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At ACU, we’re committed to social justice, human dignity and the common good – and our sustainability as a university is integral.
In 2020 ACU developed a sustainability framework built upon two transformative prescriptions for a better world: Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato si’ and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Our framework encompasses care for the environment, the fight against poverty and hunger, education for all and the promotion of equality, peace and justice.
Download ACU SDG Report 2023 (PDF, 4.9MB)
Download 2023 ACU Sustainability Report (PDF, 307KB)
Download 2022 ACU Sustainability Report (PDF, 7.5MB)
Download 2021 ACU Sustainability Report (PDF, 3MB)
Download 2020 ACU Sustainability Report (PDF, 7.1MB)
Here are some of the steps we are taking to ensure our current and future sustainability.
Most of ACU’s carbon emissions have come from its use of electricity and gas, its air travel, and its disposal of waste to landfill. We are implementing a plan to eliminate, minimise or offset those emissions.
Electricity: on 1 July 2021, ACU campuses became powered by 100 per cent renewable electricity. This electricity is supplied by wind and solar farms throughout Australia and has eliminated about 85 per cent – or 16,000 tonnes – of ACU’s annual carbon footprint.
Energy efficiency: We strive to constantly increase our energy efficiency, which we measure by how much energy is used per square meter of the floor space of campus buildings. Using this measure, ACU is Australia's most energy efficient university.
Air travel: ACU has implemented a policy to buy carbon offsets for every tonne of greenhouse gas emitted by staff air travel. The carbon offsets will be purchased at the end of every year from Australian projects that improve the management of land
Carbon neutrality: Australian Catholic University is committed to carbon neutrality by 2050. It will reduce scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions by 60% by 2030 compared to a 2020 baseline and reduce scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions by 95% by 2040, and offset the remaining emissions from 2040.
ACU Carbon and Energy Management Plan 2023 - 2025 (PDF, 419KB)
ACU aims to minimise the amount of waste that it sends to landfill. This requires ACU to reduce and to recycle as much of its waste as possible.
Waste reduction: Since 2012, ACU has reduced the amount of waste it generates by 70 per cent. In 2012, ACU generated 1,170 tonnes of rubbish; in 2022, it generated just 380 tonnes, or about 16 kilograms per student, exactly half the amount of waste generated per student in the Australian university sector.
Recycling: ACU's recycling rate is consistently between 50 per cent and 60 per cent of its total waste generation. ACU recycles paper, cardboard, plastic, electronic waste, garden waste and food waste.
Plastic waste: ACU has a special focus on reducing plastic waste because plastic waste has a heavy impact on our rivers and oceans.
Organic waste: In 2022 ACU introduced food waste collection into its campuses to complement its garden waste recycling. ACU’s food waste is composted and returned to gardens and farms to support healthier soils and ACU’s garden waste is mulched and then re-used on gardens. In 2022, ACU diverted over 40 tonnes of garden and food waste from landfill.
ACU’s plan to manage its waste is detailed in its Waste Management Strategy 2023 – 2025 (PDF, 247KB)
ACU has water tanks with a combined capacity of 660,000 litres. Most of this water is used to water campus grounds and to flush toilets.
ACU has also installed water efficient taps, toilets and showers throughout its campuses, and landscapes its campuses with drought-tolerant plants.
These measures mean that ACU uses a small amount of water compared to most universities. The amount of mains water used per student at ACU is 2.5 kilolitres; the average for all universities is two and half times that amount.
Most of ACU’s environmental impacts arise from the energy and water used in its buildings as well as the waste generated in them. For this reason, ACU now builds and renovates its campus buildings to a high standard of sustainability.
For example, ACU now has three buildings certified by the Green Building Council of Australia, verifying the exceptional sustainability of their design and construction. These buildings are the Daniel Mannix Building at the Melbourne Campus, the Veritas Building at the Canberra Campus, and the St Brigid’s Building at the Ballarat Campus.
ACU has also finalised construction of the 13-storey Saint Teresa of Kolkata building at ACU’s Melbourne Campus, which is designed to achieve a 5-Star Green Star rating, indicating Australian excellence in sustainable design.
ACU is committed to preventing and ultimately eliminating the impact of modern slavery in its operations, business partnerships and supply chain.
ACU has established a Modern Slavery Action Plan that includes:
Working with over 30 other Catholic entities as part of the Australian Catholic Anti-Slavery Network to identify slavery risks, meet legal reporting standards, and train staff.
Establishing an ACU Eradicating Modern Slavery Working Group to ensure practical action in every ACU Faculty and Directorate.
Learning and research into the causes of and solutions to modern slavery.
Naming ACU’s Blacktown Campus in honour of St Josephine Bakhita, the patron saint of Sudan and victims of modern slavery and human trafficking.
You can read more about ACU’s commitment to combat modern slavery online as well as in its annual Modern Slavery statement.
ACU’s research contributes to the common good and many research projects that aim to solve the problems that hinder sustainable development worldwide. Examples of this research includes:
The application of organisational ethics to the Paris Climate Agreement, by Associate Professor Stephanie Collins, which aligns to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), 12 (Responsible Consumption) and 13 (Climate Action).
Investigations by the Institute of Positive Psychology and Education into the impact of Indigenous education programs. This research aligns to United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 3 (Good Health and Wellbeing) and 4 (Quality Education).
Studies by the Mary MacKillop Institute for Health Research into the link between urban pollution and academic performance, advancing United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and 15 (Life on Land).
ACU students engage directly with the major questions about the common good and sustainable development. They do this in their coursework as well as in the university’s core curriculum subjects, which develop students’ ability to examine the world with empathy and to imagine it transformed for the better.
As part of the Core Curriculum, each student partakes in a discipline-specific community engagement unit of study, working with communities that experience disadvantage and marginalisation. Approximately 3,500 students undertake a community engagement placement each year.
ACU was the first organisation in Australia and the first university in the world to issue a sustainability bond, which offered investors the opportunity to participate in the financing of ACU projects that deliver positive social and/or environmental results.
The value of the bond is $200 million, and those funds have been allocated to invest in sustainable buildings and in research that delivers a positive impact in the areas of education, health care and gender equality.
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