15.06.12
Staff and students based in the School of Environment and Technology (SET) have helped the University of Brighton to become one of the nation's top universities in terms of environmental and ethical performance. Dr Chris Joyce has been involved in developing a university-wide biodiversity action plan, Dr Jenny Elliott has been working with staff across the institution to integrate sustainable development into their curriculums, and Dr Ryan Woodard has been helping Estates and Facilities Management with waste management issues. In addition, a number of SET students have been key players in driving forward the University's sustainability agenda in the past year. BSc Environmental Sciences students Fredrika Uppman and Adam Keeves have been working in their placement year with Marie Harder (Professor of Sustainable Waste Management) and her team in the Sustainable Development Coordination Unit. BA Environment and Media student Jules Bevis has also been working for her placement year as an undergraduate project assistant with the newly formed Environmental Team in Estate and Facilities Management. Finally, a number of staff and students in SET have taken part in local initiatives such as growing edible plants in offices and building invertebrate bug boxes.
People & Planet, a student network campaigning to protect the environment, awarded the university a First Class honour in their annual Green League. The award will be presented at a ceremony in Westminster on 21 June. The University of Brighton was ranked third of 145 universities in the UK with a total score of 54 points out of a maximum 70, a higher score than that recorded by the top institution in last year's table. The university achieved maximum points in several categories including curriculum, student and staff engagement, ethical investment, and environmental policy and it scored highly for environmental staff, environmental auditing, carbon management, sustainable food and renewable energy sources. The full 2012 league tables can be viewed on the People & Planet website.
SET also benefits from clean energy produced by new solar panels which have been installed on the roof of the University's Cockcroft Building. This is the largest installation of its kind in Brighton and is predicted to save 18 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, helping to reduce the School's consumption of fossil fuels and the university's carbon footprint. This installation is one of a number of projects from the university's Carbon Management Plan, helping to achieve the ambitious target of reducing our carbon emissions by 50% in five years.
For more information about improvements to the university's campus' biodiversity. Visit: www.brighton.ac.uk/sustainability.
