University of Aberdeen

As part of the University of Aberdeen’s commitment to sustainability we have developed an innovative, publicly accessible, data-rich “Sustainability Dashboard”.

Developed to provide visually compelling emissions data reporting, the dashboard uses Power BI functionality to publish comprehensive, granular data across all Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. Going back to 2015/16, users can explore current and historic trends, including building level energy emissions and Scope 3 sources, including student relocation and business travel.

The dashboard supports our wider sustainability reporting, including the sustainability content in Annual Reports and our statutory Public Bodies reporting for Scottish Government. It enables our community of staff and students to review hundreds of data points, utilising the data for research and study. As importantly, making this material publicly available is a significant step towards satisfying the expectation that Scottish public bodies report openly and transparently, demonstrating their progress towards net-zero to a wider audience.

LINK TO SUSTAINABILITY REPORT

Please note that the link is not to a traditional text-based sustainability report (we do these separately), but rather to an innovative, user-friendly and publicly-accessible data dashboard reporting current and historic emissions.

Top 3 Learnings

1. How we report our emissions can be highly graphical and engaging while also being granular.
2. Making our emissions data publicly available enables academic research that specifically focuses on the University.
3. The inter-departmental collaboration on this project has showcased our “whole institution” approach to sustainability.