SEE Programme 2023 highlights

Welcome to the annual report of the SEE programme. On this page, you will find an overview of the actions UT has taken in 2023 to achieve its goal of becoming a sustainable university, 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!

The University of Twente wants to be a sustainable organization in 2030. As part of CFM, the SEE Programme was created to achieve this goal in our daily operations. As such, the SEE Programme manages and works on continually and structurally improving UT’s sustainability, energy and environmental performance.

During 2023, the SEE Programme Team has started the transition from the project leader role to a role where enabling colleagues to integrate sustainability in their work to realise a change is the focus. Sustainability initiatives, activities and measures are organized and implemented all over UT resulting in more responsibility in the line organisation for reporting on progress and a more facilitating and supporting role from the SEE Programme Team.

Stand-by mode

Another example is that all warm drink machines are now on stand-by mode at night, which saves 35kWh per year per machine. Furthermore, by reducing the energy use of unused ethernet ports (UT has over 23.000 such ports) we save 18MW per year, more than 7 times the average annual energy use of a Dutch household. In total, UT used 9% less energy in 2023 than we did in 2022.

Discussions are ongoing about various other measures, for example installing smart climate installations in buildings, installing external sunshades on the Carre building and connecting lighting on the sports facilities to the booking system. Energy consumption in labs is another focal point and will be elaborated on further under ‘labs’

Solar panels

Currently, there are 1811 solar panels on campus. Their electricity production covers around 1% of UT’s annual electricity consumption. The roofs of the Sport Centre, Carré and Nanolab are being inspected for suitability. P4 and Spiegel are possible locations to become solar covered car parks. You can read more about these plans in this article.

In 2023 the decision was made to not expand by building new buildings but instead optimise the use of current real estate. Improving existing real estate and making these more sustainable is the focus now. The Long-Term-Housing Strategy (LTSH) programme is committed to make UT real estate sustainable. Every housing initiative (new and renovations to existing buildings) will be aligned to the roadmap to CO₂-neutral real estate.

Langezijds

GAS

Compared to 2019 gas consumption has been reduced by 45%. While lowering UT’s CO₂ emissions, this is not an actual reduction of total energy needs: many buildings have been transferred to district heating instead. Most notably, the ITC hotel was disconnected from gas and the ITC faculty moved from a gas-heated building to one heated by district heating.

In the daily maintenance of our campus, a lot of consideration is given to strengthening and improving biodiversity. Flower bulbs are followed by wild flowers to increase the availability of nectar and pollen for insects early In the season. Also, more areas are maintained in an extensive manner, where mowing takes place once a year or once every two years.

Biodiversity Plan

In 2023, UT started drafting a Species Management Plan and a Biodiversity Plan to take stock of the current status and make plans on how to improve biodiversity further. Some initial results show that the number of breeding birds increased to 56 species in 2023 (45 in 2009; 51 in 2017). The increase in water birds is likely due to a change in the management of the banks of the ponds resulting in a more natural bank vegetation.

During 2023, the focus regarding events on campus was to minimize the waste they produce. To achieve this, reusable cups or recyclable rPet-softcups with a deposit system were tested and are now the norm at all UT events. At Aloha's UT Triathlon, a pilot (funded by the SEE programme) with sustainable water bubbles that replace plastic cups was succesfully conducted. Tests were also done with post-consumer waste separation at UT events with mixed results: while recycling rates improved, the PMD waste stream was too contaminated with residual waste to be recycled. 

Green certificate

The Green Certificate, created by Green Hub, is an immensely successful and highly popular initiative. Its primary objective is to evaluate sustainability measures taken by events through a specialized questionnaire covering Communication, Catering, Energy & Transit Footprint, Materials, and Waste. Student associations implement this checklist right from the start of the event planning process to obtain guidance on how to make their event more sustainable. By doing so, they can avoid future issues and set an example for other events, gaining recognition.

In October 2022, the default vegetarian work lunch was introduced at UT. In 2023, this led to an increase from 33.9% vegetarian lunches to 60.6%, reducing the impact of food on campus.

During 2023, employees from our caterer Appèl worked with Green Dish to look into the composition of its meals, with a special focus on the five best-selling dishes. After analysing the environmental impact of these dishes changes were made, with an emphasis on how healthy and tasty the dish is. To reduce the impact the amount of meat was reduced in some dishes and replaced with lentils, improving the nutritional score of the meal, while decreasing the impact.

Lower environmental impact

The Procurement department has taken many steps in 2023. The team started by making sure the available knowledge and expertise is present in the team. External and internal training was arranged to build up this knowledge.

Both small and large measures are being taken whenever possible to realize improvements on sustainability and societal responsibility. Procurement criteria in the field of (social) sustainability have been increased and a focal point in all new tenders. Immediate actions to reduce UT’s impact is also taken whenever possible: for example, reducing transport movements and the amount of packaging and stopping the distribution of advertising materials on campus.

A succesful project that was finished in 2023 was the procurement of furniture for the Langezijds building/ITC faculty: buying revitalized and revived products resulted in CO₂ emissions savings of 93% (101.8 tonnes CO2) compared to if all new furniture had been purchased.

The CO₂ emissions of flights have decreased by 20.8% compared to the baseline year of 2019. Compared to 2022 an increase in CO2 emissions is observed: 18.6% increase in short flights, 2% increase in mid range flights and 24% increase in long distance flights.

Commuting

In 2022, a mobility survey was held among staff and students. Compared to the previous survey on this subject in 2011, the percentage of staff and students cycling to campus has increased: from 53% to 62,3% for staff, and 66% to 84% for students. 

Several projects were implemented in 2023 to save water. The most impactful of these was the Water Miracle installed in the Waterlab on the Hogekampplein. This purifies ‘grey water’, which can then be used to water the sports fields on campus. This saved 5000m³ drinking water, or 4.3% of the annual water consumption in 2023.

Despite these projects water consumption at UT has gone up by 10% compared to 2022 and 11% compared to our baseline year of 2019. One part of this may be due to leaks: a leaky sprinkler pump has lead to increased water use in Zuidhorst of ~5000m³, another part due to the increased use of water for cleaning mugs now disposable cup are no longer used at UT and the increased need of water for sportsfields due to the dry summer.

The total amount of waste as well as the amount of residual waste has gone down by respectively 17% and 21% compared to 2019. Plastic waste has also decreased, probably because the metal tins and plastic bottles now have a deposit scheme and are thus returned to stores/restaurants by the user. 3000kg of hard plastic, mainly coming from lab waste, has been disposed off separately enabling recycling. The move from the ITC faculty in April 2023 to the campus may have contributed to a lot of paper and residual waste, which leads to the expectation that next year this numbers could go down again.

Removal of single-use cups

In July 2023, UT removed all disposable cups from the warm drinking machines on campus. Bring your own is the new norm at the UT. This change has been made without complaints, there were only minor practical issues in some buildings. This decreases the amount of waste the UT generates and will prevent a little less than one million disposable cups a year.

New waste processing company

In 2023 the tender for a new waste processing company process was completed, which was announced in february 2024. The new contract has a strong focus on sustainability and collaboration, and will be a partnership between the UT and the waste processing company were we will jointly work to prevent waste, increase awareness and improve waste separation.

E-waste

In 2023, 841 laptops were purchased last year and only 292 laptops were returned for recycling or reuse. UT would like to improve this for data safety reasons as well as for sustainability reasons. It is important to return the resources to the market once the product is no longer in use by handing it in for recycling. In May 2023, ICT department LISA made an action plan with a focus on e-waste.

Laboratories are of course essential facilities for our university. However, they have an exceptionally high impact on the environment due to their high energy demand and large amount of poorly recyclable, and potentially hazardous waste output. In April 2023, a dedicated Sustainable Labs Coordinator was appointed at the S&T faculty. Together with lab users, the coordinator takes action to ensure that better, sustainable practices become the norm in laboratories at UT.

Examples include improving waste separation, ensuring that appliances are shut down after use and that fume hood windows are closed after use – both for safety and energy savings (see graph). Other projects include reducing lab ventilation outside of office hours (when safe) and improving the recyclability of purchased products. Already, these projects attract attention from interested parties outside of UT as well.

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