CLIENT
- University of Glasgow
CLIENT INDUSTRY
- Higher Education
SERVICES PROVIDED
- Carbon offset strategy
LOCATIONS
- Glasgow, Scotland
SIZE
- £14,000
DIVISIONS INVOLVED
- Rural
DATE
- July 2021
CHALLENGE
Having set a net zero emissions target, the University of Glasgow calculated their level of ongoing unavoidable emissions to be circa. 30,000 tCO2 per annum. They instructed Savills to assess all possible ways to meet their net zero goal, but expressed an interest in the credibility and co-benefits that could come from designing a domestic nature-based carbon offsetting scheme.
SOLUTION
Savills brought together a multi-disciplinary team drawing upon the combined experience of our natural capital, forestry and rural agency specialists and produced a report that included:
- examples of off-the-shelf offsets, their cost and potential co-benefits
- modelling of the area that would be required to meet University of Glasgow’s offsetting requirement through a peatland restoration scheme registered under the Peatland Carbon Code including for different levels of degradation
- modelling of the area that would be required to meet University of Glasgow's offsetting requirement through a woodland creation scheme registered under the Woodland Carbon Code including models of different woodland designs
- discussions of each code, the timeline for achieving usable offsets and the potential environmental and societal co-benefits
- carbon models for realistically sized peatland and woodland schemes, giving an indication of scale and carbon yield
- discussion of the Scottish land market and barriers to acquisition, including price, availability and holdings that are sold as mixed assets discussion of Partnership and Joint Venture approaches to nature-based carbon offset scheme development as alternatives to acquisition and analysis
- discussion of the relative ease of selling any surplus carbon credits
- indicative effective cost per tonne CO2 to the University under each of the models outlined
- recommendations of a pragmatic offset strategy given the University's objectives to maximise co-benefits and protecting themselves from the liability of carbon market fluctuation
- detail of how Savills could assist in brokering a partnership with a landowner including time scales and costs
RESULTS
The report outlines that the cost per unit of carbon units are purchased off the shelf is £15, which is predicted to rise whilst, the cost per unit where the university acquires land for the scheme would be between £13 and £20. The cost per unit under a partnership arrangement would be £17.50 (based on the teams recent experience). Each of these options vary in terms of their respective risks and opportunities.
The report demonstrated that it is not reasonable for the University to expect to achieve its net zero target via one nature-based carbon scheme. The scale of the site required to offset all of their emissions would be either the largest woodland creation or peatland restoration in Scotland. Rural agency highlighted how unlikely it would be for the University to be able to acquire an area of land without becoming the owner of other property assets, which the University did not have appetite for, and which would not contribute towards their sustainability targets.
The recommendation to the University was therefore that in order to achieve their stated net zero target it will need to adopt a blend of directly managed and off-the-shelf units. The University’s direct involvement will strengthen the environmental credentials of the institution's net zero strategy and ensure that their priority co-benefits are reflected in the outcomes of the scheme.
Savills recommended a partnership between corporations and institutions and existing landowners is an innovative way in which to fund environmental enhancement projects and enable emitters to meet their sustainability objectives with high levels of credibility and governance.
