Annual Sustainability Report - University of Leeds

What's in this report?

We understand that being sustainable creates value and that it’s OUR FOUR THEME more than reducing our environmental impact; it’s about resilience and intelligence – building the links between students, research and our operations, so that we can make a positive difference.

Our approach to sustainability means that we want to make sure that we focus on the things that have real impact. And this approach encompasses the essential features of being holistic, inclusive, challenging, proactive and embedded. We call it The Leeds Way – our attitude towards sustainability and the significance we place on it. In the pages that follow, you will find out what we have been doing to embed sustainability right across the University. It covers the period from August 2015 to August 2016.

This was a year when we took stock of our position and really concentrated on getting the policies and initiatives in place to truly embed sustainability, alongside completing some new and exciting projects. We want to give a true picture of the breadth of work we have being doing in the areas that really matter. However, this report doesn’t include every single project or activity, there just isn’t the space, but it does give an overview of our actions, along with a more detailed look at some of our key achievements. Of course, there is still work to do and it is important to keep focused. In each section we outline our priorities for the next twelve months, as well as the goals we have set ourselves to further incorporate sustainability into our research, degree programmes and operations. As it is the first Sustainability Annual Report, we also set out the indicators and areas that we will continue to report on in future editions. Your opinions and ideas are incredibly important to us and we would love to hear what you think about our progress and ambitions for the future. Let us know by emailing sustainability@leeds.ac.uk.