Education and Engagement for Sustainable Development

Clean Air Day 2022

On 16 June 2022, the Environment & Sustainability Team ran a small information event to mark Clean Air Day 2022 and raise awareness of the impact of pollution on health and the environment and the positive impact active travel has on both.

The team were joined by External Services Manager John Howes and Computing Student Freya Smith, who took the opportunity to hold a Clean Air” Plant stall to raise money for the Hedgehog Friendly Society.

Freya and the Squad are now applying for UON to receive gold status as a hedgehog friendly campus. As part of this, they have been raising awareness about the importance of creating habitats where hedgehogs can thrive and all the hedgehog friendly initiatives across campus.

UON Go Green Week

21 – 25 March 2022

The first UON Go Green Week took place 21 to 25 March at various locations across the campus. The Environment & Sustainability team were on hand to raise awareness of environmental campaigns and initiatives active throughout the university such as “The Big Switch off” and The Halls Environmental Scorecards.

The team were joined by waste contractor Suez who were on hand talk about recycling and lead a staff and student litter pick that took place in the wider perimeter of the university estate across community spaces. Sustainable vendors also took part to showcase a range of products from homemade spices, household and beauty products to bakery products.

Live vegan cooking demonstrations took place in The Market restaurant aimed at supporting students with trying vegan food options, our Travel Plan Co-ordinator was able to advise students and staff on the benefits of active travel with our Energy Officer giving away free shower timers to raise awareness for the need to reduce water consumption.

It was a successful 1st Go Green Week event for the University, with the next planned for 2023.

Hedgehog Rescue

At the end of 2021 the University teamed up with local hedgehog rescue organisation Little Wiggly Snouts to become a rescue hedgehog release site.

Warlock and Phantom were only five months old when they were released with members of the University’s Environmental Science subject area and Campus and Estates Services team volunteering to make sure they were watered and fed over the festive season.

Read more about the Hedgehog rescue in the UON news article.

Sustainability Forum

The Sustainability forum is one of the Northamptonshire Industry Led Forums powered by the University of Northampton to support Northamptonshire Businesses – across all sectors and sizes.  All forums are open to those in the field to share best practice and be updated on a wide range of topics and collaborate on issues and find out how the university can support businesses.

Members of the sustainability forum cover sectors such as logistics, food and drink, manufacturing, housing and healthcare.  Recent topics discussed include: legislation, biodiversity, recycling, clean air and low emission zones, funding, student projects, in house projects around sustainability, sharing best practice, electric vehicles (EV) and EV charge points.

For further information on the Northamptonshire Industry Led Forums please see our Northamptonshire Industry Led Forums and Events 2020 listing.

Wellbeing walks

Wellbeing walks are an opportunity for our Staff and Students to attend guided walks of our site.  Our most recent wellbeing walk was centred around the biodiversity of our campus, for a group of Marketing students at our University. This took place on 2 November and was led by John Howes our Head of External Services. Our students used the information they gathered and images they captured to create a map of campus as part of a project contributing to their course.

Other walks that have taken place have included a bird walk led by Ian Moore a member of our external services team. As our resident bird expert Ian was able to provide a great deal of information on the walk as well as some live bird stopping.

Willow weaving workshop

In December 2019 staff and students took part in a project to promote conservation and sustainable utilisation of our campus land by sourcing and creating weaved willow holiday decorations.

Students learnt to and helped our External Services team with coppicing Waterside campuses willow trees, a process for managing woodland where you cut down a tree to around 2-6 inches to encourage multi-stem growth, that must be completed every 2 years. Currently on campus we have 8 different kinds of willow, identifiable by the colour of their stems.

Once coppiced the material was transported, on foot, to the Resource Centre where a drop-in workshop was run. Staff and students were able to learn to weave the willow to create a variety of decorations and baskets waste free.

Community litter picks

A call was put out in the early months of 2019 for volunteers to participate in a series of 3 litter picks in the surrounding areas of our campus to benefit our local community, promote sustainable land use and correct disposing of waste.

Several our students and staff as well as members of the community came forward to volunteer. The group worked together throughout March 2019 to complete litter picks around Northampton town. The team of University staff who organised these events worked alongside the volunteers and Olympus Care to litter pick, Delapre Abbey, New South Ridge Road and Cliftonville TBC.

Over the course of the 3 litter picks a total of 367.71 kg of litter was collected. This was separated during each pick into recyclable and residual bags to enable as much as possible to be recycled.