Performance
This section shares an overview of the overall performance standards we maintain as part of our sustainability programme and the external recognition we have received.
Awards and recognition
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- Highly Commended in ‘Reporting with Impact’ for our Annual Sustainability Report and its transparency of sustainability communication
- Highly Commended in ‘Tomorrow’s Employees’ for our Radical Sustainability industry engagement and learning partnerships
- Finalist in ‘Student Engagement’ for our Live Smart programme and its approach to involving students in sustainability action and leadership
Staff recognition awards
Photo caption: Professor Janet Dwyer awarded MBE
Congratulations to Professor Janet Dwyer, whose huge contributions to rural research to improve sustainable agriculture and pro-environmental rural development, was recognised with the award of an OBE in the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Janet was the Director of our Countryside and Community Research Institute from 2013 to 2021 and continues with her research and leadership roles in this area, including the National Innovation Centre for Rural Enterprise partnership programme.
Photo caption: Ed Moulding winner of annual sustainability staff award
Ed Moulding, Assistant Facilities Manager in the Estates team, was worthy winner of the Sustainability award in the University Staff Awards. Over many years Ed has taken the lead and delivered the change for a range of improvements to campus biodiversity. This year’s award recognised his support to student-led tree planting initiatives, creation of the new campus garden at Park, and beautiful wildflower displays for No Mow May.
Standards and accreditations
We continue to prioritise and uphold the good practices needed to maintain our status and accreditations in key areas of our sustainability programme:
ISO 14001 – our Environmental Management System – which is externally audited by British Standards Institute and provides assurance of our active approach to environmental protection and improvement across the University.
Find out more about its targets and objectives in the Operations and Net Zero sections.
United Nations Regional Centre of Expertise in sustainability education – known as RCE Severn, we are part of the global network of RCEs co-ordinated by the United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies – these partnership hubs develop sustainability learning activities to build capacity for change.
Find out more in the Collaboration section.
Carbon Targets ranking – Students Organising for Sustainability UK – this new assessment recognises the work being done by universities to reduce their carbon emissions as part of the move towards Net Zero. This ranking placed us in the top tier ‘Leading the Way’ with a score of 90/100.
Find out more in the Net Zero section.
Improvement actions
Fairtrade University
We have held Fairtrade status since 2006 and we’re proud to gain accreditation against the new Fairtrade University Award with the Fairtrade Foundation in 2022, gaining an additional 1 star for performance outcomes. This involved dedicated collaboration between our Sustainability and Estates teams, Student’s Union and catering provider BaxterStorey.
The standard operates by training students as auditors – and 3 of our students delivered the audit, assessed performance and worked with the Fairtrade Foundation to ratify the results.
Student Minds
We were proud to be one of the first cohort of 32 universities to join the Student Minds University Mental Health Charter in 2021. Working to a set of evidence-informed good practice principles and co-ordinated by our Student Services team, this framework – and the sector partnership behind it – aims to improve support for students and create a positive culture that can help students facing mental health issues to succeed and thrive.
Healthy Workplace
Our HR team led the process to achieve the Healthy Workplaces Gloucestershire Award in 2021 that recognises how we work to support the health and wellbeing of employees. This followed the Public Health England Wellbeing Charter status achieved two years ago.
Reporting on the UN Global Goals
This report meets our annual reporting commitments on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as an institutional signatory to the tertiary sector SDG Accord.
Throughout this annual report, we record how the actions and results shown in this report contribute to the delivery of the UN SDGs. The actions on this page contribute to the specific goals marked below. For more information click here.
