hedges and verges are lost or overly mown and gardens are cut off from one another by fences with no paths through,
Disruptions to Autumn nest building due to garden clearing and bonfire night celebrations,
The continued use of garden pesticides and poisons.

How we can help

As part of our biodiversity remit, we in the Sustainability Team have been working to ensure that our campus is as friendly as possible to a variety of species, including hedgehogs, and we’ve been running awareness raising campaigns for several years now. Accordingly, the University’s Sustainable Construction Specification stipulates that all new projects must create a biodiversity net gain and our colleagues in the Grounds Team work hard all year round to create quality green spaces across our campus. In addition to this, we’ve collaborated with the School of Natural and Environmental Sciences to host a number of fundraising events for hedgehog conservation which have raised hundreds of pounds!

Hedgehogs don’t need too much to thrive in our urban environments and even minor interventions made by individuals in their gardens or allotments can make a big difference in improving and expanding habitats. The Hedgehog Street campaign recommends a range of actions you can take to support your local hedgehog populations, including:

Creating small holes in garden fences to safely connect gardens,
Leaving a corner of your garden or allotment wild and undisturbed to provide hiding places,
Clearing away any old gardening netting and litter from green spaces,
Avoiding chemicals (such as pesticides, poisons, and weedkillers),
Becoming a Hedgehog champion through Hedgehog Street.

More ideas can be found here and you can also learn how to build a Hedgehog house with this guide by the Woodland Trust. If you find a hedgehog that is in distress or may have been orphaned, please contact the BHPS who can provide guidance and a list of independent hedgehog rescue centres across the UK.

Image: a person sits on a bench amid the sun dappled greenery of Claremont Quad. Credit: Chris Bishop.

Thank you for reading and taking the time to consider biodiversity in our urban environment! If you’re lucky enough to have a garden or allotment please do consider how you can make it more friendly for a variety of plant and animal species. Plus, if you’re interested in learning more about biodiversity on campus and beyond, have a look at our website and our blogs on biodiversity, bees, the UN Biodiversity Conference, and sustainable agriculture!

The Seeds of Change: Innovating for Sustainable Agriculture

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Agriculture is a vast and vital industry that provides livelihoods for hundreds of millions and food for billions across our planet. Similar to other sectors, however, agriculture’s expansion and industrialisation have increased its impact on the environment to unsustainable levels (Alam and Rukhsana, 2023), especially regarding greenhouse gas emissions and the biodiversity crisis. As a result, work is now crucially needed to adopt new technologies and alternative practices to ensure that the world’s five billion hectares of farmland can store carbon and provide quality habitats as well as feeding us. To get an idea of the challenges facing sustainable agriculture and how they might be overcome, I’ve spoken to researchers from Newcastle University’s own School of Natural and Environmental Sciences.

Hay bales at Newcastle University’s Cockle Park Farm. Credit: Matt Horne.

Sustainability challenges

Implementing sustainable practices into farming is a complicated and difficult process for a variety of reasons. Postgraduate researcher Sophia Long points to cost, and a lack of resources, technology, education, and training as key concerns that are affecting different farms in different ways and slowing down agriculture’s progress towards sustainable practice. Additionally, she notes that many sustainable innovations, including novel machinery and new chemistry and crop varieties, require an adjustment period to be implemented, further delaying change.

Despite these challenges, however, there is optimism in the sector and Dr David George, a reader in Precision Agronomy here at the University, referred to the recent updates to the Sustainable Farming Incentive as a key element of this positivity. On top of this, the development of carbon and biodiversity markets, inclusion of sustainable best practice as a feature of trade shows and magazines, and recognition of the importance of sustainable management by farmers themselves are all good signs of an improving outlook for sustainable agriculture.

Research and innovations

Newcastle University has a variety of innovative facilities focused on agricultural production, teaching, and research and this infrastructure is being used to develop the skills, technologies, and practices needed to support agriculture’s transition towards sustainability. These specialist facilities include Newcastle University Farms (NU Farms), which hold around 800 hectares of land spread over three sites (Nafferton, Ouston, and Cockle Park), and a series of vertical farm units, growth room facilities, and a food and consumer research facility on central campus. Some of the sustainable innovations, highlighted by Sophia and David, that are currently being developed at these sites include:

The development of automated systems and disease sensors in the Vertical Farm units to reduce the need for fertiliser, transport, and water when producing crops whilst improving their quality.
Research on the soil microbiome to improve the sustainability of disease management through the development of novel cultural and chemical control plans.
Trials of different tillage practices at NU Farms, including ploughing, minimum-tillage, and direct-drilling, to gather data on crop performance and carbon release (from the soil) for each of these practices.
Spore sampling technology, which is being explored at NU Farms in conjunction with biopesticides and biostimulants to reduce the use of conventional synthetic chemistry and thereby improve crop health and slow the build-up of pesticide resistance.
Scattering silicate rock dust over crop fields for their ability to enhance carbon and nutrient capture in the soil, both sequestering greenhouse gases and improving crop growth (Skov et al. 2024).
Remote imaging and sensing for pest/disease detection and environmental monitoring to help boost soil, crop, and animal health. This technology could be used in conjunction with the increasingly precise and automated application of crop inputs, which is also being researched at our university.
Methods to engage farmers in overcoming barriers to ‘Regenerative Agriculture‘ in the north of England through machinery solutions.

A tree-lined field with sheep at Newcastle University’s Cockle Park Farm. Credit: Matt Horne.

The future of farming

Sustainability is increasingly becoming the focus of agriculture’s future (Onuabuchi Munonye and Chinelo Eze, 2022) and a range of new technologies are lining up to support this. Across the Agriculture department, NU Farms, and the researchers I spoke to, however, it was stressed that co-benefits must be at the heart of change to ensure that the future of agriculture is truly sustainable. Specifically, change in the agricultural sector must support farmers’ incomes and resilience as well as the natural environment. Here, four key areas are central to a holistically sustainable future for farming:

Technology: Drones and sensors for data, automated and precision machinery, new crop inputs, land use practices, and further technologies are all improving the efficiency and reducing the environmental impacts of crop and livestock rearing for each unique farm.
Biodiversity: Research, education, and stewardship schemes are helping farmers to support and improve the agroecological systems on their land, yielding enhanced natural pest control and soil fertility and combatting pesticide and fertiliser use.
Adaptation: Changes in pest, disease, and extreme/unseasonal weather stresses will force farmers to adapt their crop rotations and water, disease, and pest management practices. Here, plant breeding, education, and community engagement will all be vital tools to pre-emptively future-proof agricultural production against the impacts of climate change.
Income: Many farms here in the UK are under intense financial pressure and even being forced out of business, harming livelihoods, rural culture and knowledge, and impacting the UK’s food security and resilience. Produce prices must reflect the tenuous financial situation for farmers and more transparency from distributors (such as supermarkets) would help consumers to gain a more well-rounded view of the food system they rely upon.

Overall, Dr George summarises the features of a sustainable future for farming as a “good balance of environmental, animal welfare and food production outputs that co-delivers for natural capital gain / net zero and food security, supported by simple yet flexible policy and clear, connected, consolidated and collaborative knowledge sharing”.

A huge thank you to Sophia, David, and everyone else who offered their time and expertise for this piece. If you want to find out more about sustainable agriculture then have a look at the links and references below and you can learn about biodiversity on campus here. Finally, if you’re looking for updates about sustainability at our university, you can sign up to the Sustainability Network.

Links and references

NU Farms research webpage

Regenerative agriculture initiative funded by Newcastle University

NU Farms Impact Statement

Press Office article on enhanced rock weathering

Alam, A., and Rukhsana (2023) ‘Climate Change Impact, Agriculture, and Society: An Overview’. Alam. A., and Rukhsana (eds) Climate Change, Agriculture and Society: Approaches Toward Sustainability. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-28251-5

Onuabuchi Munonye, J., and Chinelo Eze, G. (2022) ‘The Concept of Sustainable Agriculture’. Filho, W. L., Kovaleva, M., and Popkova, E. (eds) Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-98617-9

Skov, K., Wardman, J., Healey, M., McBride, A., Bierowiec, T., Cooper, J., Edeh, I., George, D., Kelland, M. E., Mann, J., Manning, D., Murphy, M. J., Pape, R., Teh, Y. A., Turner, W., Wade, P., and Liu, X. (2024). Initial agronomic benefits of enhanced weathering using basalt: A study of spring oat in a temperate climate. PLOS ONE, 19 (3). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0295031

World Water Day 2024: Managing our water sustainably

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Water is an incredibly precious resource that is central to natural ecosystems, agriculture, sanitation, industry, heating, transport, and, of course, keeping us hydrated! For all of these reasons, UN Water recognise sustainable water management as a vital part of the sustainable governance of communities, countries, and large organisations such as our university. So, to mark World Water Day, this blog will explore how we in the Sustainability Team ensure that the University’s water system is efficient, safe, and abides by all environmental regulations, plus we’ll add in some tips of how you can save water at home too!

Image: Sunset looking east down the tyne with the Swing, Tyne, and Millennium bridges visible. Credit: Graeme Peacock.

The University’s water

The University’s water is managed in accordance with our Environmental Management System and we have Operational Control Procedures in place that control significant environmental aspects such as water reduction and trade effluence. These are audited internally and externally annually. To further support our water management, we work with building users, technicians, and our external monitoring partners Demeter to ensure that water is being used responsibly and any leaks are identified and repaired efficiently. Some examples of recent leaks that were rapidly detected and promptly repaired include a broken fitting on a main pipe at our Bowsden Court student accommodation, a fractured main near the Stephenson Building, and a flood inside Henderson Hall due to vandalism.

In addition to this work to quickly remedy faults in the system, we’re being proactive in saving water across our facilities in a number of ways, including:

Installing Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) software across the University. This system is capable of logging water consumption data every 15 minutes, allowing us to assess and monitor the University’s water usage data accurately.
Developing a water strategy. Our strategy will help us to holistically review our watermonitoring and management processes.
Identifying any issues with fixtures and fittings in our buildings. We ask staff and students to report problems such as broken taps and toilets when they find them so they can be fixed quickly. We also use the AMR data to help us with this as the frequent data logging enables us to identify trends and any anomalies where problems may be occurring.
Installing push taps to reduce water consumption.
Including water systems in our Sustainable Construction Framework. New systems designed for capital projects have specific sustainability requirements to meet, including specification around water systems.
Monitoring our water consumption daily with specialist support. Our partners Demetersend us information every day about building water consumption to help us stop leaks and identify areas where usage is higher than it should be.

Image: Sustainable Development Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation. Credit: UN SDGs.

How can I save water at home?

There are plenty of easy ways you can save water around the house and these actions will help lower your water bill as a bonus!

Use a shower timer to help reduce water use in the shower – timers are typically set to four minutes.
Only use a dishwasher on a full load and avoid pre-rinse settings.
Fill the kettle with only as much water as you need, saving energy as well as water.
Use any leftover cooking water on houseplants.
When purchasing a new toilet, look for a dual flush option.
Fit tap aerators onto your taps and look into aerated shower heads to easily reduce water consumption.

Is there anything I can do on campus?

You can report any water defect, whether it’s a dripping tap, overfilling toilet, leaking pipe or water which is too hot, by getting in touch with the Estates and Facilities Helpdesk. Always make sure taps, hoses, and cooling systems are turned off after use. Additionally, if you manage or work in labs you can reduce water use by:

Using recirculating cooling systems to save energy and water, and reducing the water supply to water-cooled equipment to the minimum required.
Avoiding using water vacuum pumps where possible as they use large quantities of water.
Specifying what levels of water purity are necessary for various applications and not using distilled water when it is not necessary.
Only running washers when they are full and ensuring the lab has correctly sized equipment for its common usage to prevent inefficient washing of oversized items.
Joining the Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF)!

Thank you so much for reading this blog. If you want to explore more information on water at our university, take a look at our dedicated webpage, or email us in the Sustainability Team!