ACU recognises its responsibility to reduce its contribution to heating of the Earth through the emission of greenhouse gases.

ACU’s carbon emissions peaked in 2019, with the emission of approximately 40,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent greenhouse gases. ACU’s carbon emissions declined substantially from 2021 because it purchased 100% renewable electricity and heavily reduced the number of flights undertaken by staff. Emissions from electricity and air travel were previously the two largest sources of ACU’s greenhouse gases.

ACU’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2022 were equivalent to approximately 22,500 tonnes of carbon-dioxide. The source of more than 95% of those emissions was ACU’s supply chain. This means that the university’s suppliers of goods and services generated all but a few hundred tonnes of ACU’s greenhouse emissions.

Starting in 2022, ACU will focus its carbon management program on its supply chain, with the aim to cut its greenhouse emissions by half by 2030, compared to a baseline year of 2020.