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Sustainability

Environmental Sustainability  

Welcome to the Faculty’s Environmental Sustainability (ES) page. Here you will find information regarding our main priorities, where to find out more and who to go to for advice and guidance.    

Our aim is to embed ES at the heart of our operations, activities, and values through contributing to the University’s ES strategyOur Sustainable Future.   

Ewithin the Faculty is led by Dr Maggy Fostier, Associate Dean for Environmental Sustainability. Find out more about our progress on the ES agenda by reading Maggy’s Associate Dean blogs.  

How can I get involved?   

Our objectives

In alignment with the University's aim to achieve Carbon Zero by 2038, we are dedicated to making a meaningful impact through the following pivotal objectives: 

ES in Research Labs (LEAF and 6R)

Objective: Engaging all Faculty laboratories with two tools: LEAF (Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework) and 6R lab protocol, plus growing our Faculty’s ES Network within the lab users.  

Our aim is to reduce consumption and waste, share resources more effectively and develop more sustainable protocols. 

Training is available for all lab users within FBMH where you can learn about sustainable practices in research and lab spaces. Led by Dr Maggy Fostier, all lab users are highly encouraged to book onto the course. Find out more by reading our blog. Sign up to register via the training catalogue: FBMHS-LEAF002 Improving sustainability in the lab with LEAF and 6R

Register to be a LEAF champion for your research group or lab space and work towards receiving a LEAF accreditation. Sign up via our Qualtics form and our ES Project Officer will be in touch with the next steps. 

Eco actions on campus

Objective: Engaging staff and students with the University’s targets:

  • Reduce campus energy consumption by 10% by 2025 against a 2018 baseline – for individuals, this means switching off light/devices after use where applicable.
  • Recycle 45% of campus waste by 2025 and develop/promote reuse schemes, such as the University’s Furniture Reuse store.
  • Follow our green catering policy (prompts when you order food for an event) to limit food waste.
  • Limit University annual emissions from business air travel to 50% of our 2018/19 level (pre the Covid-19 pandemic) with immediate effect. Several policies are supporting this target: travel decision tree, top fund policy, video conferences facilities.
  • Develop a green procurement policy and resources to understand sustainable procurement.
  • Easy Eco for All: Harriet Bickley, an FBMH mental health researcher for @mashproject, has created an eco-booklet to help staff & students live, work & study in an eco-friendlier way. The booklet signposts you to on & off campus resources such as recycling, waste reduction, ethical purchasing, green travel and wildlife reporting. Download the Easy Eco for All booklet.
  • We would like to set up a Faculty green champions network to actively engage with each target. Contact srbmh@manchester.ac.uk to register your interest.

Green Spaces and Biodiversity on Campus

Objective: Increasing the quality and quantity of existing green space, achieving a 10% increase by 2028 in urban green space, from 2018 levels.   

Engage staff and students with biodiversity both on campus and externally and promote the use of our green spaces for enjoyment, nature-based learning and well-being. Find out more about valuing nature on campus on our website  

iNaturalist biodiversity project

To help meet these aims, we have set up a Biodiversity on Campus project on iNaturalist, a free, easy to use app. The app allows you to upload photos of the wildlife, garden plants and trees. Your sightings will form part of a global database that can be used by scientists and the University to inform future actions to increase biodiversity and the conservation of species. 

The project is open to staff, students and public; anyone can upload an observation. 

To help get you started, we’ve created a quick guide on how to identify and record species using the app, featuring useful pictures and links.  

Want to find out more?

Contact the Social Responsibility and Public Engagement Team via srbmh@manchester.ac.uk. You can read more about our support for biodiversity in the Michael Smith quad blog

ES in Teaching and Learning

Objective: Embed sustainability in our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

Deliver inductions on ES and sustainable development goals (SDGs) (general and discipline specific) to all students, develop activities to promote reflection on ES impact or SDGs and possible actions, and, where possible, make space for ES/SDGs-related projects in existing portfolio.

Outreach

Objective: Promoting sustainable actions in our wider community (schools, community, organisations, and businesses) with the help of trained students. 

Promoting the University’s Sustainable Futures

Objective: Promoting the Sustainable Futures platform and opportunities to study the impact of climate change, establish solutions to the climate crisis or improve our resilience. 

Climate change

Objective: Educating and exciting those we can reach about existing and future solutions to tackle the climate crisis. 

Newsletter and Blogs 

We are excited to introduce the ES Good Newsletter, dedicated to sharing the latest insights and developments on ES within and beyond our academic community. If you would like to subscribe to future newsletters, email srbmh@manchester.ac.uk.  

We also have a dedicated blog focused on all things related to Social Responsibility. Here, we continually provide updates on ES news, track our progress, and highlight valuable opportunities. If you would like to write for the blog, please email srbmh@manchester.ac.uk.   

Events 

ES Showcase 

We hosted our first ES Showcase in 2023, when we were joined by Martin Farley from UCL, the co-founder of LEAF. Martin spoke about the ULT Freezer temperatures, and the talk was followed by Project Student Presentations along with various ES activities and competitions. You can read more about it on our blog.   

If you would like to be notified about the next ES Showcase which will take place in June, please email srbmh@manchester.ac.uk. 

 

Faculty ES contact

BMH Social Responsibility and Public Engagement team

Email: srbmh@manchester.ac.uk

X (formally Twitter): @FBMH_SR