Bangor University Students’ Union
Environmental Statement
November 2010
Bangor University Students’ Union provides representation, information and entertainment for its members, offering the opportunity to acquire new skills in an equal and diverse environment, within one unified community. We have around 12,000 members and over 20 staff. We are committed to equality, democracy and unity:
- respecting the diversity of individuality and valuing the equal importance of the Welsh and English languages in the local community;
- believing in a transparent and accessible democratic structure encourages involvement, sincerity and accountability;
- believing in unification to promote a positive environment and strengthening the likelihood of a successful outcome.
We aspire to be a truly sustainable organisation both in terms of our finances and our social & environmental impacts. We seek not just to protect our local natural environment, but actively seek opportunities to enhance it also. We believe it is our duty to protect the environment for future generations.
Many students are beginning their independent lives and their time at University should help them form life-long good environmental habits as part of their wider education, we hope to develop this culture of environmental stewardship amongst our members.
We understand that our activities have an impact on the environment and as such we are dedicated to improving our own environmental performance – increasing our efficiency and reducing the amount of resources we consume and waste.
As part of Bangor University, we are a part of the consumption of 8,513 tonnes of CO2 of mains electricity, 165,369 cubic metres of mains water and the production of 157,126 cubic metres of sewage and 1,101 tonnes of waste.
We have made significant progress during the past year:
- Continued lobbying of the University to improve their own environmental credentials – from reducing the paper requirements in essays to ensuring that new developments take the environment into account
- Developed the Union into a recycling hub!
- Established collection points for the recycling of stamps
- Developed and increased the amount of information for students on the environment
- Ran a successful campaign to raise awareness of waste, litter and recycling
- Increased the amount of paper we re-use in house rather than just recycling
- Started to collect our biodegradable waste for composting
- Helped establish a student allotment Promoted local food
- Achieved Bronze level in NUS Sound Impact Awards
- Promoted sustainable travel
- Promoted fair-trade
- Helped run re-use fairs / free-cycles
- Begun to use 100% recycled paper
- Switched both of our student newspapers to being printed on 100% recycled paper
- Developed a good working relationship with the University’s environmental manager to move forward together
The Future
We aim to continue to improve our environmental performance and reduce our impact on the natural world as well as aiming to ensure that sustainability is at the heart of all Student Union policy and action.
Specific targets are to:
- Reduce the amount of waste we send to landfill, by consuming less, re-using and recycling and composting more of the waste we produce.
- Increase our energy efficiency and reduce energy consumption by increasing the level of energy efficiency technology in the Students’ Union and developing and promoting cultural and behavioural change.
Ultimately the overarching objective is to proactively further the social, economic and environmental aspects of sustainability throughout the Students’ Union, University and students’ lives.