Sustainability Plan FAQs

The Sustainability Plan 2030 builds on the significant achievements and strengths of the Sustainability Plan 2017–2020, and lessons learnt during its implementation (see Sustainability Reports published to date).

Rather than aligning to areas of university activity, the Plan frames our aspirations in the context of the communities, networks, and ecosystems that the University supports and is a part of. This shift reflects a more integrated, whole-of-University approach to creating, sharing, and actioning leading-edge sustainability knowledge through interdisciplinary and inter-professional collaboration.

Having achieved our target of zero net emissions from electricity, the Sustainability Plan 2030 significantly increases the rigour of our carbon accounting practices and brings the timeframe for decarbonising the University’s operations forward by five years.

Importantly, the Plan acknowledges that achieving our aspiration to be global climate leaders requires more than simply ‘walking the talk’ on climate in our own operations. True leadership requires active and collaborative approaches that catalyse others to implement change. This concept of ‘active leadership’ informs the Plan more generally, through its emphasis on knowledge mobilisation and strategic engagement as critical enablers of our sustainability agenda to 2030.

The University of Melbourne recognises the importance of furthering our relationship with the Traditional Owners of the land on which our campuses stand, as well as assisting in the recognition, curation and activation of Indigenous knowledges. Many Indigenous academics have highlighted the potential of Indigenous knowledges to help us live in harmony with the world. We therefore seek to engage with Indigenous Peoples in an appropriate way, to learn more. To do this properly takes time and investment in building relationships. As such, our target in this regard reflects a commitment to this journey, rather than pre-empting or dictating where Indigenous-led or co-created activities might take us.

Advancing Melbourne states that activities such as collaborating, partnering, convening and leading are fundamental to the University’s enduring purpose – to benefit society through the transformative impact of education and research.

The University engages, collaborates, and forms partnerships with entities that vary in type, location, and scale, with the University side of the partnership also being at various levels, such as the institutional, campus, faculty or individual academics. Partnerships provide the University with additional resources, skills, and knowledge and provide the opportunity to bring people together to understand and solve sustainability challenges.

During Sustainability Plan 2017 - 2020, some outstanding outcomes were achieved (see ‘External Engagement’), however, the University recognised that there are further opportunities to integrate sustainability considerations into engagement and partnerships, and to leverage our considerable convening power to bring policy, industry, and community leaders together for change.

Sustainability Plan 2017–2020 had separate targets for ‘Goods and Services’ and ‘Waste and Recycling’. Under Sustainability Plan 2030, the procurement and waste reduction targets have been integrated under the ‘Just and Circular Economy’ section. This aligns the University’s approach to waste reduction with circular economy principles, emphasising that waste reduction starts with purchasing decisions, and reflecting a more holistic view of how the University can minimise harm and generate benefit through our procurement and consumption of materials, goods, and services.

Sustainability Plan 2030 was developed over an 18-month period, starting in late 2020. There were three main phases of development:

PHASE 1:

A 14-week phase of broad consultation that was open to the whole University community, including students, staff, and alumni. The purpose of this phase was to understand the sustainability priorities and issues that students, staff, and alumni wished to see reflected in the new Plan, and to capture their insights on opportunities and barriers to advancing the University’s sustainability agenda. The outcomes of this phase are summarised in the Sustainability Community Consultation Report 2020.

PHASE 2:

A 10-month phase drafting and in consultation with relevant professional staff and academics, organised primarily around the key activity areas of education, discovery, operations, engagement and partnerships, and Indigenous strategy. Throughout this phase, the focus was on potential structures for the Plan, aspirations, targets, indicators, and actions. This work was informed by the outcomes from the community consultation process, findings from the 2020 Student and Staff Sustainability Survey, lessons learnt from Sustainability Plan 2017–2020, benchmarking and the expertise of those involved.

PHASE 3:

A 7-month phase of synthesising work relating to each activity area, seeking feedback on the synthesised drafts, moving towards support and endorsement from relevant University executives and other influential stakeholders ahead of formal endorsement by the University Executive in March 2022. A Sustainability Plan Advisory Group was convened to help the Plan development team navigate this process and provide expert advice.

The University of Melbourne’s Sustainability Plan 2030 was approved by University Council in May 2022.

Sustainability is inherently about long timeframes, with much climate change discussion planned for decades into the future. To enable accountability and practical action in the short to medium term, the Plan is aligned to the duration of the University’s institutional strategy to 2030, Advancing Melbourne.

The Plan’s outcomes and, where appropriate, some targets are similarly set to 2030.  It has not been practical to set fixed targets out to 2030 for many of the Plan’s targets, because further baselining or investigatory work is required to ensure these targets are meaningful. As a result, many targets are set for 2025, with a review and refresh of the Plan scheduled for 2026. This approach will enable the University to remain flexible and responsive in the action it takes to achieve its overarching aspirations to 2030.

The Chief Operating Officer (COO) Portfolio has overall accountability for the University’s sustainability strategy and governance. The Sustainability Strategy Team within the COO Portfolio leads sustainability governance and strategy development. A Sustainability Advisory Group, comprising executives, academic and professional staff from across Chancellery and Academic Divisions, and student representatives, will guide implementation of the University’s sustainability framework, including this Sustainability Plan. Responsibility for delivery of Plan targets rests with the relevant University portfolio areas and Academic Divisions across the University.

The Plan sets performance-based targets, defines indicators of success, and identifies who, at the Portfolio/Academic Division/Graduate School level, has responsibility during implementation. Those assigned responsibility related to one or more targets will incorporate appropriate actions into annual and multi-year workplans as part of normal planning processes. The Chief Operating Officer (COO) will report regularly to the University Executive via the Strategy Coordination and Planning Sub-committee on progress towards the Plan’s aspirations and targets. Progress will be publicly reported annually in the University’s Sustainability Report.

The University has committed to include carbon emissions from our investment portfolio in our commitment to be climate positive by 2030. This means that we will consolidate both the carbon emissions from our investments and our organisational carbon emissions and achieve Climate Active certified carbon neutrality on the total. Significantly, we will then go beyond by removing more carbon emissions from the atmosphere than we generate.

While the Plan does not define a pathway to immediate divestment from fossil fuels and other industries that affect our climate, it does not explicitly rule it out. Rather, the approach the University is taking is more far-reaching and impactful than simply excluding investments related to fossil fuel, as it addresses emissions across the whole investment portfolio.

The University also sees its investment portfolio as an opportunity to continue and enhance our influence on solutions to climate change through engagement. We believe we can have the greatest impact by engaging with our fund managers to achieve our sustainable investment goals, potentially enabling us to impact a much larger pool of capital. University fund managers engage with organisations on environment, social, and governance (ESG) issues, including by using voting rights, supporting shareholder resolutions and engaging directly with boards. This enables us to reach beyond our own immediate organisational environment to influence external organisations to transition to a more sustainable future.

The Plan includes biannual reviews of ESG issues, especially climate change, under which our investment portfolio will continue to be assessed.

The University is committed to enhancing transparent reporting of our investment portfolio. By the end of 2022 we will work with our fund manager to determine the metrics to be reported for 2022, and these will be published for the 2022 calendar year. Over time, as ESG measurement and reporting in the investment industry develops and matures, we will continue to review and update our reported metrics.

As part of our commitment to transparency, the University’s primary fund manager is named in our annual Sustainability Report (the 2021 report is due to be released in July 2022).

Fund manager performance is measured against the University’s Sustainable Investment Framework (SIF). The SIF outlines key criteria for integrating global climate change risk into investment decision-making and will be updated to reflect the Sustainability Plan 2030.

To further improve the impact of our investment portfolio, the University is currently transitioning its investment portfolio to JANA, a Climate Active certified carbon neutral organisation with deep sustainability experience and expertise. We will work with JANA to better understand, manage and report on the emissions output of our investments.

We acknowledge the urgency with which we must act to limit the impact of climate change. The timeline of our investments target reflects the ambition and complexity of our climate leadership commitments and the need to carefully manage their implementation.

These timelines and targets do not limit the University in the responsible investment actions that may be taken, but allow the University flexibility to revise and strengthen our investment portfolio metrics as best practice evolves.

We are committed to reviewing these targets as part of the scheduled Plan review in 2026, and as practice in this space evolves and we develop our relationship with our new fund manager.

Progress against Plan targets, and the actions taken to enable that progress, will be reported annually in the University’s Sustainability Reports. This approach both strengthens the tracking and transparency of our sustainability performance and enables greater responsiveness to current ideas and innovations over the Plan’s timeframe, allowing more flexibility to revise action towards targets. Initial actions for achieving targets under the Plan to 2030 were developed and documented during the Plan’s extensive internal consultation and development period. Detailed action plans will be owned by the University portfolio areas and faculties responsible for Plan delivery.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were one of several perspectives used to shape the Plan, including informing the potential priorities, targets and indicators. In addition, the SDGs were recognised as the key global framework for sustainability to 2030 and therefore a key part of how the University needs to communicate the Plan and associated performance.

As we move to implementation, we will draw on experience from projects to localise the SDGs for the University’s Estate and for the City of Melbourne.

The concept of the University being a community of sustainability learners and practitioners builds on the teaching and campus engagement achievements and lessons learnt from Sustainability Plan 2017–2020, including:

• The appointment of faculty-based Sustainability Fellows, who lead the integration of sustainability into the University’s core and compulsory undergraduate curriculum
• The development of sustainability-related curriculum and programs
• Consistently high self-reported levels of participation in personal sustainability undertakings by staff and students (such as ‘minimising my use of paper’)
• Exceeding target participation rates for programs and events, with Parkville’s Farmers Market, Choose to Reuse Plate Program, Furniture Re-use Program and Green Impact Program topping the 2020 Survey rankings for student and staff engagement.

Activities of this type will continue with the added recognition that formal teaching and learning and campus engagement are both part of the learning spectrum and there are opportunities for those leading the various activities to more purposefully share experiences and learn from each other through forums and communities of practice.

To learn more and get involved in sustainability initiatives on campus visit: sustainablecampus.unimelb.edu.au

• Under our target to be carbon neutral by 2025, we are aiming for a reduction in air travel emission of at least 10% from 2019 levels (pre-pandemic).
• We will continue to offset 100% of our air travel emissions.
• We will assess the ongoing impact of increased videoconferencing and remote working post pandemic, and incorporate targeted campaigns to increase sustainable and active choices for business travel and commuting, including more end-of-trip facilities.
• A 2019 survey by Pangolin Associates found that over 90% of staff commuting kilometres utilised sustainable transport.