Image: Goldsmiths.
London’s Goldsmiths University will look to install “significantly” more solar PV as part of a new series of pledges in response to the climate emergency.
The university’s new warden, Frances Corner, this week announced a series of measures that form an overall initiative for the establishment to become carbon neutral by 2025.
It has joined other universities in the UK as declaring a climate emergency, and it intends to use rooftop solar PV as a means of reducing its own contribution to climate change.
The university already has solar PV - Goldsmiths had yet to respond at the time of writing to requests for comment regarding its existing capacity or intended expansion - but it has stated it will install “significantly more solar panels” across its New Cross campus.
The university has also pledged to switch to a 100% clean energy supplier “as soon as practicable”, and further reduce its climate footprint by removing all beef products from its food outlets and introduce a 10p levy on bottled water and single use plastic cups.
A more comprehensive action plan is to be designed following a staff and student union consultation.
Professor Corner said the global call for climate action was now “impossible to ignore”.
“Declaring a climate emergency cannot be empty words. I truly believe we face a defining moment in global history and Goldsmiths now stands shoulder to shoulder with other organisations willing to call the alarm and take urgent action to cut carbon use.”