As a driving force of environmental science, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) has committed to environmental responsibility, including net zero target and biodiversity conservation. NERC is taking actions to improve our environmental sustainability performance in line with the UKRI Environmental Sustainability Strategy.
NERC has published the first Environmental Sustainability Report for the fiscal year 2024 to 2025, to present our environmental sustainability performance.
Environmental data for the report was collected from:
- NERC Head Office
- the British Antarctic Survey
- the British Geological Survey
Additionally, the data of the ships operated by the National Oceanography Centre and the aircraft operated by the National Centre for Atmospheric Science were included to assess our global carbon footprints.
Environmental responsibility
Within NERC’s responsible business statement, four themes of environmental responsibility are highlighted:
- carbon management
- resource use
- physical environment
- natural environment
The sustainability report has presented the progress against these four themes.
Government greening commitments
In 2024 to 2025, NERC fully achieved 24 out of 28 Greening government commitments 2021 to 2025 targets. NERC will continue to work on the four partially achieved actions to ensure they are fully completed.
This webpage and report will be updated annually to allow ongoing monitoring of our progress.
Ask a question about NERC environmental sustainability
Contact the NERC Sustainability Team, email: responsibility@nerc.ukri.org
We aim to respond within five working days.
Last updated: 12 January 2026