University of Birmingham

THE UNIVERSITY OF Birmingham is an English university in the city of Birmingham. Founded in 1900 as a successor to Mason Science College, with origins dating back to the 1825 Birmingham Medical School, the University of Birmingham was arguably the first so-called red brick university. It currently has over 18,000 undergraduate and over 11,000 postgraduate students. The University of Birmingham has an international reputation for excellence in research and teaching in environmental science, engineering, and policy. There are currently around 150 academic staff actively investigating scientific, technical, and socioeconomic aspects across a broad range of environmental disciplines, including the management of freshwater resources, environmental restoration, sustainable use of natural materials, pollution control, waste management, management of natural hazards, and human health.

The Center for Environmental Research and Training plays a key role in providing a focus for the university's environmental expertise. It acts as a gateway for external organizations, enabling this expertise to be made more widely accessible, and provides a mechanism for the promotion and management of interdisciplinary [Page 1019]research within the university. The Institute for Energy Research and Policy, founded in 2005, focuses on research into the economics of energy policy, energy efficiency, wind power, and hydrogen-based energy systems. The Centre for Environmental Research and Training and the School of Geography Earth and Environmental Sciences are internationally recognized in many areas of climate change research. The center seeks to enhance the university's international reputation for environmental research and teaching by advancing partnerships with institutions overseas, such as in Poland, Malaysia, Thailand, and the West Indies.

In October 2006, as part of an ongoing series of initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from university activities, a new climate change website was launched. The websites purpose was to provide advice and information on the solutions that the university as a whole can provide to the challenge of climate change. In addition, extra effort has been made to implement more energy-efficient practices.

The University of Birmingham is also one of a select group of universities that are committed to carbon management with the Carbon Trust to actively cut their carbon emissions and so minimize the long-term effects of climate change. The Carbon Trust has designed a university-focused program, which will provide technical and change management support to help the sector realize carbon emissions savings. The primary focus of the work is to reduce emissions under the control of the university, such as academic, accommodation, and leisure buildings and vehicle fleets. Practical support will be given in areas such as identifying carbon-saving opportunities, developing an emissions reduction implementation plan, providing analysis software, and offering workshop support for staff and senior management training.