Latest student news
University report marks progress on sustainability
By: Sean Armstrong
Last updated: Thursday, 10 December 2020
The University has published its first annual sustainability report and summary report on the progress that we are making to achieve all 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The Building a greener, better world report will provide transparency to enable students, staff and strategic partners to engage with Sussex on what we are doing to respond to the climate emergency and build a better world for future generations.
Vice-Chancellor, Adam Tickell said: “We’re proud to be the world’s highest ranked university for the study of development studies - and we lead the sector in some of the environmental measures we’ve taken on campus.
“However, we are not doing enough and need to do more. I’m delighted to publish our inaugural sustainability report and hope to be able to share great improvements by the time we publish the second report next year.”
Some of the measures Sussex has already taken to Go Greener:
- creation of the largest solar farm of any higher education institution in the UK
- first UK university to install an aerobic digester – quickly converting food waste into compost for use on campus
- reducing our carbon footprint by 41% since 2005/06
- self-generating over 15% of our total energy use in 2019/20 from renewable sources
- switching to a 100% renewable electricity tariff
This report summarises progress to date at realising each of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and highlights areas for improvement.
The data contained in the report will be used to provide the necessary analysis for the production of a comprehensive sustainability strategy, that we are due to publish in Spring 2021.
This strategy will show how we plan to improve our performance against each sustainable development goal, and include an action plan to help the University achieve its net zero goal as well as ambitious recycling targets.
For more information on the University's sustainability work please contact Sustainability Manager, Samantha Waugh: s.waugh@sussex.ac.uk