Sustainability

The Sustainable Foundations pillar sets out the essential workstreams that will enable the ICR to achieve its long-term sustainability goals. This includes strengthening our internal governance, building skills and awareness across our organisation, embedding sustainability into decision making processes, and engaging our communities both inside and outside the ICR. 

A Net Zero ICR by 2040

The ICR remains committed to achieving Net Zero by 2040, reducing our carbon emissions by at least 90% by this date. To do so, we have set and implemented a decarbonisation plan that will be monitored and reported against on a yearly basis. 

Our carbon footprint spans three scopes: 

• Scope 1 - emissions from combustion of gas in heating boilers, emissions from burning fuel for back-up generators, leakage of cooling system refrigerant gases and emissions from our own vehicles 
• Scope 2 - emissions associated with the consumption of purchased electricity from the national grid 
• Scope 3 - our wider value chain including emissions from procurement which comprises greater than 90% of the organisations total carbon emissions, and waste management, commuting and business travel

Governance, accountability and reporting

Supporting governance and the participation of all staff and students at the ICR will support the success of this sustainability action plan. 

• We are developing a sustainability dashboard to track our progress across all objectives, including carbon reduction, resource use and decarbonisation pathways.
• We produce an annual Sustainability Report which summarises updates on our carbon footprint, water usage, waste, business travel, commuter travel and wider impact areas. This is aligned with reporting against the Concordat for the Environmental Sustainability of Research and Innovation Practice.
• Our sustainability efforts are supported by a growing team of specialist staff whose work spans procurement, lab certification, waste management and sustainable clinical trials. 

We also have an active ICR sustainability working group, ActNow, which engages staff in sustainability initiatives both at home and across the organisation, including in our laboratories. ActNow hosts monthly discussion sessions, often featuring external speakers, to build awareness, share best practice and support behaviour change across the organisation.  

Training and capacity

Building sustainability knowledge and capacity across the ICR is essential to delivering meaningful and lasting change. 

• Sustainability Training is now mandatory for all new starters, ensuring everyone has a baseline understanding of the ICR’s sustainability priorities and their role in delivering them. 
• We offer ISEP sustainability accredited training courses with an ICR orientated content. 
• A new Sustainable Procurement Training programme has been introduced to support colleagues involved in purchasing decisions. This is an essential step given that emissions from purchased goods and services make up the vast majority of the ICR’s footprint. 

Looking after our people

Creating an inclusive and supportive culture where everyone can thrive is essential to the ICR and  our values.

We continue to advance our work on gender, social and racial equality, diversity and inclusion. We have achieved Athena SWAN Silver, reflecting our commitment to equity and representation. We aim to increase the proportion of students and postdocs from non-white backgrounds by 30%.  We are also committed to ensuring that all our contractors are London Living Wage Employers.

Our communities

Engaging with the communities around us is fundamental to our mission of sharing the benefits of research and inspiring future generations. 

• We regularly attend career networking events for students, including sessions focused on sustainability in medical research as a career pathway. 
• The ICR hosts students from local universities, giving them hands on experience auditing laboratory practices against sustainability frameworks. 
• We will continue to engage with local schools and more widely with students and young people to encourage scientific research careers, especially from backgrounds currently under-represented in research science. 
• We will connect with a range of audiences within our local and neighbouring boroughs, ensuring that our audiences for engagement reflect the diversity of our local communities. 
• We continue to play a leading role in driving down the environmental impact of Research science through our participation in sector specific network groups and projects including, London Highter sustainability network, UK Network for Sustainable Research (UKNSR) and Association of University Directors of Estates (AUDE). 

Research science is at the heart of our mission to Defeat Cancer; however, this comes at a significant cost to the environment. Laboratories are known to use significantly more energy, water and plastics than a typical office space. The large laboratory footprint and resource intensive nature of our work means that the ICR has one of the highest carbon footprints in the higher education sector. Focusing on sustainable science as a discrete area in our action plan is important for raising awareness and reducing the environmental and social impact of our science.

A large part of sustainable science and vital to progress, is lab certification. Our labs in Sutton and Chelsea started working towards lab certification, My Green Lab certification and Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF) respectively at the end of 2022. Today 92% of our wet labs have gained certification. In addition to this, three groups at the ICR have gained Green DiSC certification. Green DiSC provides a roadmap for research groups and institutions who want to tackle the environmental impacts of their computing activities.

At the ICR we take best practice from the medical and research sector, to reduce the environmental impact of our work. Whether this is taking part in the International freezer challenge, where we received an honourable mention for our kWh savings this year, taking a life cycle thinking approach when purchasing labware, reagents and equipment, or thinking about sustainability in the design and execution of our experiments.

In March 2025 the ICR were awarded a Sustainable Laboratories grant from the Royal Society of Chemistry for a project, ‘Glove recycling – Hearts, minds and carbon reduction’. This sought to investigate the feasibility of Glove recycling as an initiative at the ICR. Data on the cost vs carbon reduction benefit, life cycle assessment of end-of-life management options and the role of glove recycling as part of pro-environmental spillover within laboratories will be shared with the wider life sciences sector.

View the list of LEAF / My Green lab / Green DiSC accredited labs

Our work towards becoming more sustainable starts with our buildings, estates and facilities.

Every day our facilities rely on resources such as energy and water to carry out our research and we also generate quite a lot of waste, so our carbon footprint carries a significant environmental impact. Besides reducing the impacts from consumption, it is important for us to make sure our facilities are climate resilient to future heat-waves, water shortages and other future risks.

Carbon emissions from buildings

The ICR’s buildings remain the largest contributor to our carbon footprint. Around 80% of our space is laboratory‑based, and labs typically use around five times more energy than an equivalent office area. This is due to the specialist equipment, ventilation and cooling systems required to support scientific research.

We continue to work towards our science‑based targets to reduce emissions from buildings by 42% by 2030 and 90% by 2040. To support this, we have begun upgrading infrastructure, including installing solar panels on two additional buildings and replacing older autoclaves with new electric systems at Sutton.

Electricity supplied to the ICR now comes from certified nuclear energy. This change was introduced when renewable tariffs became significantly more expensive after Brexit, but it still ensures our purchased electricity remains low‑carbon. Alongside this, ongoing work across our sites, such as improved energy monitoring and participation in the Freezer Challenge, has continued to reduce energy use and embed good practice in laboratories.

Waste and circular economy

We remain committed to reducing waste, increasing reuse, and supporting circular economy approaches wherever possible. Our waste streams include general recycling, laboratory and chemical waste, construction waste, and clinical waste from research activities.

Over the past year, total waste generated at the ICR has fallen, and we have also seen encouraging increases in reuse thanks to an expanded range of take‑back schemes.

We continue to focus on reducing the amount of clinical and hazardous waste produced, and We are committed to reducing the amount of waste we produce by 4.2% per year until 2024/25 and to recycling at least 50% of site waste by the end of 2025.

Water use

Water remains an important sustainability issue for us, particularly because the UK is an area under water stress and laboratory processes often rely on large volumes of water.

In 2024/25, the ICR used enough water to fill 10 Olympic sized pools.

Travel, commuting and transport

Travel to and from our sites is an important sustainability focus due to its contribution to emissions and local congestion. The ICR’s Green Travel Plan continues to guide our work, and we regularly survey staff to understand changing travel habits.

This plan aims to:

• Increase cycling to and from the ICR
• Increase walking to and from the ICR
• Increase travelling to and from the ICR by public transport (in particular, by train and shuttle bus)
• Increase car sharing to and from the ICR
• Improving our electric vehicle charging facilities at our Sutton site.
  

Cycling facilities have been expanded across both sites, adding new bike storage spaces, improved shower and drying facilities and making secure parking more flexible. Cycling levels have grown steadily, supported by expanding facilities, staff engagement and increasing uptake of the Cycle to Work scheme. Also, use of onsite EV charging points continues to grow as more staff register and as maintenance and reliability improve

As part of working towards our net zero target, we aim to reduce the carbon intensity of commuting by 4.2% per year. We're also looking at reducing carbon emissions from business travel, such as when our researchers travel to conferences, which can have a significant carbon footprint. For example, our policy to limit domestic flights led to a noticeable drop in short internal flights in 24/25.

Enhancing biodiversity and nature

Our Sutton campus provides valuable green spaces that support biodiversity and enhance wellbeing for staff and students.

Staff and students also continued to support local biodiversity initiatives, including volunteering with Sutton Council at Belmont Pastures. Their work has contributed to visible improvements in wildflower diversity, and the ICR again participated in the national Big Butterfly Count, recording a healthy presence of species.

The ICR is also evaluating future use of Pollards Wood to ensure biodiversity and nature are enhanced off site, as well as onsite.

The ICR’s supply chain is diverse and complex, spanning facilities services, laboratory equipment and consumables, construction materials, and a wide range of other products. With approximately 90% of our climate impacts arising from procurement, taking a strategic and focused approach to environmental and social sustainability within our supply chain is essential. Decarbonising the goods and services we buy remains a significant challenge, but it is a core priority that we are committed to achieving.

Responsible Procurement and Social Value

We continue to work closely with the London Universities Purchasing Consortium (LUPC), who map social risks such as child labour, modern slavery, and illegal or unethical labour practices across global supply chains. The ICR remains compliant with the Modern Slavery Act 2015, including publishing our annual assessment of modern slavery risk across our operations and supply chain.

The ICR is also a member of Electronics Watch, an independent monitoring organisation that aims to improve workers’ conditions in global electronics supply chains. This collaboration, alongside our work with LUPC partners and the wider sector, reinforces our commitment to responsible procurement and support work to mitigate human rights abuses in supply chains.

The Sustainable Procurement Strategy

A significant driver of our emissions reduction efforts is the development of our Sustainable Procurement Strategy. This document outlines our sustainability requirements and sets out clear, measurable metrics and actions centred on three key pillars:

• Understand - The ability to mandate suppliers to provide information to help the ICR understand it's baselines and true scope 3 emissions.
• Update - The ability to change our procurement practices to deliver emission reductions through contract terms and purchases based on the understanding.
• Upskill - The ability to upskill both our supply chain, staff and students on the previous two elements and provide them with the knowledge of how to apply these in their day to day purchasing.

Following the development of updated strategy documents, procurement guidance, contractual T&Cs, KPIs, and strengthened contract management processes, we have implemented a SMART‑based action tracker. This ensures our commitments translate into measurable progress and will be reviewed continuously, with formal updates at least annually.

Supplier Engagement

We are mapping suppliers and contractors against sustainability risks, including carbon hotspots within purchased goods and services. Building on this, we have introduced a new Procurement Guide that strengthens expectations around supplier sustainability. It outlines key considerations for supplier selection, such as transparency of carbon reporting, credible net zero commitments, and evidence of internal emissions reductions.

We have also implemented a stock consolidation project with our suppliers, consolidating purchases in ICR stores to fewer suppliers who offer both strong environmental credentials and best value for money. Our goal remains for 100% of suppliers to be aligned with our Net Zero target by 2030. Additionally, we now consolidate all external orders so that each supplier receives only one order per day, reducing transportation emissions.

Supporting Sustainability Within the ICR

A key part of our strategy is equipping all staff and students with the guidance and training needed to make sustainable choices. This includes helping researchers identify unnecessary purchases and choose lower‑impact alternatives.

We are progressing several internal sustainability initiatives, including:

• The Green Catalogue – An internal stores system highlighting products identified as more sustainable options for ICR purchasers.
• Materials take‑back schemes – For example ice packs, polystyrene boxes and Winchester bottles.
• Green solvents work – Supporting reduced‑impact laboratory chemical use.
• Unigreen implementation – A service that collects and recycles or repurposes unwanted lab equipment and provides emissions savings reports to quantify the benefits of reuse.

Facility-wise, we have been buying renewable electricity via the higher education purchasing group TEC. We will continue to make sure we purchase only 100% of our energy from reliable renewable sources.

Greener Business Travel

Reducing business travel emissions is another key element of our net zero commitments. We now strongly discourage domestic flights, which has already contributed to a reduction in travel‑related emissions. Staff are encouraged to assess whether trips can be avoided by virtual collaboration or replaced by lower‑carbon options. Staff are also encouraged to use Clarity to efficiently monitor our travel-based emissions.

As part of our annual reporting against targets set out in ‘Sustainable Discoveries’ our action plan, we will highlight progress that we have made in each area of the Concordat for the Environmental sustainability of Research and Innovation Practice.

The academic year 2024/25 has seen significant progress in building the foundations for sustainable procurement. Not just the updating of our policy and strategy to embed sustainability, but to provide practical guidance documents and training for scientists to make more sustainable choices in what they buy and use.

Whilst recognising the need for academic travel for career progression, networking and collaboration, the ICR has limited domestic flights and promoted modes of travel with reduced

impact. We have worked with our travel partner to promote the use of our travel platform to ensure that we accurately capture our emissions. We have shared emissions data with our scientific divisions to raise awareness and have provided information to allow all staff and students to make informed decisions regarding travel.

We have started to look at Human Resources (HR) processes, from the identification of resource requirements to on-boarding, training and career development. There is a significant opportunity in this area to embed sustainability as part of everyday activities and to ensure alignment with the ICR’s core values. Similarly, within our estates and facilities directorate we have identified areas where sustainability best practice approaches can be embedded.

Key funding signatories, Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and Wellcome have really changed the landscape in their requirement of laboratory certification for grant funding. The ICR has worked hard this year to ensure all its labs have lab certification to fulfil grant funding requirements. In addition to this, several support functions such as the Core Research Services group and laboratory science services team have also gained certification.

26 June 2024

The Institute of Cancer Research

Letter of commitment to the priorities of the Concordat for the Environmental Sustainability of Research and Innovation Practice

I, Professor Kristian Helin, on behalf of the Institute of Cancer Research confirm our commitment to the priority areas outlined in the Concordat for the Environmental Sustainability of Research and Innovation Practice.

The Institute of Cancer Research fully supports the priority areas outlined in the concordat. We will deliver against all the priorities in practice and recognise our responsibilities as a signatory, as set out in the concordat.

By signing this concordat, we recognise the need to change how we conduct research and innovation as well as promote wider solutions. We also agree to take shared action now and into the future to reduce and eliminate our own environmental impacts and emissions and achieve the transition to sustainable practices.

Sustainability at the Institute of Cancer Research means ‘acting now, in line with the UN Sustainability Development Goals, to manage economic, social and environmental issues within our organisation and globally, so that both now and in the future, we can continue to make the discoveries to defeat cancer’. We believe that we need to embed sustainability in everything we do, to deliver world leading cancer research with minimum environmental impact. We embrace the priority areas set out in this document, many of which are mirrored in our current sustainability action plan and acknowledge the importance of this concordat for driving sustainability for all organisations in the research and innovation sector.

Yours sincerely

Professor Kristian Helin

Chief Executive and President