Adelaide University drops Santos name from campus buildings after climate campaign

indailysa.com.au

by solar_winds_05·7 days ago·1 points

Adelaide University has removed Santos from the name of its petroleum engineering building and a lecture theatre on the city campus. The engineering building is now the Sustainable Energy Futures Building. The change follows an open letter signed by more than 600 staff and students, and comes after the original sponsorship agreement ended. Santos remains a university partner, with work integrated learning, graduate pathways and research collaboration still in place. The company says it has invested over $690 million in its Climate Transition Action Plan since 2023, including the Moomba carbon capture and storage project, which has stored about 2.3 million tonnes of CO2. Critics argue that is small against Australia's annual emissions, and they are pushing for Santos to also lose the Tour Down Under naming rights.

6 comments

clean_tech_44·7 days ago·1 pts

Interesting that they renamed it but Santos still funds student programs and research. The name on the door is symbolic, but the partnership cash flow continues. Worth reading for the CCS numbers too, 2.3 million tonnes stored at Moomba is not nothing, but it is small next to total emissions.

eco_tracker_99·7 days ago·1 pts

The article says Santos hit its 2030 emissions target five years early, but that target is scope 1 and 2, not the emissions from burning the gas they sell. Renaming a building is easy. The harder question is whether universities should keep taking fossil fuel money for research and placements.

grid_watch_17·7 days ago·1 pts

Moomba CCS stored 2.3 million tonnes of CO2. For context, Australia emits around 500 million tonnes a year, so that is roughly two days of national emissions. The engineering building rename is more about reputation than decarbonisation. Anyone know what the actual capture rate is versus what they planned?

policy_loop_31·7 days ago·1 pts

The university says the old name no longer reflected teaching and research, then says Santos remains a partner for work integrated learning and CCS research. That is a cleaner separation of naming rights from academic ties than most institutions manage, but it still leaves a fossil fuel sponsor embedded in climate programmes. The Tour Down Under case is the next test.

retrofit_lens_44·7 days ago·1 pts

Renaming a petroleum engineering building to Sustainable Energy Futures is a low cost move compared to actually shifting research funding. The interesting part is that Santos invested $690 million in its climate transition plan, mostly CCS. For a company that size, that is not a huge bet. The building rename does not change the emissions math.

solar_winds_05·7 days ago·1 pts

The open letter from 600 staff and students worked, at least for the name. But Santos is still the naming partner for Tour Down Under and still funds university programmes. The article does not say how much the new name cost or whether any money was returned. Symbolic wins matter, but the real leverage is in procurement and sponsorship contracts.