Sustainability

Industry Partnerships and visits

Our Agriculture students visited Agri.Cycle to see first-hand how the benches around campus were created from farm plastic waste.

Workshops and Events

• Groups of students from our HE conservation and Equine courses to our FE Foundation studies have taken part in sustainability workshops.
• We run a range of events throughout the year to get students involved in all elements of Sustainability and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) including Green Colleges Week and SDG Week.

Tracking Nature

• Conservation students have been working with our grounds team to identify a re-wilding area. Previously part of the maintained grounds, this 0.38Ha plot will now be left for nature with the students regularly surveying the wildlife to monitor the changes.
• We take part in the RSPB Garden bird count tracking the bird species in our walled and foundation gardens - this year our students spotted over 88 birds including Coal Tits, Robins and a Mistle Thrush.

Buildings

We have now been awarded 3 phases of Salix Decarbonisation Funding covering 8 buildings at our Bishop Burton Campus including insulation, double glazing and electrifying our heating systems. When the works are completed 12 of our buildings across both campuses will be fully electric, including some of our larger teaching spaces like the LRC and Princess Anne University Centre with an estimated Co2e reduction of over 400 tonnes per year.

Electric Vehicles

We have two electric cars as part of our vehicle fleet as well as a number of electric buggies used for travelling onsite for our care taking and catering teams.

Catering

To help minimise our carbon footprint, as well as creating delicious food, we source locally grown/produced produce for our refectory wherever possible. We even use vegetables from our own veg plot for our soups.

Collective Action

We have a group of Sustainability Champions representing areas from across the College and working together on projects and initiatives to drive the College sustainability strategy. Every year we complete a staff survey to understand the views of the whole staff body and work to make improvements based on this.

As well as focussing on how we can affect change within the College, we know how important it is to promote Sustainability across the sector. To support this we are members of a number of organisations and commitments including:

• Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC)
• Race to Zero for Colleges and Universities
• Sustainable Development Goals Accord
• Landex Sustainable Farms Networks

Our Green Grounds Project- switching our grounds maintenance equipment from fossil fuels to electric, charged using renewable energy, was recognised as Highly Commended in the 2025 Green Gown Awards.