St Andrews’ postgraduates present innovative carbon tracking app at Europeaum event

Postgraduate students from the University of St Andrews presented the mobile app, WillCO₂st, at the Europeaum event The Future of the European Green Deal, held at the Complutense University of Madrid earlier this month.

WillCO₂st enables users to track carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e) emissions of research activity, across three key areas: experiments, travel, and direct emissions, with plans to incorporate procurement tracking in future updates.

This tool is part of a broader grassroots effort aimed at empowering postgraduate students to publish Carbon Appendices—documents that estimate the carbon footprint of PhD thesis research. The long-term goal is to then compile these appendices into a codex, which can serve as a guide for university operations, and inform interactions with funding bodies, industry partners, government agencies, and other stakeholders.

This work is supported by a Scotland’s Future Series Award, a scheme designed to  empower students and staff to take an active role in shaping Scotland’s future.

Aimee Bebbington (School of Mathematics and Statistics), Ranjini Sircar, and William Smith (School of Psychology and Neuroscience) presented their work during the event which brought together experts from academia and industry across Europe to discuss the implications of the EU Green Deal.

Their presentation, entitled How Early Career Researchers and Citizen Scientists Can Become Carbon Accounting Leaders in Their Fields, Championing Free and Open Source Data for Accountable and Effective Carbon Mitigation, sparked meaningful discussions on the role of researchers in sustainability accounting.

Speaking of the presentation, William said: “It was great to deliver an inspiring talk about how individual researchers can meaningfully contribute to sustainability. Our central message of how easy, accessible, and low effort many sustainability estimations and improvements was well received and well embraced.”

The event also included discussions on topics such as developing university-industry alliances for greater sustainability, the sustainable energy transition within a security context, navigating regulatory landscapes, and ecosystem restoration.

Aimee reflected on the broader significance of the event, noting, “It was helpful to gain insight into the challenges of navigating the regulatory landscape, and encouraging to hear about innovative solutions advanced across the public and private sectors that are helping to meet the targets set out in the EU Green Deal.”

Ranjini added: “The event brought together postgraduate students from various European universities, who were all interested in sustainability as a solution to climate change. These students were from different disciplines and backgrounds, so it was very insightful to see how each of them was thinking about these big issues, for example from perspectives of policy, individual action and industry accountability.”

Dr Stefan Pulver, the team’s faculty mentor, emphasized ‘The work of Aimee, Ranjini, and William is emblematic of a larger trend where St Andrews students across many disciplines are stepping up to take action on climate change – both here in Scotland and beyond our shores.”

Also in attendance from the Pulver lab was Hannah Christensen and a further four PhD candidates, Heather Cameron from the Business School, Aswin Sasi from the School of Physics and Astronomy, Chandrika Ghosh from the School of Chemistry, and Katharina Strahl, a PGT scholar in Energy Policy and Finance.  Another St Andrews connection, alum Professor Raphael Heffron, hosted a roundtable discussion on energy transitions in the EU. Professor Heffron holds an MLitt from St Andrews.

Dr Joseph North, Strategic Partnerships and Networks Coordinator in the Global Office, highlighted St Andrews’ growing presence in the Europaeum network, stating, “Eight St Andrews students participated in this event, marking our largest participation at a Europaeum gathering to date.”

The Europeaum is a consortium of 18 leading European universities, working collaboratively to offer interdisciplinary training and development opportunities for postgraduates. These students are poised to shape the future of Europe, addressing complex issues like sustainability and policy development. The University of St Andrews is a proud member of the Europaeum, alongside renowned institutions such as Oxford, Copenhagen, LMU Munich, Bologna, and Charles University.