Green Lancaster is a partnership between Lancaster University and the Students’ Union devoted to engaging students, staff, and the local community in practical responses to the climate and ecological emergencies. Green Lancaster’s invitational approach aims to bring people together around collaborative learning journeys, creative responses, and practical projects with positive impacts for the local community, wider society, and the living planet.

Established in 2005, the partnership has a track record of inspiring and equipping the next generation with sustainability skills and knowledge. Alongside this, Green Lancaster’s projects, events, and campaigns create positive change across environmental and social agendas at Lancaster and beyond.

A recent report published by Green Lancaster delves into their notable impacts and achievements.

2022/23 saw the further development of multiple long-established Green Lancaster projects. The ‘ECOWild’ scheme has engaged students in restoring nature in more than 5 hectares of on-campus land, largely through invigorating natural regeneration and succession, and planting wildflower meadow, scrub, and woodland with embedded communal spaces for people to enjoy these landscapes.

Working with a network of regional partners, a programme of 13 off-site field trips have taken place in environments as diverse as coastal beaches and upland landscapes. Green Lancaster’s ‘Don’t Ditch It’ (DDI) project has gone from strength to strength, engaging a team of highly motivated student volunteers to intercept redundant household goods on campus and donate them to the local organisations and the on-campus ECOShop. The DDI project raised more than £7,000 reinvestment in Green Lancaster in 2022/23, a perfect model of the circular economy in action.

2022/23 also saw the continuation of the ‘Sustainability Leadership’ programme on the Isle of Eigg, Scotland, in addition to the start of a brand-new student vacation travel programme in Lausanne, Switzerland in coordination with the Global Experiences team. The programme emphasises Green Lancaster and Lancaster University’s investment in the leaders of tomorrow.

These programmes offer phenomenal experience and opportunities to those who take part, as told by one of our student participants:

“My favourite part of the trip was the hike to la Cabane d’Orny – this will most likely be one of the best experiences I will forever remember in my life. Having first-hand experience of seeing glaciers and the opportunity to learn alpine ecology in its breathtaking scenery, whilst accomplishing a long hike felt like such a lifetime achievement for me. It has inspired me to want to continue adventures in the environment in a sustainable manner and hopefully become a leader who could share this experience with other people.”

Philanthropic funding has supported the Green Lancaster team with equipment and clothing using organic and recycled materials.

With grateful thanks to Paula Breed via Friends of Lancaster University America for the philanthropic support of Green Lancaster and their mission to create a more sustainable future.