Building and construction commitments 

In 2018/19 UCL's carbon emissions from heating, cooling, powering and lighting our buildings were 55,000 tonnes. We would have to plant 1 million trees to absorb that amount of carbon.*

What is UCL doing? 

• UCL has a Sustainable Building Standard that details the minimum standards and targets for the delivery of a sustainable built environment – it applies to all our construction projects;
• Our new build projects and major refurbishments must achieve a minimum of BREEAM Excellent;
• UCL is also supporting transformation of the built environment on smaller projects using our in-house Mini-Ska tool;
• UCL is working with our construction partners to help reduce single-use plastics on building sites, including producing a a single-use plastics scorecard for construction sites with Mace; 

• UCL's PEARL is the first building that can claim to be net zero carbon in it's operation. 

> Learn about our impact on construction from our Annual Sustainability Report. 

*On average, one tree can consume approximately 60kg of CO2 from the atmosphere. 

Sustainable buildings at UCL 

Sustainable building tools 

Cost and Carbon Tool - Calculate cost and carbon implications of different design options from early project stages. 

Mini SKA Tool - simplified tool developed by the Environmental Sustainability team for use on small projects.

Validation