KI’s environmental efforts pay off
KI’s ambition is to halve its emissions of greenhouse gases by 2030 and become climate neutral. In 2018, KI topped the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency’s list of the ten public authorities with the greatest CO₂ footprint from long-haul flights. It is gratifying to find that in its 2023 environmental management report, KI is no longer on that list.
KI’s environmental work concerns all aspects of the university, where its Climate Strategy 2030 provides guidance for all staff and students.
As a public authority, KI is also obligated by the Ordinance on Environmental Management in Government Agencies (SFS 2009:907) to conduct systematic environmental work and to have an environmental management system in place.
“We are obliged to investigate and report the environmental impact of our operations and what we do to mitigate the negative impact and enhance the positive,” says Lilia Daianova, who along with Maya Petrén, is an environmental coordinator at KI’s Sustainable Development and Equal Opportunities Office (HULV). “Every year, we report the results of KI’s environmental work to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Education. We also conduct internal environmental audits.”
Air travel comprises around 90 per cent of KI’s total CO₂ emissions from travel and transport. Six years ago, KI was high up the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency’s list of public authorities with the highest emissions from air travel measured in kilograms of CO₂.
Conscious choices help to reduce emissions
By helping its staff make conscious choices when booking duty travel and thanks to the sharp rise in digital meetings, KI has significantly reduced both its CO₂ emissions and airmiles of travel. Efforts that have taken KI off the Agency’s top-ten list.
“The new figures for CO₂ emissions from travel and transport are a cause for celebration, but we still have a long way to go before we reach our targets for 2030,” says Daianova. “Emissions from duty travel need to go down further if we’re to achieve the goal for 2030. If we don’t continue to do better, we risk increasing them again.”
Energy use is another environmental aspect of great importance to KI. The goal of KI’s Climate Strategy was to reduce total energy use by 15 per cent per square meter by 2024 from 2019. This target has been missed but the trend is downward, which is a good sign.
KI is also endeavouring to phase out and replace hazardous chemical products and reduce chemical waste.
Strong commitment at KI
Last year, an internal environmental review identified six environmental aspects as having a significant environmental impact, positive as well as negative. In addition to duty travel and electricity usage, areas such as purchasing and the use of consumables, lab and clinic equipment and hazardous substances also have a substantial impact on the environment.
“But then again, KI has an indirect positive environmental impact through our education and research,” explains Maya Petrén. “It’s imperative that the environment and sustainability perspective is integrated into education at all levels. Education and research help to increase and disseminate knowledge about socially reinforcing medical issues of relevance to the environment, climate and sustainable development."
Most of KI’s departments have an environment and sustainability representative in charge of environmental efforts adapted to local conditions.
KI’s students are also very much engaged with issues relating to the environment, climate and sustainability, such as in the Students for Sustainable Development group.
All in all, the 2023 environmental management report shows that while KI has made progress in the environmental field, there are still many obstacles to overcome, including further integrating environmental work into the university's educational and research activities.
Sources: Miljöledning i staten 2018 och 2023, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.
Examples from our departments
There are many good examples of work on environmental, climate and sustainability issues among KI's departments. Here, the environmental and sustainability representatives from the Department of Dentistry and University Dental Care and the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society tell us how they conduct active environmental work.
ISO 14001:2015 certification
What specific environmental challenges does your department face?
“Our main challenges are disposable materials that we use to meet our high hygiene standards in our dental care and training of young dentists and dental hygienists, and many of these produces can’t be recovered, unfortunately, as they’re contaminated,” say Tove Berg, procurement and environmental officer and Roger Bergqvist, service manager, both of whom are environment and sustainability representatives at the Department of Dental Medicine and the University Dental Clinic.
How do you work with environmental issues?
“We’re the only KI department that has an ISO 14001:2015 certified management system, which we’ve had since 2009. This means that we conduct systematic environmental work, which includes producing annual plans and targets,” says Roger Bergqvist.
“We follow up the results of our environmental work with internal audits, compliance with environmental legislation, etc. We are also audited annually by an independent accredited certification body.”
Can you give any examples of initiatives that have paid off?
“Every year, we’re to exchange at least one product for a more environmentally friendly version. We started in 2019 and now have a list of 12 more environmentally friendly consumables, including aprons made from 70 per cent fossil-free plastic.
“We’ve also been trying to reduce the amount of travel we do and have managed to cut our CO₂ emissions by 90 per cent from 2019 to 2022.”
Encouraging changes of behaviour
What specific environmental challenges does your department face?
“Since we’re an education-heavy department we have a fantastic opportunity to improve our students’ knowledge of environmental and climate issues and provide them with a good grounding for pursuing them further in their future careers,” say Emma Swärdh, registered physiotherapist and assistant senior lecturer and assistant professor Sumonto Mitra, both of whom are environment and sustainability representatives at the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society.
“Some of our challenges are implementing learning outcomes concerning the environment and climate in our syllabuses, and creating valuable learning activities and examinations. We also do a lot of lab work that uses large volumes of consumables, chemicals and energy.”
How do you work with environmental issues?
“One thing we have is a climate action plan, and we’re currently trying to raise awareness about environmental and climate issues. We’re also trying to get people engaged through various activities designed to encourage a change in attitude, both privately and professionally. We’ve also held lectures for staff about the environmental work being done by KI and our department, and a workshop on sustainable development education.
“Last spring we launched our environment and climate awareness year at the department with a staff survey on sustainable development, along with a new site called Sustainable Development at NVS on the Staff Portal, to name two examples.”
How do you get results?
“To reduce paper usage and turn off lights and computers we’ve used a process of nudging, and exploited the will to follow socially descriptive norms. We also try to encourage new behaviours in order, for instance, to swap chemicals for greener alternatives, raise our freezer temperatures and create an effective system for sustainable purchase and transport. We get a lot of support from our head of department, who’s both interested and involved in these issues,” they conclude.
Important environmental aspects at KI
According to the results of the latest environmental review from the autumn of 2023, the following environmental aspects are significant to KI’s operations (+ stands for positive environmental impact and – for negative environmental impact):
- Higher education (+)
- Research (+)
- Purchase and use of consumables for laboratory and office activities (–)
- Purchase and use of laboratory and clinic equipment (–)
- The purchase and use of substances classified as hazardous (–)
- Electricity use (–)
- Business travel (–)