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Keele University's three steps to sustainability

01 Apr 2022 | Advance HE Keele University opened Advance HE's Sustainability Symposium by discussing three key ways in which higher education institutions can push for a more sustainable future.

With COP26 still visible in the rear-view mirror, the two-day Advance HE Sustainability Symposium on 29-30 March was an exciting opportunity for those in the higher education sector to embrace their role as leaders of change and as major driving forces in the battle for a more sustainable future.  

Day One of the symposium opened with a focus on sustainability at Keele University, led by Mark Ormerod, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost, and Professor of Clean Technology and Inorganic Materials Chemistry, with help from two members of Keele’s Student Union. 

In his keynote address, ‘Leading major institutional changes in a sustained ability: embedding sustainability and creating change through collaboration’, Mark shared Keele’s journey pushing for a more sustainable future, discussing what’s currently being done and what will be done to allow Keele to become as sustainable as possible. He said the University hopes to achieve net zero in the near future.  

Keele’s credentials in sustainability are deep, most notably winning Global Sustainability Institution of the Year at the Green Gown Awards in 2021 whilst being named in the Top 40 Institutions for Sustainability for the last four years running. According to Mark, these sustainability credentials have “attracted applicants that we might not have always attracted in the past.”

During the keynote, Mark described three ways in which Keele has been at the forefront of increasing sustainability: improvements to campus sustainability, improving student awareness of sustainability and working with the local area.  

Keele’s strategy for increasing sustainability started with decarbonising the campus - alongside the common moves of electric vehicles, solar panels, wind turbines and more sustainable coffee cups, there’s also a smart energy network created by the University and Siemens. Mark said, “It is the second largest smart energy network demonstrator in the world. It has enabled us to utilise the fact that we are effectively a self-contained campus, but with 12,000 students, 2,000 staff and 350 mixed-use buildings using the campus as a genuine living laboratory for sustainability. And actually to use it for the creation and development of low carbon technologies”. Helping this, Mark said, is the fact that a campus “does replicate a small town. A lot of research can be done around that living laboratory as a real model for smart energy and low carbon towns and cities for the future.” Alongside this, there’s a partnership with Cadent which helps the University “reduce carbon emissions associated with heating and cooking” through the use of hydrogen technology, with the hydrogen produced on campus using an electrolyser. 

Mark also disclosed how Keele has been able to get students involved by the “embedding of sustainability in all of our programmes. We’ve always had strong programmes in physical geography, environmental science, environmental sustainability … but one of the key achievements has been to embed sustainability in all of our programmes, all of our undergraduate programmes have sustainability embedded into them …we also introduced a module called Greening Business which was available for all students with really high take-up.” 

Finally, Mark discussed the drive to get the greater area around the University involved in their sustainability drive. “Really working with small or medium-sized companies in this area, with £5 million of funding to really catalyse that engagement through student placement, internships and research projects, Masters projects and PhDs creating a doctoral training centre around smart energy.” 

Also speaking from Keele University were two members of the Student Union, Tom Guilbert-Newell, Activities & Communities Officer, and Sustainability Officer Alana Wheat. Tom talked about what he and fellow students had done to promote sustainability on campus including a vegan farmers’ market, carbon literacy training and encouraging students to recycle clothes and kitchen equipment. Alana discussed the University’s gardening allotment, coffee cup campaign and push to plant hundreds of trees around campus.  

The final words from the keynote were dedicated to how it is the responsibility of both students and staff to contribute to a more sustainable future for their universities. Recognising this, Keele has made an effort to ensure both are involved in the same activities.

Tom said, “Having activities and opportunities on campus not only for students but for staff as well is amazing and really engages staff. We have done volunteering opportunities with library staff for example who have come along with 10 staff members to help us clean up the campus and it has been amazing with students as well.

“Conversations happen at those events. Emailing staff about these opportunities, activities or talks, [is a way for students] to empower lecturers and get them involved, because once they see it happening, they will lead on it themselves.”

Alana added, “Each cohort of students that come along, or each round of staff, it is about going back to the basics of what is sustainability, why is it important? How does it relate to you as a student or staff member? That is really crucial.” 

Brand new for 2023, Advance HE’s Sustainability Conference 2023: People, purpose and place - A strategic approach to sustainability will focus on the sector's responsibilities in relation to the UN SDGs, civic responsibility, new sustainability initiatives and research. This conference will bring together senior and strategic leaders within higher education. 7 June 2023.

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