Community engagement

At the heart of our sustainability engagement activities are our students. They are the future leaders and decision-makers who will shape policies and practices to ensure a sustainable future. Through surveys and focus groups, we have actively sought their views on how we can embed sustainability in the curricula and student experience, helping us understand their interests, behaviours, and attitudes. Our Student Sustainability Drop Ins, led by the Student Sustainability Forum members, provide a space to bring students together to share their interest, enthusiasm and ideas around sustainability, discussing some of the multi-facetted solutions that are needed to address the climate crisis. The forum meet regularly to shape future plans, raising awareness within the university community of the importance of sustainable living and the power of collective action. 

Our staff have a wealth of expertise in sustainability research, net zero technologies, social impact and strategies to address environmental challenges. Across all our campuses, our professional services and academic teams play a pivotal role in developing and implementing sustainable practices within the university.

Through bi-annual surveys, we monitor our staff perceptions of sustainability and how we can help embed a sustainable ethos in their areas. We identified key sustainability themes from these surveys which will shape the sustainability engagement programme, including food, fashion, travel, and heat and energy

To recognise the importance of sustainability to our community, we have created the Sustainability Champion Award to celebrate outstanding efforts made throughout our community by individuals or teams to champion a sustainable future through leading by example. Additionally, the Sustainable Futures Award within the Principal’s Research Impact and Engagement Awards, recognises teams with outstanding achievement, innovation and creativity in finding research impact through the application of new technologies and approaches to sustainability challenges.

Both awards celebrate the variety of approaches that can be taken to support and enable our community to become more sustainable, whether through changing everyday habits to reduce our environmental impact or through pioneering technological advancement to enable innovative solutions. All approaches assist our University in fulfilling its 10 institutional commitments to become an environmentally sustainable global university.

Through our projects and activities, we are co-developing initiatives and events with our community partners to bring valuable local knowledge and experience that can enhance sustainability initiatives. By involving our global-local communities, we can create programmes that drive meaningful discussions on tackling the climate crisis, leading to more effective and inclusive solutions

At our UK campuses, we collaborate with local festivals to share our sustainability research. In Edinburgh, we partner with Dynamic Earth and the Edinburgh Science Festival to explore the latest cutting-edge research and community action that is driving change and leading the way for a more just and sustainable future.

Across our global campuses we work with local schools to embed sustainability in their teaching, inspiring the next generation to take an active interest in their environment and careers that will tackle future global challenges.

Our alumni network are active ambassadors for our university, with over 166,000 graduates in 190 countries. Our alumni community continue to make a positive difference to society and in their local communities throughout the world. We will be working together with our global alumni community to deliver a sustainable world and build flourishing communities for future generations. We are actively seeking partnerships, enterprise, and ideas from alumni for how we might best collaborate to secure the future we would all wish to see.