Green Gown Awards 2017 - Northumbria University - Highly Commended

Improving Sustainability Together – our success story (so far…)

Our story celebrates the University’s journey over the last two years, taking sustainability from a narrow, insular function with a remit limited to Campus Services, to University-wide collaboration based on a holistic approach with engagement at its core.

Significant work has been undertaken in six key areas: gaining strong commitment; identifying resource; setting direction and accountability; developing a brand; engaging our staff, students and partners; and building momentum.

This work has achieved significant benefits – from saving £950,000 on our energy bills and reducing our carbon emissions by 28%, to running over 70 sustainability events and working with hundreds of staff and students. It has also developed collaboration between external partners and our academic agendas to develop innovative sustainability solutions not just for our students but for local, and even global, communities.

This is only the beginning but we look forward to continuing our story and to further ‘Improving Sustainability Together’.

Top 3 learnings:

1 Set clear direction and accountability, but be open to new ideas.

2 Being responsive is key to engagement – always respond to ideas or questions.

3 Be thorough – think long-term (as sustainability must be sustainable).

CO2t savings over the life cycle of the project:

8,900 CO2t over 2 years

Videos

• Improving Sustainability Together – our success story (so far…) (click to hide)