Carbon neutrality at Swinburne

We are creating more sustainable campuses for staff and students to work and learn. By taking significant steps in campus design and management, procurement and operations activities, we are working to reduce our environmental impact.

The creation of more sustainable campuses across Swinburne is ongoing, with a focus on adaptive reuse of existing buildings wherever possible.

Examples of how Swinburne is improving the sustainability of its campuses include the below.

Late Lab student space

The Late Lab 24-hour student space is an all-electric building, supplied with 100% purchased renewable electricity. The embodied carbon emissions from the construction of the Late Lab were reduced through the refurbishment of an existing building and material selection, with all residual emissions offset.

The Late Lab’s lighting and air-conditioning is controlled from occupancy sensors, so that heating and cooling energy use is minimised.

Energy use optimisation

Swinburne’s prioritises energy efficiency, through how the campus and services are operated, and how projects are scoped and delivered. While Swinburne purchases 100% renewable electricity, avoiding or reducing electricity use remains a priority action to reduce emissions and the overall need to purchase renewable electricity.

The Heating, Ventilation and Air-conditioning (HVAC) services at Swinburne are responsible for approximately 45% of total electricity use, and 90% of natural gas use. To reduce this energy use and associated emissions Swinburne has an extensive HVAC Optimisation program of works. This includes introducing new Building Management Systems control strategies, and better aligning the HVAC hours of operation with the highly variable hour of use, both during and outside of teaching semester.

Swinburne also has an active program to progress the conversion of lighting to LED. In 2024, a major lighting upgrade at the Wantirna and Croydon campuses resulted in an overall reduction of 210,000kWh/pa, and a significant improvement to visual amenity and function of the lighting.  

Swinburne has purchased 100% renewable electricity since July 2020, which is used for our operation across our three Melbourne campuses.

Staff laptops

In the procurement of new staff laptops in 2024, our Sustainability and IT teams worked together to halve the embodied carbon emissions created in their production and packaging, including by working with suppliers to have packaging utilising engineered cardboard rather than expanded foam.

Waste handling

Since 2021, Swinburne has offered staff a three-bin waste handling system to reduce the amount of waste going into landfill. Staff and students at Swinburne are encouraged to divert waste from landfill at every given opportunity.

In 2020 we ran a print reduction campaign that introduced a print quota limit for staff.

Swinburne discourages the use of single use items, especially at its events. At the 2025 staff End of Year Celebration, the Swinburne Events Team worked with B Alternative to ensure that reusable crockery was used by every staff member at the annual celebration, rather than single use materials.

Travel

To encourage students and staff to minimise the carbon footprint we create while travelling to campus, we have installed bike storage facilities and end of trip facilities at our Hawthorn campus.

Staff travel to work is included in Swinburne’s assessed emissions boundary. Swinburne encourages staff to use environmentally friendly travel options as much as is possible, for example, cycling and walking, public transport and carpooling.

In late 2024, the Sustainability team conducted a Travel to Work survey to capture data on the emissions created by Swinburne staff’s travel to and from work. The results of this survey were used in the calculations of Swinburne’s overall carbon emissions and were, in turn, offset. This survey will be completing annual and is part of an ongoing campaign to reduce emissions created by staff travel.