Sustainability Report 2022: The role of universities in climate action

By Melbourne Climate Futures Director Professor Jacqueline Peel

The release of the University of Melbourne’s Sustainability Report 2022 today is a reminder and opportunity to discuss the important role universities play in combatting climate change.

Universities are uniquely positioned to draw on the depth and breadth of research and expertise at their disposal to solve major problems. Our researchers dedicate themselves daily to exploring and investigating issues arising in every discipline. Our campuses act as living laboratories where we test and scrutinise innovative solutions that can be applied in the real world.

While this gives universities ample opportunity to develop solutions and accelerate action, it also places a vital responsibility upon us. More than simply providing a space for climate innovation to be developed, universities have an obligation to our communities – local, national and international – to lead climate action.

Today’s report flags some impressive progress. Once again, the University produced zero net emissions from electricity. It has vastly improved its infrastructure and environmental efficiency. And it continues to expand its sustainability curricula across a range of disciplines.

Importantly, however, the report also highlights gaps where work remains to be done. The Sustainability Plan 2030 calls for the University to ‘walk the talk’ on sustainability, and the transparency within this year's report is an important step towards achieving that goal.

This year, for the first time, the University provided transparent reporting on its investment portfolio as part of the Sustainability Report 2022 section on ‘responsible investments’. This included reporting on the top 20 company holdings in which our portfolio is invested ?and the estimated emissions outputs associated with those investments, which represent the ‘scope 3 emissions’ from the University’s investment portfolio. While the transparency the report provides is welcome, it also shows that significant percentages of our equities portfolio are still invested in companies in the materials and energy sectors that disproportionately contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.

This transparency also signals a real step toward openness and change. It is our hope at Melbourne Climate Futures that, by first assessing its investment portfolio’s impact, the University of Melbourne can work with our new investment manager, JANA,?to influence investees to transition more quickly to pathways aligned with a sustainable, net zero future. Beyond this, there could be future opportunities for the University to work with JANA to improve the sustainability performance of companies the University invests in.

Through its sustainability-focused research initiatives like MCF, the University is ideally positioned to advocate to government and industry for better, more sustainable climate action. For instance, the MCF Sustainable Finance Hub is working alongside our colleagues in finance and industry to accelerate change.

Likewise, it is university research such as that which takes place at Melbourne Energy Institute that is underpinning understanding of what’s needed for a net zero transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Across the University, social sciences research helps enable this transition so that it can be managed fairly and equitably in the communities it affects.

As the need for transformation to more sustainable systems is increasingly critical, we must work closely with industry, government and other communities to develop innovative solutions that can be taken up by them to ensure an equitable transition to cleaner emissions targets, safer waterways, and more robust health and welfare systems. We hope to advise our representatives in government on the most effective way to devise and enshrine these policies in law and to put them into action to safeguard the future of our world.

We are in the business of educating, developing and empowering our future leaders. We have a responsibility to provide the young people whose skills and potential we are fortunate to foster with a healthy, safe and equitable climate future and to prepare them to be sustainability practitioners in their own careers.