Our projects
Our commitment is demonstrated through projects that will help us reach Net Zero.
We’ve already completed a range of projects in energy efficiency, renewable energy generation, waste management and sustainable transport. We have additional projects underway across our campuses to help us reach our Net Zero goal.
Renewable Energy
We’re building a 2.9 megawatt solar farm at our Bundoora Campus - the largest urban solar farm in Victoria.
The solar farm is located on a 3.5 hectare site on the corner of Plenty Road and Kingsbury Drive and includes around 4,300 solar panels. It will generate enough renewable energy to reduce total University emissions by 15 per cent and eliminate household emissions for the equivalent of the entire neighbouring suburb of Kingsbury.
The project also includes a 2.5 megawatt battery energy store system, taking total solar generation at the Bundoora campus to 5.8 megawatts.
As part of our commitment to sustainability, we’ll be planting over 40,000 plants and over 600 trees to improve the biodiversity of the site, with a focus on locally indigenous species.
The project commenced in October 2023 and will be completed by early 2025.
As part of the La Trobe Solar Farm project, we’re installing a 2.5MW/4.5MWh Battery Energy Storage System (BESS). The battery will enable La Trobe to store any extra power generated by the Solar Farm and provide stabilisation to the grid.
The installation and connection of the BESS is expected to be complete in early 2025.
We’ve installed over 7,500 solar panels on more than 25 buildings at the Melbourne Campus – the equivalent of 17 kms of solar panels end to end – or the distance between our Melbourne (Bundoora) and City campuses.
The solar system generates 2.5 MW of renewable power – the equivalent of 500 household solar systems. At the peak of solar efficiency, the panels supply over 50% of the campus’ daytime power usage during peak periods.
The solar system also decreases La Trobe’s CO2 emissions by 4,000 tonnes per year, reducing our impact on climate change. Read more about the launch of our new solar system.
The Regional Solar Carports and Rooftops project was completed in January 2021 and helps to reduce carbon emissions across all regional campuses by more than 20% - a significant step towards these campuses reaching their net zero target by 2022.
Bendigo Campus works included:
- Constructing solar carports in Car Parks 1 and 2, including almost 1,500 solar panels covering close to 200 parking spaces.
- Installing rooftop solar panels on the GDP, SSC and ED buildings.
These works saw a combined total of more than 1,900 solar panels and 800kw added to the campus, which is the equivalent of 160 household systems. More than 30% of total electricity consumption at Bendigo is now being generated by on-site renewables.
Albury-Wodonga Campus works included:
- Constructing a second solar carport with 270 panels, adjacent to the existing carport.
This carport produces almost 110kw – roughly the equivalent of over 25 household system. More than 40% of total electricity consumption at Albury-Wodonga is now being generated by on-site renewables.
In 2021, we completed the installation of a 130kw rooftop solar system at the campus - enough to power 25 houses. At peak efficiency, the solar system supplies more than 100% of the campus’ daytime energy use.
The renewable energy generated from the rooftop solar is also stored on site via our Tesla Power Wall Battery System so that it can continue to serve us in the future.
Electrification
In early 2024, we installed a highly energy efficient heating, ventilation and cooling (HVAC) solution in the LSU building, replacing ageing gas infrastructure. This project continues our electrification journey at the Bendigo Campus and delivers energy savings.
The HHS1 building at our Bendigo Campus was the first building to transition from gas to electric as part of our Net Zero program. Gas boilers and gas hot water services were removed and replaced with an electric heating, ventilation and cooling (HVAC) solution. The new HVAC system is more sustainable and renewable, improving thermal comfort for students and staff. The project was completed in 2022.
Energy Efficiency
We’re currently upgrading over 300 external lights around our Melbourne Campus car parks and pedestrian paths to energy efficient LEDs. Not only will this project reduce our energy consumption by over 50% and CO2 emissions by 51 tonnes - the equivalent of taking 11 cars off the road for a year - it will also ensure the safety of students and staff on campus after dark by improving the quality of lighting.
Energy efficient LED lights were installed in carparks 1, 2, 3, 6, 7 and 8 across the Melbourne Campus. These upgrades reduced our energy consumption by 55 to 60 per cent, reducing both our emissions and electricity costs. This project will also help ensure the safety of staff and students on campus after dark by improving the lighting in our carparks.
Many of the animals who live on campus are nocturnal. Respecting their habitats was a major consideration in the design and installation of this project, with the design ensuring that areas where local fauna live and sleep at night, such as the Nangak Tamboree Sanctuary, were unaffected by the new, energy efficient lights.
We’ve upgraded to energy efficient LED lighting solutions across all our campuses to reduce power consumption, improve quality of light and reduce waste, as LEDs last longer with up to 50,000 hours of life.
- Stage 1 of this project was completed in 2020, with 24,000 energy efficient LED lights installed across all campuses, reducing our lighting energy consumption by more than 50% in over 100 buildings.
- Stage 2 of the project concluded in March 2022 and included the replacement of approximately 19,000 lights in more than 40 buildings across our campuses.
La Trobe now has over 40,000 LED lights fitted throughout the University in total.
In June 2021, our Biological Sciences 2 (BS2) building at the Melbourne Campus was the University’s first mechanically optimised building following a series of energy efficiency upgrades, including:
- Upgrades to the air handling units
- Optimisation of the cooling system
- Upgrades to the pumps used to pump hot and chilled water around the building for heating and cooling
- Installation of sensors that can be used to control lighting so that lights switch off when the building isn’t in use
Using the La Trobe Energy Analytics Platform (LEAP) to track improvements to the building’s energy consumption, we found that these improvements surpassed our carbon dioxide (CO2) reduction targets by 30%.
The Biological Sciences 2 Building Mechanical Upgrade is supported by the Victorian Government through the Business Recovery Energy Efficiency Fund Capital Works stream, supporting the installation of energy saving equipment.
Energy Analytics
We collaborated with La Trobe academics and students from the Centre for Data Analytics and Cognition to create the La Trobe Energy Analytics Platform (LEAP). LEAP is an energy analysis platform used to monitor consumption patterns and building performance, enabling us to create actionable insights to reduce energy consumption across our campuses.
In its pilot year, insights gathered from LEAP resulted in over $250,000 worth of ongoing benefits to the University through emissions reduction, cost savings and enhanced operational efficiencies.
About LEAP:
- Rolled out across all six La Trobe campuses and spanning 300 hectares
- Centralises over 1 billion data points from over 6,000 data streams across more than 20 separate digital platforms
- Integrates information including electricity, water, and building usage and predicts and benchmarks solar generation, emissions, consumption and cost for each University building
In 2021, La Trobe won TEFMA's Clever Campus Innovation Award for its work in designing, developing and deploying LEAP. Read more about how the team collaborated with Microsoft experts to develop the LEAP platform and find out more about the LEAP research project.
Using our La Trobe Energy Analytics Platform (LEAP), we continue to look at ways we can optimise our Building Management System (BMS) to improve our air-conditioning, electricity and gas consumption rates.
Electric Vehicles
We’ve installed 76 electric vehicle (EV) chargers across our Melbourne, Bendigo and Albury-Wodonga campuses as part of our Net Zero journey.
EV charging is available for students, staff and community, and we have dedicated fast charging bays for fleet vehicles to help facilitate inter-campus travel. We’ll also be installing chargers at our Mildura and Shepparton campuses in 2024, in line with our work programs at these campuses.
Visit Transport Central to learn more about using the EV chargers.
We’re making the switch to electric vehicles across our campuses, replacing our entire passenger fleet over the coming years, with dedicated fast charging bays for fleet vehicles to help facilitate inter-campus travel. We’ll eliminate 200,000 kilograms of CO2 each year once we’ve transitioned to a fully electric fleet.
In 2020, we launched a pilot program to transition our security fleet to low-emission vehicles, starting at the Melbourne (Bundoora) and Bendigo campuses. After an 18-month successful pilot, the University decided to electrify the entire security fleet.
Waste reduction
We're diverting all organic waste produced on our Melbourne and Bendigo campuses from landfill.
We were the first university in Australia to utilise the SoilFood concept – an on-site composting unit based at our Melbourne and Bendigo campuses that diverts organic waste from landfill and will help us reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by up to 90%.
Our composting unit can turn the equivalent of 100kg of organic waste into 20kg of a nutrient rich, eco-friendly fertiliser, generated cost-free and re-used on campus gardens and grounds. See how the organic composter works and learn other ways we recycle at La Trobe.