SEE Programme 2025 highlights

Introduction

Welcome to the annual report of the Sustainability, Energy & Environment (SEE) programme of the University of Twente. On this page, you will find an overview of the actions UT has taken in 2025 to become a sustainable organization, split up into various themes.

Do you have any questions after reading? Or do you have ideas on how to make our organization more sustainable? Then please contact us through sustainability@utwente.nl!

Highlights & links

Energy

A gas-free campus aims to transition all buildings on the UT campus connected to the closed distribution system for gas away from using natural gas for heating, hot water, and air humidification to other renewable energy sources. In 2025 the Paviljoen building and many student houses at the Calslaan Oud, Campuslaan Hoog have been removed from the gas.

Taken energy saving measures:

• The Horst building is now open from 08:00 to 18:00. Oosthorst and Noordhorst also switch to night mode at 18:00 instead of 20:00. After 18:00 (and on weekends), access requires approval from a supervisor and technician. Since implementing the earlier closure, no issues have occurred.
• Night ventilation reduction has been initiated in Carré. Several labs have been converted into meeting rooms, but these spaces still maintain the same air circulation as the original labs, which is unnecessary. This “low-hanging fruit” is now being addressed, starting with meeting rooms that are rarely used. Initial adjustments have been made to ensure these rooms no longer maintain continuous high airflow; ventilation will only operate when the rooms are occupied.

Compared to 2019 gas consumption in 2025 has been reduced by 50%. This is not an actual reduction of total energy needs as many buildings have been transferred to district heating.

It is complicated to draw conclusions when looking at changes in energy consumption while some buildings are being renovated. The situation is not stable therefore you have to be careful to draw firm conclusions based on the numbers provided whether a decrease in energy consumption is a structural reduction or a temporary one. Compared to the base year of 2019 the consumption of electricity has gone up by 05%. Because compared to 2024 electricity consumption has been increased by 5% as well.

^{Energy use at UT 2014-2025}

Solar panels

Currently, there are 3019 solar panels on campus (Citadel 78, Cube 229, Drienerburght 77, Fietsenstalling Spiegel 6, OostHorst120, Langezijds 845, Carport at Paviljoen 69, scoreboard 4, Technohal 594, cabins next to Boerderij Bosch 42, Carre 955). In 2025 the roof of Carré was covered by 955 panels and the solar panels on the Cube and the Kop Langezijds (90) started producing electricity. P4 and Spiegel are possible locations to become solar covered car parks. Their electricity production covers around 3.2% of UT’s annual electricity consumption.

Buildings

The LTSH programme is committed to make UT real estate sustainable. LTSH ensures alignment with roadmap to CO₂ real estate. Every housing initiative (new and renovations to existing buildings) will be aligned to the roadmap and will have to meet sustainability goals.

The following measures have been taken in 2025:

• The preparations for the renovation of the Horst complex took place in 2025. A big focus lays on sustainability. Two students are helping by writing a sustainability advice, for example for green roofs, solar panels and efficient usage of labs and offices. Many lights have been already changed to LED.
• In line with the LTSH plans, Ravelijn building has changed almost all lights to LED and the large tv screen has been changed to a low power consuming LED screen.
• The renovation of the Cubicus building has started in 2025 and will be continued in 2026, there is a large focus on sustainability.
• The watersports complex has been renovated, including floor insulation, upgraded lighting, and the installation of a heat pump.
• The pavilion has been renovated with roof, floor, and façade insulation, triple glazing, LED lighting, and a heat pump.
• Started replacing several roofs with insulation (Zilverling, Vrijhof).

^{Paviljoen after renovation}

Biodiversity

The following activities have taken place to make biodiversity more visible on campus:

• There were two biodiversity photo exhibitions in the Vrijhof, in the Spring and Autumn in 2025.
• Outcomes of the Biodiversity Insights project sponsored by the Climate Centre were 11 published articles in the biodiversity series of which seven articles in 2025 and signs in the unique Pinetum.
• The UT participated in the national Bioblitz initiative (#HigherEducationBlooms). During the Bioblitz weeks, there were organized lunchtime nature walks to encourage colleagues to explore and identify local flora and fauna using the OBS Identify app. This collaborative effort resulted in spotting 1268 unique species, achieving the first place from all universities and universities of applied sciences in the Netherlands.
• A 200 m² food forrest has been placed close to the Matenweg.

^{Biodiversity exhibition Vrijhof}

Events

Several initiatives have been conducted to make UTs events more sustainable:

• The sustainability fund from the SEE programme, Green Hub and Student Union has been used 5 times in 2025. Together they received 1338 euro. The applicants used the fund for: sewing machine, hoodies, smart plugs, reusable plates and cutlery and ballet skirts.
• We created the sustainability monitoring form. In 2025 it has been used by only one event organizers, so it should be communicated more so all event organizers will use it. Questions in this monitoring form are regarding energy, mobility, waste, food and drinks etc. This data could be used in the future to measure if we are on track with our goals and to steer our goals.
• The Green Certificate has been awarded 8 times to the events in table.
  
• The Sustainable events guide have been created in collaboration with the Green Hub and has been finalized and published.
  

Food & drinks

In 2025 we worked together with MiSt Sustainable Solutions to visualize the land use, CO₂  and water footprint of five types of warm drinks on al hot beverage machines. We didn’t expect people to change their consumptions, and we also weren’t able to measure any difference after publishing this visualization. However, many people were talking about the impact of their drinks at the coffee machines. So, we were able to inform people about the impact of their consumption.

Appèl has changed the default to soy milk and simultaneously increased the price of items with cow’s milk with 15 cents. One of the two warm dishes is always vegan instead of vegetarian to lower the impact of food and drinks on campus.

Additionally, we created visualizations for all sandwiches in the canteens. Unfortunately, before we were able to place them in the canteens, the caterer had to change all sandwiches, making the calculations and visualizations useless. In early 2026, the new visualizations will be ready and placed in all canteens.

^{Impact of our hot drink}

Procurement & purchasing

The procurement department’s teams have been working on the following sustainability projects:

• Continuously integrating SROI (social return on investment) and sustainability within the whole procurement department. SROI is mandatory in all contracts.
• Last year, all active suppliers were classified in Proactis as either ‘Regional’ or ‘Non-regional’. After implementing this in Proactis, it was linked to the reporting tool, Business Objects. It is now possible to see the share of regional versus non-regional purchases based on spending.
• Instead of giving only flowers for special occasions, the new tender for promotional gifts takes a broader approach and offers various alternatives such as a houseplant. Additionally, CFM and BMS stopped giving flowers all together.

Travel & mobility

Since 2025 the UT publishes all flight data online for all UT staff members on the BI Dashboard. The figure below shows a gradual decrease in CO2 emissions between 2019 and 2030 necessary to reach the set target. In 2025 we stayed significantly below this trendline. This is due to the acute measures taken at UT, which limited the possibilities to fly.

^{Trendline towards -50% CO2 emissions in 2030 and the actual CO2 emissions from flights 2019-2025}

The following figures show the number of flights and the CO₂ emissions from flights flown by UT staff in 2025 as recorded by the travel agent VCK. More detailed information can be found on the BI Dashboard.
The data shows 738 flights were taken that were less than 700km. It is unknown if these flights were the first section of a longer journey, making it a difficult trip to avoid. Using an alternative for these short distance flight would have saved around 86 tonnes of CO₂ emissions. The CO₂ emissions of flights have decreased by 55% compared to the baseline year of 2019. Compared to 2024 flight emissions were reduced by 37%: a reduction of 19% in short flight emissions, a 25% decrease in mid-range flight emissions and 42% reduction in long distance flight emissions.

^{# flights and CO2 emissions by faculty/services}

Train travel

Per January 2022 all employees can travel to work for free using public transport. Total number of kilometres travelled by train was 8.648.895 km in 2025.The distinction whether travel was for commuting or for business travel can unfortunately not be made based on this NS data. In 2025, 82% more kilometres were travelled by train in the Netherlands than in 2019 (6% more than in 2024).

Water

Drinking water is a scarce resource. The government is asking large-scale consumers, such as UT, to reduce their water consumption by 20% in 2035.

A water management plan has been written and presented in CFM MT. The importance of the water management plan was felt by the MT members, and the focus should be on awareness creation. Next steps will take place in 2026.

^{The consumption of drinking water in m3 at UT and the water reduction goal for 2035}

A 20% lower water consumption compared to a reference period of 2016-2019 (average consumption 84,124m³) means UT consumes only around 68,000m³ of drinking water in a year in 2035. In the figure above the blue line indicates the trend line, showing a 20% reduction in consumption by 2035. In 2025 116,763 m³ drinking water was consumed, this is 22% more than in 2024. Water supplier Vitens provides the yearly CO₂ emission factor, due to changes in their process this number is much lower in 2025, resulting in a 18.2% decrease in CO₂ emission for our used water.

Waste

In 2025 we started a number of projects with our new waste contractor:

• Over the past 18 months, total waste has been reduced by 18%, with a significant decrease in residual waste with 50%.
• The waste from the building the Pakkerij (city centre) is collected by the Afvalhelden by cargo bike.
• Extensive awareness campaigns for students and staff have helped map and optimize waste flows.
• The dedicated waste coach provides insights into different waste streams and supports improved separation practices. Detailed data per building enables targeted actions; Carré and Horst are currently leading in waste separation performance.
• There has been an increase in plastic packaging waste (PD) from 1.5% to 4.%. The goal is to reach 8% by the end of this academic year. Since the introduction of separate PD containers, usage has been strong.
• In the Horst, existing furniture is being reused to prevent waste and extend its lifecycle. Examples include old desks repurposed in labs such as AMC/FIP and the Lifetime Performance Lab, surplus furniture offered by faculties for reuse, and office chairs from EEMCS placed in student rooms. Even desks with non-standard sizes have been passed on to SU. This approach gives furniture a second life and supports sustainability across the organization.
• The creation of the Lifetime Performance Lab at ET, which aims to extend the lifetime of materials.
• Together with other labs, we are exploring opportunities to share or repurpose items to avoid unnecessary new purchases. A pilot with Emendis will start in Q1 2026 to provide insight into available equipment. The ultimate goal is to establish a single, centralized inventory, search, and booking system for the entire University of Twente.
• Cleaning company Asito uses Gloovy gloves that are collected in a monostream and recycled. In 2025 this saved 250 kilos of (residual) waste.

Total waste in 2025 reduced from 731,805 kg to 618.798kg, a 15% reduction. Residual waste has been reduced from 451.698 to 297.319, a reduction of 45%. The CO₂ emissions reduced a lot more: 47% compared to 2024 and 67% compared to 2019. This is mainly due to the fact that we switched waste processing company’s and the new contractor Renewi has a much lower conversion that the Dutch average. Among others because they use green wind energy, HVO100 and EV trucks. The numbers for 2024 have been changed compared to the SEE annual report 2024 according to the conversion calculated by TNO for the months that Renewi processed our waste (April until December). Another reason for the reduction in waste and CO₂ emissions in 2024 and 2025 is that we are no longer reporting on the waste from student houses at the ITC hotel and Hogekamp. Renewi also provided the kilograms of waste streams of which benefits are gained. 201.931 kg of waste has been recycled and 338.914kg had other benefits, for example reuse (downcycling), fermenting or incinerating with energy recovery.

Contact

Do you have questions about sustainability at the University of Twente? Please contact us by sending an email to sustainability@utwente.nl.