Our Sustainability Student and Staff Engagement Plan (January 2024) sets out a framework for helping students and staff across the University to make more sustainable choices, while the Sustainability Student and Staff Engagement - Implementation Document (May 2024) provides a summary of progress so far.
There are a number of ways for you to get involved in sustainability at Glasgow Caledonian University:
Use sustainability initiatives
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The University has introduced several sustainability initiatives to make it easier for students and staff to adopt more sustainable lifestyles. Examples include reducing waste (through enhanced recycling and charges on single-use, disposable food, and beverage containers), offering more planet-friendly catering offer (we’re reviewing our menu to remove ingredients with a high carbon footprint), and travelling more sustainably (by providing information about more sustainable modes of transport).
You will find information about our sustainability initiatives throughout the University’s sustainability web pages.
Complete sustainability induction
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The Sustainability Hub learning platform is for our students and staff to learn about the University's sustainability initiatives that they can get involved in to help reduce their and the University’s environmental impact. The following modules are available:
Sustainability Induction - Dedicated modules for students and staff. Familiarise yourself with the University’s sustainability initiatives (Including our Environmental Policy and strategy) and find out how you can engage with sustainability on campus by making more sustainable choices. You can access the Induction here. Sustainability Champions Learning Pack - Based on EAUC’s Sustainability Champions Learning Pack, this resource helps students and staff develop a broader understanding of different sustainability topics such as net zero and climate change, education for sustainable development, green careers and the circular economy. It includes links to the University’s thematic action plans, sustainability initiatives, and ESD resources for academics. You can access the Induction here.
Become a Travel Advisor
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The University employs a team of student Sustainable Travel Advisors to engage with the broader University community to highlight opportunities for more sustainable, cheaper travel. The University is focusing on travel because travel in general has a high environmental impact, but student and staff commuting in particular, are a significant source of emissions which the University has committed to reducing.sign up to our Sustainability Opportunities alerts.
Ideas and projects
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If you’re a student or member of staff at the University please contact sustainability@gcu.ac.uk if you have a sustainability project/initiative/activity you think would benefit the University and would like to help implement. Funding is available for students and staff to help with their sustainability projects/initiatives. Note that projects will be assessed on a case-by-case basis by the University's Sustainability Team and Forum.
Green Your Group funding is available for any student group or society that would like to develop sustainability projects, activities or initiatives. You can apply and read more about the funding here . Staff Sustainability funding is available to deliver their sustainability initiatives, projects or activities to improve sustainability at the University. You can apply for the funding here.
Dissertations and student projects
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Please contact sustainability@gcu.ac.uk to discuss how your project can help drive sustainability at the University. You'll find some examples of previous projects on the Student Projects web pages.
We regularly review opportunities for our community to get involved.
Other ways to get involved
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The University offers students and staff multiple ways getting involved to further its sustainability ambitions by mapping opportunities for improvement or through volunteering. Student and staff can get involved in the following ways:
Internal Environmental Management System (EMS) Auditor: The University operates a well-established EMS, certified EcoCampus Platinum/ISO 14001, that provides a robust, externally verified framework for delivering the University's commitments. A fundamental part of our EMS is a focus on continual improvement and an effective audit process which includes both internal and external audits. Our University students and staff can train to become qualified Auditors and take part of the University’s annual EMS audit. Please get in touch if you would like to become involved as an EMS auditor.Volunteer Fairtrade Auditor (students only): Volunteer auditors form a significant part of our Fairtrade accreditation process as they conduct an audit of the university to review the efforts to embed and promote Fairtrade and wider ethical and sustainable consumption. The auditors will receive full training delivered by SOS-UK and the Fairtrade Foundation , where they will learn about trade justice issues and how they apply to the university/college. You can read more about the University’s Fairtrade initiatives here and express your interest in getting involved here .Promote Sustainability in Labs : The University subscribes to the Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF) and has a number of labs at Bronze and Silver levels. Please get in touch if you would like to improve your lab’s sustainability. Please contact us to discuss getting involved in the University’s LEAF programme.Biodiversity Monitoring : You can help the University in mapping on-campus biodiversity by identifying and recording on-campus species diversity. To volunteer for biodiversity mapping, you need to download the iNaturalist app and join the University’s Biodiversity Project on the app. You can go out on-campus any time that's suitable for you and record as many (naturally occurring - not decorative) species you can find. Every now and then, Sustainability Team hosts introduction sessions to BioBlitz to provide you with some further context of our Biodiversity Plan, the basics of BioBlitz and how to use the iNaturalist app for species identification. You can sign-up here for any future BioBlitz sessions .
