Charles Sturt University has released the 2020 Sustainability Scorecard which details activities and achievements that contribute to Charles Sturt cementing its commitment to environmental sustainability and building upon being ‘Australia’s first certified Carbon Neutral University’. The release coincided with World Environment Day, which is the United Nations’ designated day for encouraging worldwide awareness and action to protect our environment.
Mr Ed Maher, Manager Sustainability at Charles Sturt said, “On this special day we share our annual Sustainability Scorecard. Whilst 2020 was an incredibly tough year for all, Charles Sturt continued to implement best practice in sustainability and ranked 61st overall in the Times Higher Education 2020 Impact Rankings.
“We observed a very significant downturn in utility consumption and associated carbon emission figures in 2020 which was expected with the COVID-19 restrictions,” he said.
Mr Maher noted that while there were less staff and students on campus, Charles Sturt continued to work on the 254 hectares of biodiversity zones across the University’s seven campuses at Albury-Wodonga, Wagga Wagga, Canberra, Dubbo, Orange, Bathurst and Port Macquarie planting trees, installing squirrel glider nest-boxes, monitoring endangered specials including the Sloane’s froglet, installing composting bays, replacing mown turf areas with native grass and shrub regeneration, erosion control and completing remediation work.
“We hosted virtual farm tours on the Wagga Wagga Campus covering an overview of biodiversity, farm plantings revegetating the landscape, natural resource management – water and soil, threats including weeds, feral species and habitat loss and ongoing monitoring.
“We continued capital works including installing more solar panels across our campuses to generate clean energy, constructing electric vehicle charging stations for our fleet and completing stage 2a of the Port Macquarie Campus construction. We also funded a range of sustainability projects through our annual grants program”.
While we achieved a lot in 2020, we realise there is still a huge amount to still do in this space and we are committed to making sure sustainability is embedded across the organisation.
We recognise and acknowledge the diversity and unique position of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the traditional owners and custodians of Australia and the islands of the Torres Strait, in accordance with local Indigenous laws and customs. We also recognise that sustainable practices are inherent within First Nations culture and seek to learn from this.