On Friday the 25th of October, 14 colleagues from Estates and Facilities took a trip to Seaton Delaval Hall to work as volunteer gardeners for the day under Newcastle University’s colleague volunteering scheme. It was a really rewarding experience, so read on to hear more about our day!
Seaton Delaval Hall is a National Trust grade 1 listed building in Northumberland, with stunning formal gardens and relaxed, biodiverse woodlands. The property was designed in 1718 for Admiral George Delaval.
Photo: Seaton Delaval Hall
Our role
The lovely team of gardeners briefed us on our role for the day – to assist with digging, weeding and pathway edging in the Oval. The Oval Garden was once the location for the notorious Delaval parties, but today it is a perfect space for a peaceful walk or picnic. We made our way around the perimeter of The Oval using shovels, lawn edging tools and leaf rakes to create a border between the lawn and the hedge. Volunteering provided a great opportunity to spend some time outside and we also spotted a variety of wildlife including pheasants, a 22-spot yellow ladybird, and a lot of worms! It was great to get stuck in, and (especially as a new member of the team), get to know everyone a bit better in a relaxed setting.
After a coffee and lunch break at the on-site Brewhouse Café, we got back to work and finished off the job. As a thank you for our help, Senior Gardener Sarah Peilow gave us a tour of the grade 2 listed Seaton Delaval Hall gardens, where we got to see the Halloween decorations around the hall, and the vibrant garden.
Photo: The Oval Garden
Benefits of Volunteering
It is a fulfilling way to spend the day!
You can chat to new people and gain valuable skills.
It can make a positive difference to our local community.
It can strengthen your teamwork abilities!
It can enhance your mental and physical wellbeing.
If you partake in volunteering outdoors, it can provide opportunities for colleagues to build a connection with the environment and local wildlife.
Thank you so much to the team at Seaton Delaval Hall for being so welcoming and supportive throughout the day, and for the work they do to keep the site so beautiful. Also, thank you to James Adshead for organising the day! I would highly recommend for other colleagues at the university to take advantage of the volunteer scheme which offers two paid volunteering days with a charity each year. More information on the colleague volunteer scheme can be found here, and find out how you can volunteer at Seaton Delaval Hall here.
Well it’s come around again – what some claim is the most wonderful time of the year! But amongst the lights, sparkles and glad tidings there is a less merry reality to our festive celebrations… the waste they create. So why not shake it up this year and start a new sustainable tradition? Take a look at the ideas below!
Second Hand Santa
According to Hubbub’s poll last year (2023) £280 million was spent on Secret Santa gifts for colleagues. However, only a third of these were reported as useful. Many of these gifts didn’t even make it home from the office party!
Buck the trend this year by opting for a Second Hand Santa. It operates identically to a Secret Santa apart from one detail. ALL gifts are thrifted, regifted, or handmade. Charity shops are the gift that keep on giving here. Practical and genuinely useful gifts are the most sustainable, and charity shops can offer a spark of inspiration for truly thoughtful presents that actually stick to the Secret Santa budget! If gifts to provide a laugh are more your métier don’t worry! Charity shops also provide a long list of weird and wonderful items you can entrust to your colleagues to treasure.
Thriftmas Jumper Day
Have you previously been a victim of Christmas Jumper day? Many of us have found ourselves making a last-minute jumper purchase that we know we will never ever wear again. But we bought it anyway to avoid becoming the office Grinch.
Why not take the pressure off this year? With plenty of early warning and an active encouragement to wear already owned, thrifted, borrowed, and festively adapted jumpers, sustainable festive fun is possible! Extra points if you can source an authentic ugly or vintage Christmas jumper lovingly knitted for a festive season long ago.
Positive Party Planning
Excited to celebrate the past year of hard work? Why not add to the reasons to celebrate by making some sustainable swaps to your seasonal shindig? You could:
Organise carpooling / lift sharing to and from the event
Make sure the menu has a GOOD plant-based option (so it’s more likely to be chosen)
An entirely vegetarian/ vegan menu (or even just the sides/ starters)
Encourage colleagues to bring Tupperware to take any leftovers home
Consider skipping crackers and just buy paper party hats instead!
DIY/ purchase 2nd hand/ rent festive decorations
Check out Hubbub for more ideas and resources for this December (and the new year). Happy celebrating!
This month, it is Nothing New November. Nothing New November is a campaign founded by Keep Britain Tidy to combat the issue of impulse buying, especially during Black Friday. The challenge encourages people to buy nothing new for a month, excluding essentials like food and medication. So, sign-up to the challenge, give it a go, and reduce your carbon footprint!
Fast fashion is arguably the most common impulse buy. Fashion production is detrimental to the environment, being responsible for 10% of total global carbon emissions (Business Insider, 2019.) We live in a world where trends last for less than a month, forcing us to constantly change our wardrobe. In this blog, I will be sharing 3 different ways you can update your existing wardrobe using household items and thereby reducing your impact on the earth!
Attach a patch
Patches are the perfect way to fix a hole in your favourite jeans or to decorate a plain top you haven’t worn in a while. A current trend I’ve been seeing a lot recently is star patches on clothes. Instead of buying into this microtrend, I will try to DIY my own version…
Firstly, find a piece of scrap fabric in your house- this could be from an old bag, tablecloth, or jeans.
I’m going to trace my patch design onto a piece of paper and cut it out.
Place the patch template onto your fabric, pin it in place and cut around it.
Pin the patch into place over the hole you want to fix or the area you want to embellish.
With winter on the rise, faux fur is becoming a staple in people’s wardrobes. Instead of buying new, you can upcycle an old coat with scrap fur. If you can’t find any fur at home, I recommend looking for any offcuts or old pillows in charity shops- remember it’s Nothing New November, so buying second hand is encouraged!
I’m choosing to embellish my old leather jacket. Try find an item you haven’t won in a while or an item you find plain. Next, decide what aspects you are going to add fur onto, e.g. the collar, the pockets, the cuffs, etc…
You’re then going to trace a rough outline of these components onto a scrap piece of paper – it’s always better to overestimate outlines.
Cut the templates out and pin them to your fur.
Just like the patch, cut around the paper outlines into your fur and pin the fur sections to their corresponding sections on your jacket.
To keep the fur in place, use a whip stitch, or running stitch, securing the fur to the edges of your collar or cuff. Fur is a very forgiving fabric, so don’t worry too much about being neat!
This tip is both trendy and cozy!
Embroider and embellish
Embroidery is a quick and easy way to add a motif or design to any plain pieces of clothing. To add an extra touch, you could include leftover beads or buttons to your design.
It’s always helpful to sketch your design first, choosing what colours and what type of stitch your design will use. I’ve seen this cherry design all over my Pinterest feed!
Next, do a rough outline of your design onto the clothing fabric. This outline will be covered by stitching later, so don’t worry about leaving marks.
For this DIY, find your thickest thread, or double your thread up before putting into the needle.
The best thing about these three projects, is that they can easily be reversed. If you decide you’re no longer keen on a star patch, simply unpick the stitches and change it out. The same goes for the fur or the embroidery. By constantly customising the pieces in your wardrobe, you can keep up with trends, save your money, and reduce your environmental impact.
For more tips on eco-friendly fashion, see our sustainable fashion tips blog here. To find out more about what we do at Sustainable Campus, click here.
Nothing New November is a UK wide challenge that calls the public to fight overconsumption and impulse purchases by buying nothing new for one month (excluding essentials like food etc). The aim is to waste less, make the most of the stuff we already own, and cut our carbon footprint (Keep Britain Tidy, 2024).
As part of Nothing New November, we have been thinking of ways to shop for essentials in a more planet friendly way! So, this month I have been exploring the independent, sustainable shops in and around Newcastle. I hope this blog will encourage others to pay these amazing little shops a visit, and we can all try to be a bit more mindful about the things we buy, and the waste we create.
How to use a re-fill shop?
Using a re-fill shop can seem a bit daunting if you haven’t done it before, so I’ve put together some tips to help first time shoppers:
Collect some empty containers, glass jars work well. Often the re-fill shops have some you can buy too so don’t worry if you don’t have any.
Take a list of items you’d like to buy with rough measurements of how much you need, and head to the re-fill shop with your clean, empty containers.
When you arrive, speak to the staff! They are always so helpful and explain the process to you. But normally they weigh your empty jars before you fill them up.
Then just fill up your jars with whatever you please and the containers will be weighed again, and price totalled up at the till like any other shop.
Enjoy all your plastic free goodies!
Re-fill shops around Newcastle
109 General Store, Heaton
Image: 109 General Store
109 General Store is a family run low-waste general store located on Heaton Park Road. They have a variety of green cleaning products, sweet treats, fruit, veg, local eggs and fresh bread from Northern Rye. The in-store staff are friendly and are happy to help customers, or you can order food online for click and collect. I often do my weekly shop here then pop next door to their sister shop Heaton Perk for a coffee, Newcastle’s only coffee shop exclusively using glass bottled dairy milk.
2. Ernie, Stepney Road, Ouseburn
Ernie is a small deli shop located in Ouseburn which sells organic veg, household refills, and unique local cooking items and gifts from sustainable and small businesses. You can order locally sourced fresh produce to your door using Ernie’s fresh delivery service, delivered on Fridays by bicycle!
‘Real people, real food, less is more, buy less, buy better – making a difference is always within reach.’
(Ernie Ouseburn, 2024)
Image: Ernie, taken from Ernie.com
3. Buy the Kilo, Tynemouth
Buy the kilo is another family-run refill shop located on platform one of Tynemouth metro station. After a walk on the beach, I stopped off to check out this shop and pick up some oat milk. The shop is hidden down a little alley of independent businesses in shipping containers, which if you’re not looking for you probably would never notice! It was my first time visiting the shop, and the ladies working in the shop were more than happy to help and walked me through exactly how to work the weighing system. The shop also exhibits artists’ work that highlights issues about the environment, making it a must visit if you’re in Tynemouth!
Image: Buy the Kilo
Thank you for reading this blog, I hope you enjoyed it! A big thank you to the owners of these shops for all their efforts in reducing waste. Let us know in the comments if you visit any!
The Christmas Switch Off is a University-wide campaign where we encourage staff and students to turn off any electrical items that can be switched off instead of leaving them on standby over the Christmas break.
Why is the Christmas Switch Off important?
By turning off everything that can be turned off, we will reduce our energy consumption across the campus. The Christmas Switch Off campaign has been run for a number of years to minimise energy wastage and contribute to our carbon reduction targets.
We also hope that promoting of the Christmas Switch Off will promote positive behaviour change more widely and remind colleagues and students to minimise their energy wastage by remembering to switch off what they can every day.
Who participates in the Switch Off?
We would like everyone at the university to participate if they are able to, that includes staff and students across labs, offices, and accommodation. The advice on what to turn off will vary for each location – guidance on what should be switched off is in this blog post.
When switching off your work area, it can be helpful to organise a switch off team that can check each area after most people have left for the term to ensure everything that can be switched off, has been.
Here are some examples of items that could be switched in various area across campus:
Staff working in offices: Lighting, computers, monitors, printers and photocopiers, kettles and fridges (after they have been emptied and cleaned). Also, it is important to make sure that all windows have been properly closed.
Labs and medical buildings: All the above can be applied in addition to drying cupboards, fume cupboards and fridges/freezers that will not be in use over the break (please do not turn off equipment that is in use).
Many students leave their accommodation over the Christmas break, meaning their accommodation will be empty over the holidays. If you are going away over the winter break, there are a few things that you could do before you leave:
Clean out and defrost your fridges and freezers the day before you leave by turning them off at the wall and popping a towel underneath to soak up the melted ice.
Turn off your kettles and toasters at the wall.
If there is a wall switch for your oven this is also a good thing to turn off easily, as well as lights and plug sockets.
For more switch off information, visit the Sustainable Campus website: https://bit.ly/3OP5yLN
If you have any questions or ideas about the Christmas Switch Off, please email the Sustainability Team at sustainable-campus@ncl.ac.uk
At Newcastle University, we recognise that the climate crisis must be addressed communally, and we cannot meet the sustainability targets set out in our Climate Action Plan without the efforts of all our colleagues and students.
Green Impact and LEAF are two amazing programmes available for our colleagues at the university, with the opportunity for participants to win bronze, silver, and gold awards for sustainability. Earlier this month, the Environment Awards recognised and celebrated the achievements of our colleagues and students over the past year, with 11 teams receiving Green Impact awards and 10 teams receiving LEAF awards. A massive congratulations to those teams!
So, read on to find out how you can get involved in the next programme of Green Impact or LEAF, and play your part in increasing environmental sustainability on campus!
Green Impact
Green Impact is a United Nations award-winning programme which promotes environmentally and socially sustainable behaviour across organisations. At Newcastle University, colleagues can sign up to Green Impact and create teams within their work area, with actions assigned to complete in the online toolkit. The toolkit is aligned with the UN Sustainability Goals, with themes such as energy, water, waste, travel, biodiversity, communication, and wellbeing.
This is a great opportunity to improve your knowledge on environmental issues and contribute to meaningful sustainable change in your workplace, whilst collecting some awards to display!
Chat to your colleagues in your work area about Green Impact teams and either join one that’s already been created or create a new team.
Email sustainable-campus@newcastle.ac.uk to join the Green Impact Teams channel, and chat to other teams!
Work through your assigned actions. Each action grants a certain number of points which then add up to the bronze, silver, and gold awards.
Our friendly student auditors will come round to check your progress later in the year.
The Environmental Awards will be held in June, with engraved recycled slates for teams that made it to Bronze, Silver, or Gold.
LEAF
Our laboratories are essential in enabling the groundbreaking research conducted at Newcastle University, and scientific research is vital in mitigating the climate crisis. However, traditional laboratory practices can come with unintended environmental impact (Freese et al, 2024).
LEAF, or the Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework, is an online platform for laboratory users designed by UCL to improve the sustainability and efficiency of laboratories. Similar to Green Impact, lab teams work through sustainability actions to reduce waste, water, and energy along with improving the efficiency of other resources. There is an upcoming refresh of the LEAF actions and criteria, so sign up now to be a part of this updated programme.
Image: Diversity of Life Lab Session (Biology & Zoology). Photo Credit: Chris Bishop.
Register with your institutional email, then login and either join an existing lab, or request a new lab (if your lab is not already listed).
After your account is verified, work with your team through the bronze, silver, and gold criteria. Members of the Sustainability Team will assess your progress along the way, and certificates will be awarded at the Environmental Awards!
Every year, progress to a higher certificate, or re-audit to keep your accreditation.
Key dates:
Relaunch of Green Impact on Monday the 11th of November
Criteria Update of LEAF on Monday the 11th of November.
Green Impact Launch Webinar on Thursday the 14th of November, Sign up here.
LEAF teams channels launch on Friday the 1st of November.
Celebrating Success Environmental Awards: June (date to be announced later).
Thank you for reading, and we look forward to welcoming some new teams to Green Impact and LEAF this year!
References
Freese, T., Elzinga, N., Heinemann, M., Lerch, M.M. and Feringa, B.L., 2024. The relevance of sustainable laboratory practices. Rsc Sustainability, 2(5), pp.1300-1336.
Nature Positive is a term that refers to the reversing of nature loss and encourages ecosystem recovery. The Nature Positive Universities network is comprised of over 500 higher educational institutions worldwide who have all committed to protecting biodiversity by signing the Nature Positive Pledge. The network was jointly founded by the University of Oxford and the UN Environment Programme in December 2022. If you’re interested in finding out more about Nature Positive and how as a student you can get involved, keep reading!
Image: The aim of the Nature Positive Universities group; reversing the biodiversity loss curve. Credit: Nature Positive Universities.
What is the student ambassador programme?
If you are a student and interested in the Nature Positive ethos, check out the Student Ambassador Programme. Every year, Nature Positive Universities welcome students to apply for this program, giving them the opportunity to play a part in #GenerationRestoration while collaborating with students from other universities on a global scale.
The programme is an exciting blend of practical and collaborative activities, with no two days being the same!
Some benefits you will gain upon joining the programme:
Experience volunteering with mentors at University of Oxford
A chance to make a difference on our campus
Networking with a global community of environmental activists
Resources and training to help you organise events and activities
A certificate documenting your role
A chance to exercise your personal skills such as social media, communications, design, organising events, translation and biological identification and survey techniques
Image: Nature Positive student ambassadors volunteering in a field. Credit: Nature Positive Universities.
How can I apply?
Applying for the programme only takes 10 minutes and could seriously boost your CV, if you are interested in working within the environmental or urban planning sector.
Sign-ups for the 2024/2025 Nature Positive Student Ambassador Programme are currently open and the deadline to apply is the 10th November 2024.
To find out more on what the sustainable campus team are doing to fulfil the Nature Positive Pledge, check out our blog post on Biodiversity Net Gain, or visit the Biodiversity page on our website!
Only 1.8% of UK homes meet the top energy efficiency ratings, making them some of some of the biggest energy-wasters in Europe. As the colder months approach and the East wind begins to bite, keeping your flat, house, or halls warm can become increasingly challenging. This guidance outlines some ways that you can tackle rising energy costs whilst also taking climate action!
Home Energy Advice North East (HEANE)
A new local authority led service HEANE is here to help you cut costs and stay cosy. Even if your energy bills are included in your rent, their advice can help you avoid exceeding any cap set by your landlord. Whether you’re living in Newcastle City centre or further afield, there’s a range of free support available to help you boost energy efficiency, save money, improve living conditions, and reduce your carbon footprint.
HEANE is working in partnership with charities and organisations like Groundwork and Community Action Northumberland to offer help in Newcastle, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, Gateshead, Durham, Sunderland, and Northumberland, prioritising those who’re struggling to pay bills or keep warm.
How can HEANE help?
Provide immediately implementable energy saving habits. These insignificant changes can add up over the university year! If you’re not convinced, check out their website for energy (and money) saving habit ideas paired with concrete stats showing the potential difference it could make to your pocket!
Impartial in-person advice. Sometimes it’s easier to show than tell. And when it comes to a house or flat you’ve only recently moved into for the academic year a second pair of eyes and opinion can be really useful to create a next steps plan.
Personalised recommendations (no obligation home assessments to make it a more energy efficient space). Not all advice is equal! Getting advice appropriate for your living situation and budget helps put you on the road to action more than generic pointers.
Help applying for energy improvement fundingand finding local certified installers (available to your landlord if you rent). Not owning your home doesn’t mean you have no control! Making your landlord aware of the advice, resources, and recommendations given by HEANE could result in some real change making.
Ongoing support at every step – Have you received some advice or information, and you are not sure what to do next? Don’t let your questions go unanswered! Whether it’s the 1st or 100th query, make use of the experts available.
Energy and water reduction guidance for your home
You might think you’ve heard all the energy-saving tips before. For example, not leaving devices on standby, avoiding overfilling the kettle, turning off lights and using a low temperature setting on the washing machine could already be part of your routine – great job! These actions alone can save you £67 a year. But did you know saving water can also reduce your energy costs? And advice to take control of your heating can be especially useful when renting, as lowering your thermostat by just 1°C can save £80 a year.
In short, make use of this resource! Keep cosy, cut the cost, and take climate action. What could be a better start to the chilly season?
Completed in June 2021, the _OME is the flagship research and showcasing facility of the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment (HBBE), an innovative research partnership set up between Newcastle and Northumbria Universities. With funding from Research England, the HBBE combines expertise in biosciences, design, architecture, and engineering to advance cutting edge research on biotechnology. As part of this, the team, now made up of nearly seventy researchers and support staff (HBBE, 2022), are constantly testing ways to improve the health and sustainability of our homes by researching everything from controlling the spread of pathogens to innovating on sustainable technologies. This diverse and hugely beneficial work is centred on the state of the art _OME facility, so how exactly are these exciting projects designing the living spaces of the future?
Image: a front elevation showing the interior spaces of the _OME and their uses, including the experimental apartment, biotechnology laboratory, and testing/showcasing spaces for new technologies. Credit: Armand Agraviador.
Located on Devonshire walk, next to the Great North Museum: Hancock and the Devonshire and Drummond buildings, the _OME houses an in-house experimental apartment, accompanying laboratory, and display space for innovative materials and technologies. The HBBE’s research is organised into four key themes and utilises concepts including the genome, biomes, and home, hence the name: _OME. The four research themes being undertaken in the facility touch on a variety of repurposed, improved, and novel technologies and practices to lower carbon footprints and keep us healthy by design. So what do they all involve?
Theme 1: Building Metabolism
The first theme focusses on building-wide methods to achieve a higher degree of sustainable self-sufficiency by creating an artificial ‘metabolism’ in the structure and systems of the house itself. Practical examples of how this metabolism works include generating renewable electricity on site via solar panels on the building’s roof and utilising greywater to lower water use by, for example, reusing water from sinks or the shower to flush the toilet. Additionally, other technologies being woven into this metabolism include rainwater harvesting from the roof gutters and developing waste handling systems within homes that can deal with waste on site and even generate heat and other useful resources from it! When combined, these technologies could work to maintain a living space with a fraction of the energy and water requirements of a standard home, helping to save on both carbon and bills!
Theme 2: Living Construction
The construction sector is a major emitter of carbon globally and commonly used materials including steel and concrete require an awful lot of energy to produce (Wang and Ramakrishnan, 2021), leading to homes with high embodied emissions. Thankfully, lower carbon materials, including cross-laminated timber, are becoming more commonly used (Ahmed et al., 2024), but researchers at the HBBE are looking to advance construction even further by developing intelligent materials. The focus of this research sits squarely on bio-materials, including biominerals, biopolymers, and hygromorphs, which promise not only to lower embodied emission further, but also to offer other advantages. One exciting potential feature of these biomaterials would be to respond to certain stimuli and regrow their structures when damaged – creating self-repairing buildings! These innovations would further add to the construction sector’s arsenal of sustainable building techniques, giving architects more tools to create buildings that are good for both people and planet.
Image: a view of the side and main façade of the _OME laboratory, exhibition space, and experimental apartment. The apartment is located in the central upper floor section, behind the large opening for natural light. Credit: Professor Ben Bridgens.
Theme 3: Microbial Environments
The third theme touches on the _OME’s creation mid-way through the Covid 19 pandemic. Here, research teams are designing homes to better support healthy microbiomes and passively reduce the spread of illnesses, including pandemics. Proposed technologies for achieving this include smart ventilation, antimicrobial materials, and advanced microbiome monitoring systems to better understand what’s going on in the home. Not only will these innovations improve people’s health, but they could also reduce the environmental costs of dealing with illnesses and epidemics (see our sustainable medicine blog here) by creating environments that are far better at handling these issues by design.
Theme 4: Responsible Interactions
As seen previously, the HBBE is working on a variety of innovative technologies, but implementation of these isn’t always smooth sailing. To help ease biotechnologies’ transition from research to widespread use, therefore, researchers are investigating a variety of potential potholes, from accessibility concerns to unintended environmental effects. Additionally, ensuring these new technologies can seamlessly integrate with existing practices and standards, and making sure that people are culturally on board to accept innovations such as biomaterials, remains an important challenge. The _OME is major part of the solution here, as novel technologies can be tested out in the living laboratory and new materials can be shown off to unsure potential adopters, helping to tackle challenges before they become significant issues.
Thank you to the amazing HBBE team for their innovative work and their dedication to improving the sustainability of our built environment. Upon its completion in 2021, the _OME joined a series of Living Labs associated with Newcastle University across campus and elsewhere. These facilities look to continually generate high quality research and data as part of their site’s design (often while being used for a variety of other useful purposes) and you can learn more about them here. Additionally, further information on the HBBE’s activities, including its publications and additional research groups, can be found here. If you’d like to find out more about sustainability at Newcastle University, you can explore our website and other pieces in this blog, and sign up to our newsletter here.
References
Ahmed, S., Dharmapalan, V., and Jin, Z. (2024) ‘A Subject Review on the Use of Mass Timber in the US Construction Industry’, Construction Research Congress 2024: Sustainability, Resilience, Infrastructure Systems, and Materials Design in Construction. pp. 287-295.
Dixon, T., Connaughton, J., Green, S., (eds) (2018) Sustainable Futures in the Built Environment to 2050: A Foresight Approach to Construction and Development. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell.
It goes without saying that money is an incredibly important resource: it organises economies the world over, facilitates vast global trade, and is used to buy all sorts of goods and services, from everyday items to the resources that keep our university running. How money is spent, therefore, is very important to the ways in which our societies work, including how they interact with the environment. At Newcastle University, we earmark £15 million a year for net zero projects across our organisation, but great care is also taken when managing other investments and purchasing. So, how exactly does our institution manage its finances with the environment in mind and are there ways that individuals can do the same?
Image: A crowded Quayside Market with an array of bridges, including the Tyne, High Level, and Swing bridges, in the background. Credit: Chris Bishop.
Ethical investment
Considering sustainability is important wherever financial decisions are being made, but large institutions such as our university have much more responsibility than individuals because the flows of money they handle are so much greater. For this reason, our university has drawn up a range of policies and commitments over the years to ensure that we’re managing our money sustainably, and a major aspect of this is the University’s Socially Responsible Investment Policy.
This policy applies to all long-term investments and puts social, environmental, and humanitarian concerns at the heart of the University’s financial decision making. Key aspects of the implementation of these principles include:
Only appointing investment managers who are signed up to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI), will report on the carbon emissions of their portfolios, and will consider membership of the Net Zero Asset Manager Initiative.
Considering concerns from anyone in the University community about investments, and meeting regularly with investment managers to discuss values including sustainability. The University will cease its partnership with any investment manager who fails to meet our values.
Never investing in tobacco, fossil fuels, or arms companies.
More information and a Q&A page about ethical investment at our university can be found on our dedicated webpage.
Sustainable procurement
Additionally, on top of the Socially Responsible Investment Policy, the University’s Procurement Service maintains their own Sustainable Procurement Policy to help balance the University’s needs and responsibilities. This policy is organised around three sets if priorities: environmental, social, and financial, and features many considerations including:
Reducing carbon emissions,
Adopting circular economy principles,
Achieving social justice, and
Ensuring value for money.
For a full list of these priorities and information on the Procurement Service’s NETpositive Supplier Engagement Tool, take a look at their website. You can also explore our procurement page for further details on different areas of procurement and how to get involved.
Image: An aerial shot of Science Square at Newcastle Helix with the green roofs and solar panels of the University’s Catalyst building and Urban Sciences Building visible. Credit: Elemental Photography.
What can I do?
It’s not just large organisations like the University that can make a difference with their money, however. Considering environmental concerns in your purchasing can help support climate-positive organisations and initiatives, while reducing sales for companies and services that profit from unsustainable industries and practices. For guidance on what you can do to spend (or save!) with the planet in mind, explore our blog pieces on:
Additionally, when managing your finances, it can also be a good idea to look into the ethical and environmental commitments and credentials of the banks you use or are interested in using. Where banks put their money has a big impact in the world and some companies have better policies and track records than others. Ethical Consumer have a great recent article on this for further guidance, and their other articles and publications are worth exploring too for high quality information on a range of sustainable consumption topics.
Finally, if you’re a student and you’re struggling to make ends meet, you can explore the support available from the University on the Student Financial Support webpages.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this blog. If you’re interested in the other work that we in the Sustainability Team are doing, then check out our website, newsletter, and our projects and partnerships including: Green Impact, Dr Bike, Furniture Reuse, Co-Wheels, and the Bicycle Users Group! Send us an email to find out more about any of the above.
