2024 has been a landmark year for sustainability at Lancaster University. From starting to build a solar farm, to ambitious campus-wide initiatives aimed at reducing carbon footprints, a culture of ecological responsibility is increasingly found among students and staff as we head towards the new year.

With so many members of staff already passionate about helping people and the planet, there are many projects of varying sizes happening all the time across Lancaster that are making a real difference.

Here are some examples of positive change across campus for this month:

LUMS support low-carbon travel

Thanks to innovative ideas from the LUMS sustainability group, a fund has been launched to support those who can or want to travel in lower carbon ways for university business. This will take the form of money to cover any additional costs, on top of the costs that would have been incurred for a higher carbon form of travel. For example, if someone travels to Paris by train and the train tickets are more expensive than airport transfers and flights, the fund will pay the additional costs. For more information about the fund, please contact Izzy Hoggmascall.

Furniture saved from landfill

During the recent Lancaster Management School East refurbishment project, the Facilities team had to remove a large amount of redundant furniture and had to make a choice about where this would go. Agreeing that landfill was not an acceptable option, the project team worked closely with a furniture recycling company, and through a mixture of recycling and reuse on campus, more than 1,900 items were saved from landfill, saving an estimated 115 tonnes of carbon – equivalent to powering more than 100 UK households for a year.

Enhancing the student experience

The Sustainability Team work with students across the University as often as possible to develop their sustainability skills and knowledge through either delivering guest lectures, hosting group projects, or short-term work placements. Here are two examples of student engagement:

• Following an application made by the Sustainability Team and Student Education Services, Lancaster University was selected to participate in the joint British Academy and SOS-UK ‘SHAPE’ project, specifically aimed at engaging students from the Arts and Social Sciences with sustainability. After a six-month engagement programme, two student groups from Lancaster presented at the SOS-UK SHAPE conference at the University of Birmingham in June. Their self-selected topics were on ethical banking and students as local consumers. Their participation in this project contributed to students receiving the Lancaster Award, and all students were enthusiastic about the added value the experience had brought them.
• As part of their undergraduate degree in Business Management, a group of LUMS students are working with the University’s Head of Sustainability and other colleagues to examine water consumption behaviours amongst students in Lancaster and in our overseas campuses. The students have already taken the opportunity to promote their work at the recent Sustainability Knowledge Exchange and will be presenting their findings during an upcoming ‘Positive Change week’ due to take place in March 2025. Please get in touch with sustainability@lancaster.ac.uk if you’d like further details.

Don’t Ditch It helps local charitable causes

Last month’s article featured the success of the Don’t Ditch It project, but another of the positive outcomes has been benefit to local charities. One example is The Ripple Effect Lancaster, a local charity who collected 1.7 tonnes of student donations from the Don’t Ditch It project in the form of blankets and sleeping bags to send to refugee camps in Ukraine and Greece, household items to support asylum seekers who have been granted Leave to Remain, and children’s books to local families in need.

Local nature area blooms thanks to University funding

Lancaster University's Wind Turbine Community Benefit Fund is a beacon of hope for local projects striving to make a meaningful impact. You can look forward to monthly highlights of the projects that the fund helps – with this month’s focus being Winchester Field and Nature Area, that has used the funding to improve biodiversity and accessibility for the local community.

Got a sustainability story?

The University’s Sustainability team want to hear more from anyone who is working to advance sustainability in any way across Lancaster University, no matter how big or small.

Send your stories, suggestions, ideas, and feedback to sustainability@lancaster.ac.uk.