Staff and Student Engagement

All staff and students have the opportunity to engage with a wide range of issues relating to environmental sustainability.  The University works with the Students’ Union on joint initiatives.

In 2020, the University awarded small amounts of money to staff and student groups in order to carry out small projects.  This led to the creation of ‘WildStaffs’, a group which carried out measures to improve biodiversity including planting trees and hedgerows and working to create a hedgehog friendly campus at Stoke.  A second project resulted in a piece of work which was written up as the ’15 minute campus’ report which has been published as an academic paper.

Due to the success of the Sustainability Week in previous years, the university will be running a similar challenge campaign and competition in 2024/25, to raise awareness of the continued need to act sustainability and be encouraged to challenge their own consumption of vital resources. 

This plan is lead by:

• Helen Rutherford, Head of Sustainable Campus Operations

]UN SDGs

Targets and progress

Target

The University will run at least one major sustainability campaign each semester, for example, Sustainability week

Progress

Progress status: GREEN

There have been initiatives involving staff and students in each of 2021 (opportunity to pitch for funding for Sustainability Projects) and 2022 (Sustainability Week challenges).

In 2023 a new website was launched, to highlight the University’s commitment to sustainability and carbon reduction.

A Sustainability awareness week is planned for the 2024/25 academic year.

The Students’ Union is a key partner for the University – and they were awarded and retain their ‘Excellent’ in the SOS-UK 2022/23 Green Impact awards for sustainability (an initiative open to all students unions).

Operational priorities for 2024/25

• Work closely with the Students’ Union – recognising the work that they do – and run engagement activities as a joint activity wherever possible

• Run a ‘single use plastic challenge’, asking staff and students to bring forward items of single use plastic which their team or department uses and asking them if they could remove, recycle or replace this item with a better alternative. This would generate a certain amount of social media publicity, making people aware not only of the cost of these items in financial terms, but also in terms of the emissions in making it, bringing it to site and disposing of it

• Run the staff and student travel surveys again, and follow up with focus groups to discuss the barriers to more sustainable travel

• Refresh the current Sustainability Champions Group and move to a model of Sustainability Activists

• Promote sustainable travel throughout the university

• Promote the SOS-UK (student organisation) UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) teach in in March 2025

• Incorporate guidance on responsible consumption and sustainability into student welcome activities September 2024 and January 2025

• Incorporate information about our commitment and progress to date in Open Days for prospective students

• Run a series of open engagement sessions for students on topics such as ‘how to make a difference’, ‘how to engage with employers on sustainability and responsible investment’