Sustainability Statistics

Waste

UL strives to become a more sustainable campus by carefully planning, actioning and ensuring appropriate processes are in place to achieve its desired goals and objectives. The below text, tables and images provide some additional detail on how this is achieved.

UL’s measures the amount of waste generated and recycled across the University by compound and waste type each month. For ease of presentation, Table 1 below shows the total annual waste generated at UL for the last number of years broken down into the following categories general waste, recycling and food waste. Over time, the amount of waste recycled has gone up dramatically as has the segregation of food waste which point to improved waste policy approaches and practices bearing dividends. As the number of students and buildings on campus has grown, so too has the total amount of waste disposed by UL. See also Item 1 and Item 2 below which are a graphical representation of Table 1 below.

Table 1 Waste generated by category at UL

Waste policy approach and strategy 

In keeping with SDG 12, UL’s action plan for waste centres on the implementation of the European Waste Framework Directive and continually making improvements to its waste management processes and infrastructure. 

As part of its Waste Action Plan:

• Avoiding waste:
  • UL has a strong policy approach to the elimination of waste plastic. It centres on raising awareness of single use plastics especially water bottles and installing water refill stations in high demand spaces. To date a network of 60+ water bottle refill stations have been deployed. In the UL Glucksman Library alone, four water bottle refill stations has issued over 3,600,000 dispenses between them and likely avoiding the generation of commensurate number of waste plastic water bottles.
  • UL’s policy approach to eliminate single use items has been to make compulsory the use of reusable crockery and cutlery throughout campus.
  • Working with food outlets to promote the use of reusable cups (e.g. Café Cube), incentivise the use of bring your own cups and where neither is possible mandate the use of compostable cups.
  • Where grass is mowed, mulch deck mowers are used to (i.e. the grass is mulched, not picked up and therefore does not need to be dumped).
  • Where trees are pruned, the clippings are chipped and the resulting wood chippings used at the base of these trees.
• Minimising waste: UL’s waste minimisation policy approach is as follows:
  • In its c. 2,900 student beds across campus, student villages now utilise special storage bags to store duvets over the summer months and make ready for reuse at the start of the next academic term. In the past all duvets in student accommodation were sent to landfill once per year.
  • As part of their Waste Not Want Not campaign across all student villages, donation drives are held at the end of each academic year. Received items are processed with perishable/non-hygienically storable items (e.g. clothes) gifted to charity shops and non-perishable items such as lunch boxes, cleaning products, notebooks, writing pads, pens, pencils, post it notes, folders, water bottles, hairdryers etc. distributed to incoming students for free at the commencement of the next academic term. There are multiple waste instances avoided arising from this initiative namely: (i) waste associated with disposing of the items, (ii) waste associated with manufacturing these items for a second time (iii) transport-related carbon dioxide emissions associated with delivering these items to UL’s campus.
  • A food digester is in place for UL’s largest food outlet enabling food waste volume to be reduced by up to 85%.
  • The “polluter pays” principle is adopted in outlets generating food waste incentivising operators to minimise waste.
  • UL utilises MS Teams, which can be used to host paperless meetings. Physical meeting rooms are fitted with large screens facilitating the sharing of information electronically without the need for printing.
  • Coursework in many instances can be submitted electronically via UL’s virtual learning platform (Brightspace) dramatically reducing the use of paper and printer ink.
  • Multifunction Printers (MFP), set to double sided printing by default, also send items for printing to a print queue by default. To print a document, the user must visit the MFP, log in to it, select the item to be printed and press print.
  • Buildings and Estates has digitised some of its key processes namely the sign off of completed maintenance tasks (of which there are c. 20,00 per year) and the issuing of parking permits further reducing paper waste.
  • The number of pages printed using its MFPs is continually monitored. In 2025 UL used 7,416 reams of paper i.e. 451 fewer than 2024.

  • UL hosts a For Sale or Wanted space on its internal communications platform UL Connect. This facilitates a range of items being given away for free or sold to subscribers to this list.

• UL reuses waste thus:
  • At the Glucksman Library’s Maker Space, 3D printer waste is collected and processed into new 3D filament for reuse.
  • Books withdrawn from Library stock, together with suitable donated material that cannot be added to collections, are passed to Better World Books for reuse rather than disposal.
  • Within the Special Collections & Archives at the Glucksman Library, materials are reused whenever practical as part of conservation and preservation work. Items including old towels, tea towels, glass jars, Perspex off-cuts and surplus shelving are retained and repurposed for conservation treatments.

  • Unused stationery is also reused by the Glucksman Library in outreach and engagement activities.

• Recycling:

  UL has an extensive waste collection infrastructure facilitating the collection and segregation of waste into the following waste streams:

  • Dry mixed recyclables
  • General Waste
  • Glass
  • Metal
  • WEEE
  • Wood

UL achieves this by utilising a colour coded bin scheme (together with colour coded bags where appropriate) throughout campus. This extends to internal bins, external bins and skips located at bin compounds.

• Waste disposal
  • UL ensures the waste it disposes of is recycled / used for energy recovery as appropriate by:
    • Inspecting waste facilities used by its waste contractor and establishing final destination for waste.

Hazardous waste processes and practices

UL has a process to safely dispose of hazardous waste. Disposal of waste chemicals and sharps are managed by laboratory personnel with chemicals being stored in a bunded explosion proof and secure store before being taken off site.

Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment (WEEE) is collected in and disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner in multiple ways depending on its size and function. Small items of WEEE e.g. batteries are collected in dedicated battery boxes located in administrative offices. Larger items of WEEE are collected in dedicated bins in the foyer of buildings and using dedicated WEEE cages. UL’s Information Technology Division facilitate the collection and safe disposal of computing equipment associated peripherals and office phones.

The UL School of Medicine’s Waste Disposal Procedure covers the safe disposal, in practice, of both sharps waste and clinical waste noting:

Sharps waste consists of all contaminated and non-contaminated items capable of piercing the skin and includes lancets, needles, scalpels, sutures and contaminated disposable glassware. Care should be exercised when handling sharps and resultant waste must be disposed of in designated sharps bins. Sharps bins must never be used for the disposal of any other type of waste as this increases the risk of needlestick injury and also leads to unnecessary increase in waste disposal costs. 

Clinical waste includes all other contaminated material (e.g. swabs, examination gloves, specula, catheters, etc.) and yellow clinical waste bags are available for the disposal of this type of waste. Do not dispose of general waste in these bags as it leads to unnecessary increase in waste disposal costs.

Outsourced services - projects

Capital projects ranging from small to major include contract clauses aimed at ensuring contractors adhere to EPA’s Best Practice Guidelines for the preparation of resource and waste management plans for construction and demolition projects. Specific relevant clauses cover:

• Clause 4.21 Removing rubbish, protective casings and coverings
• Clause 4.22 Cleaning the works on completion
• Clause 4.23 Compliance with waste management statutory requirements
• Clause 4.24 Low-carbon construction and whole-life considerations

Outsourced services - catering

As part of the process used to select vendors to operate its catering outlets on campus, UL uses a Checklist for Potential Partners. Questions used to assess suitability include:

• Have you developed a comprehensive strategy to minimise and measure waste in your operations? 
• Can you deliver transparent reporting on your progress and effectively communicating with stakeholders each quarter?
• Have you integrated sustainable practices in food production and consumption to support campuswide environmental goals?
• Do you have strategies in place to reduce carbon emissions associated with your food services?
• Can you offer solutions for eliminating the use of single-use plastics and nonrecyclable materials in your operations?

Future plans

UL will commence seeking Green Campus accreditation for its management of waste on site. Green Campus is an internationally recognised award of the Foundation for Environmental Education administered by administered in Ireland by An Taisce. Seeking Green Campus accreditation will ensure that UL continually strives to improve its waste management performance.

Travel

The University of Limerick measures and monitors sustainable commuting through conducting annual Campus Travel Surveys of staff and students. 

The 2026 survey received 309 staff responses and 1,889 student responses. 

• Student modal share was 33.9% walking, 19.3% public transport, 9.5% carpooling, 6.8% cycling and 27.8% single-occupancy car travel. 
• Staff modal share was 5.8% walking, 2.9% public transport, 9.7% carpooling, 9.1% cycling and 72.2% single-occupancy car travel. 

Survey results are used to monitor trends, support UL's Sustainable Travel Plan, and inform actions to increase active travel, public transport use and carpooling while reducing reliance on single-occupancy vehicles. 

UL also participates in the National Transport Authority's Smarter Travel programme and holds Gold Standard Smarter Travel Mark accreditation, demonstrating the University's commitment to promoting and increasing sustainable commuting across campus.

UL's objective is to maintain Gold Standard Smarter Travel Mark accreditation while increasing the proportion of staff and students using sustainable travel modes, including walking, cycling, public transport and carpooling. The University supports these targets through year-round awareness campaigns, active travel events, and ongoing investment in sustainable transport infrastructure and facilities.

Pedestrian Access

The University of Limerick prioritises pedestrian access by designing campus infrastructure to support walking as a primary mode of movement. The University's objective is to maximise walking and cycling opportunities by improving campus permeability and connectivity. 

UL provides nine pedestrian access points, a comprehensive network of dedicated footpaths and more than twenty pedestrian crossings across campus, ensuring pedestrians can move safely and directly between key destinations. Recent enhancements include the refurbishment of the Pavilion crossing and the construction of a new pedestrian crossing linking the Main Plaza and the Engineering Research Building. 

Together with traffic-calming measures and active travel infrastructure, these investments demonstrate UL's commitment to creating a pedestrian-first campus environment that promotes safety, accessibility and sustainable travel.

Energy

Operating its building stock in an energy efficient manner, whilst simultaneously decarbonising is a priority at UL. UL is committed to achieving exemplary energy efficiency and decarbonisation targets. UL seeks to achieve its targets by ensuring the appropriate mechanisms are in place for measuring and monitoring consumption and emissions, and the appropriate data driven processes are in place for collating, identifying and actioning projects and evaluating post completion. 

As a public sector body and higher education institution, UL is required to comply with a range of European and national legislation, regulations and standards governing energy performance, carbon emissions and building efficiency. These requirements apply to the design and construction of new buildings, the renovation and operation of existing buildings, and the ongoing management of building services and infrastructure. Compliance with these frameworks ensures that UL's building stock is progressively becoming more energy-efficient, lower in carbon emissions and aligned with national and European climate action objectives.

       General note on new buildings

There is a growing raft of increasingly stringent legislation and standards both driven by and complementary to the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive mandating UL to produce highly energy efficient and low carbon emissions buildings including:

• For new buildings - The updated European Union (Energy Performance of Buildings) Regulations which mandate that UL move from building near zero energy buildings (nZEB) – applicable since 1^st January 2019 to zero energy buildings (ZEB) – applicable from 1^st January 2030. 
• For new buildings and major renovations - Buildings Regulations – Buildings Other than Dwellings Part L 2022 (applicable since 25^th October 2022) which sets out onerous standards that must be met in terms of building fabric and building services.
• For existing buildings - the updated European Union (Energy Performance of Buildings) Regulations necessitate that renovations to non-residential buildings meet minimum energy performance standards which apply to an increasing percentage of building stock over time. 
• For existing buildings regular maintenance is being affected by progressively stricter legal requirements (e.g. the Reduction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS) and the EcoDesign Regulation) which have phased out the availability/use of certain materials in for example light fittings/air conditioning units meaning that legacy plant and equipment need to be upgraded to more environmentally friendly equivalents. 
• For all buildings – the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) which mandates UL to complete a site-wide audit of 85% of delivered energy once every four years.

Complementary to UL’s Smarter Travel initiative which uses a variety of means to promote, encourage and enable sustainable forms of transportation and commuting to campus, it is customary for UL to build on car parks without replacing the car parking spaces it displaces. This has happened in the New Student Centre (completed in 2025), the Library Extension (completed in 2018), Analog Devices and MSSI Phase 2 Buildings (both completed in 2015). Future construction as part of the Higher Education Strategic Infrastructure Fund (HESIF) will see a further car park displaced to make way for lecture theatre space.

       UL’s New Student Centre (completed 2025)

UL’s new UL Student Centre is a 3,529 square metre four-storey building built on a part-brownfield site located at the heart of UL’s campus adjacent to the Stables Complex and the Glucksman Library. It is a near-Zero Energy Building enjoying an A3 energy rating. It utilises a bivalent heating system with a heat pump acting as the lead boiler and a smaller capacity gas boiler providing backup/top up when necessary. The building uses LED lighting throughout, the energy consumption of which is offset by the installation of electricity-producing photovoltaic LED solar panels. The building features high-performance curtain walling, clerestory glazing and specialised glazing. Both cross ventilation and natural ventilation is achieved by concealed actuators further lowering the building’s forced ventilation requirements. Thermal comfort and enhanced energy efficiency within the building is achieved using a modern Tridium-based Building Management System (BMS).

       2030 Energy Efficiency and Carbon Emissions Reductions Targets

As per its 2025 Climate Action Roadmap (available here):

• UL is committed to increasing its energy efficiency by 50% by 2030.
• UL is committed to reducing its carbon emissions by 51% by 2030.

As legislated for under the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021 UL are subject to increasingly stringent legal requirements regarding climate, energy and buildings which demand that UL devise and implement a Climate Action Roadmap so that it meets the requirements set out in the government’s Climate Action Plan in general and the Public Sector Climate Action Mandate in particular.

       2025 Review

In summary UL’s progress in 2025 can be described as follows: 

• UL has achieved a total carbon emissions reduction of 37.8%.
• UL has increased its energy efficiency by 40%.

In keeping with SDG7:

• UL Actively measures, monitors and reports on the plans it has in place to reduce carbon emissions and improve energy efficiency (see Item 7 above).
• UL has continued to make progress on ISO 50001 certification which utilises a continual data driven and systematic approach to identify areas where energy wastage is highest and prioritise projects for implementation.

List of energy efficiency and decarbonisation projects undertaken in 2025

Reporting, tracking, planning, modelling and implementing energy efficiency and decarbonisation projects

Using the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland’s (SEAI’s) Public Sector Monitoring and Reporting system, UL annually reports on its compliance with the Energy Efficiency Directive, Energy Performance of Buildings Directive; Clean Vehicle Directive; and Climate Action Mandate compliance. This includes reporting both electricity and gas data (and by default carbon emissions) on a building-by-building basis for all buildings equalling or exceeding a minimum floor area (of 4,000m²).

SEAI independently verifies the data supplied by UL and analyses it to establish, record and report on UL’s progress towards meeting its 2030 carbon emissions and energy efficiency targets (see Item 7 above).  UL uses SEAI’s published data and complementary tools provided by the SEAI (especially the Gap to Target Tool) to track progress of implemented projects and model the impact of planned projects. Analysing the data provided to SEAI has allowed UL to identify its most energy intensive buildings and therefore the buildings with the greatest scope for energy efficiency improvements/carbon dioxide reductions.

       Energy and Carbon Emissions Action Plan

UL’s Action Plan for making both energy efficiency improvements and carbon emissions reductions is collated based on information contained in multiple sources including:

• A site wide energy audit covering 85% of delivered energy (conducted in accordance with the requirements set out in SI 426 of 2014 as amended by SI 646 of 2016 and SI 599 of 2019, guidelines for which are available here).
• Recommendations arising energy assessments conducted by a qualified energy auditor as part of the requirements of calculating a Display Energy Certificate for each building with a floor area greater than 250m².
• A desk-based condition survey assessment of each building which identifies the works necessary to bring buildings up to good condition i.e. operationally safe with only minor building elements in need of repair.
• Assessments by maintenance personnel and in-house engineers covering availability of spare parts and likelihood and impact of equipment/plant/infrastructure failure.

       Future plans: 2026 and beyond

As part of its drive to become ISO 50001 accredited, all opportunities for energy saving/decarbonisation will be collated in 2026 as a single Register of Opportunities (ROO). Based on the targeted level of savings, an Action Plan arising for the ROO will be devised and executed subject to funding. Some of the projects in planning for 2026 include:

• Upgrade of Plassey House natural gas fired boiler to heat pump. 
• Upgrade of Domestic Hot Water generation plant from natural gas to heat pump.
• Upgrade of Stables/Paddocks Domestic Hot Water generation plant from natural gas to heat pump.
• Upgrade of lighting from fluorescent to LED in Main Building corridors.
• Upgrade of lighting from fluorescent to LED in CS Computer Labs.
• Upgrade of lighting from fluorescent to LED in Red Raisins Restaurant.
• Installation of energy monitoring and targeting system in Thomond Village Student Accommodation.
• Trial of people counting devices in Health Sciences Building to enhance insights into building operation and usage.
• Upgrade of Variable Speed Drives in Analog Devices Building

As part of the deployment of ISO 50001 UL will identify its significant energy users (i.e. the buildings that consume most energy) and will put in place control measures to monitor. Buildings falling outside of expected norms will be investigated and corrective actions, where identified will be undertaken. It is expected that in some instances, the corrective actions identified will results in projects being identified and added to the ROO and action plan (subject to funding).

       Note on UL’s Climate Action Roadmap

Separately following publication of successive Climate Action Plans by the government, UL submits its response in the form of its Climate Action Roadmap which it also publishes on its website (here). UL’s Climate Action Roadmap lists a pipeline of projects completed, underway and in planning that will contribute to UL achieving is 2030 goals as noted above. 

For item 7 above: The pie chat shows that UL’s CO2 emissions are dominated by electricity (accounting for 54.8%) followed by gas (accounting for 44.8%) with the balance (of 0.4%) made up by transport fuels. 

The line chart shows that UL’s CO2 emissions have gradually reduced over time from just over 14,827 tonnes in 2017 to 9,238 tonnes in 2024. 

The methodology in determining UL’s CO2 emissions is set out in this link. Further information on the reporting system used to collect this information is available here.