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Sustainability Strategy Action Plan

See the key actions and target dates under our new Sustainability Strategy.

Objective 1: Ethical Educators

• Students as Partners and Innovators

  Action	Co-owner	Target delivery date
  1. Actively engage students, student societies and the Students’ Union on co-delivering the outputs from this strategy and shaping future sustainability policy	º£½ÇÉçÇø Students’ Union	August 2021
  2. Recruit recent º£½ÇÉçÇø graduates and current students to be paid members of the university Sustainability Team	Maddison Taylor (Access and Participation Manager, Student Experience)	August 2021
  3. Hold grand challenges and innovation competitions to support our students to create the sustainability solutions of the future	Emily Huns (Head of Careers, Employability and Entrepreneurship)	July 2021
  4. Conduct a review focused of promoting social impact in student entrepreneurship		September 2021
  5. Directly link all of our student careers initiatives to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and monitor our impact by 2021

• Sustainability in All Degrees

  Action	Co-owner	Target delivery date
  6. Develop action plans in all schools to deeper embed sustainability in the curriculum	Graeme Pedlingham (Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor: Student Experience)	August 2022
  7. Offer a new online interdisciplinary introduction to sustainability certificate course to all first and second-year undergraduate students from August 2022 - enabling each academic school to adapt the content into a school specific 15 credit module in 2023, if appropriate		August 2023

• Sustainable Research Practices

  Action	Co-owner	Target delivery date
  8. Further embed sustainability within our research methods and processes	Seb Oliver (Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research)	December 2023
  9. Gain LEAF sustainable lab accreditation	Rob Fowler (Deputy Chief Technical Officer)	August 2022

• Supporting Equality Diversity & Inclusion

  Action	Co-owner	Target delivery date
  10. Achieve the goals set out in our Equality Diversity and Inclusion Strategy – Inclusive Sussex	DPVC Culture, Equality and Inclusion (following recruitment)	December 2025

Objective 2: Decarbonising the economy

• Net Zero by 2035

  Action	Co-owner	Target delivery date
  1. Set a target of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2035 with indicative interim targets for 2025 and 2030	Adam Tickell (Vice-Chancellor)	June 2021
  2. Set an annual carbon reduction target in August each year to be monitored as a key performance indicator by Council		August 2022

• Excellent Carbon Accounting

  Action	Co-owner	Target delivery date
  3. Put in place more robust carbon accounting practices and achieve Science Based Target Initiative (SBTI) Net Zero Carbon Standard accreditation	Carey Mclaughlin (Assistant Director of Finance)	August 2023

• Decarbonised energy infrastructure

  Action	Co-owner	Target delivery date
  4. Begin to invest in replacing priority fossil fuel dependent infrastructure with lower carbon alternatives by December 2026. Producing feasibility studies in each of the following areas by December 2021 a. Replacing our Combined Heat and Power Plant with a low carbon alternative b. Expanding our renewable energy production c. Creating a new sustainable transport hub d. Upgrading electric vehicle, scooter and bike charging infrastructure	Robert Hutton (Director of Estates, Facilities and Commercial Services)	December 2021 for feasibility studies December 2026 for beginning project delivery
  5. Reduce our digital emissions through our IT Network Replacement Project and Cloud-First Policy	Clare Gryce (Deputy Director of ITS)	December 2024

• Energy Efficient Campus

  Action	Co-owner	Target delivery date
  6. Improving the energy efficiency of our campus by: a. High level auditing the energy efficiency of all of our estate by December 2021 b. Producing investment opportunity analysis of the 20% of our poorest performing buildings and business cases for improvements by August 2023 c. Upgrading our Building Energy Management Systems – e.g. automatic heating controls – by August 2022 d. Developing minimum environmental product standards for the furnishings and fixtures that we buy for our estate by December 2022 e. Identifying if there is a business case to move beyond BREEAM Excellent environmental construction standards for new buildings by December 2022	Francine Hill (Deputy Director of Estates)	Completion of these commitments by August 2023 – ahead of further analysis and improvements by August 2030
  7. Introducing new more modern flexible ways of working that can reduce our carbon footprint	Rachel Mills (Provost)	August 2025

Objective 3: Civic leaders and partners

• Sustainable Supply Chain

  Action	Co-owner	Target delivery date
  1. Launch a new Sustainable Procurement Principles Framework to help select the suppliers that more closely share our sustainability values	Ian McKee (Assistant Director of Finance)	June 2021
  2. Assess the quality of our sustainable practices against the ISO 20400 Sustainable Procurement Standard by August 2022 and consider what (if any) action is required to make any desired improvements by August 2023 (subject to feasibility review)		August 2023
  3. Investigate the feasibility of applying for Real Living Wage Accreditation		August 2023

• Active and Sustainable Commuting

  Action	Co-owner	Target delivery date
  4. Set annual active and sustainable commuting targets	Scott Noble (Head of Service Delivery Estates and Facilities Management)	August 2022
  5. Implement our active and sustainable travel plans in full. This will include: introducing an active travel reward app, promoting cycling and commissioning a feasibility study by August 2021 into the creation of a new sustainable travel hub		August 2025
  6. Reduce the emissions made by car journeys by introducing: more progressive parking charges (subject to equality analysis); ride sharing; and a possible lower cost ultra-low emission vehicle leasing scheme for staff		August 2023
  7. Make all of the University’s vehicle fleet ultralow emissions		August 2025

• Better Business Travel

  Action	Co-owner	Target delivery date
  8. Introduce a new sustainable business travel policy	Martin Hookham-Simms (Head of International Office)	December 2022
  9. Ensure our contracted Travel Management Company provides the optimal balance between value for money and sustainable travel, consistent with our sustainable business travel policy	Ian McKee (Assistant Director of Finance)	December 2022
  10. Review our video conferencing options and work with staff and students to set annual targets for reducing business travel emissions	Martin Hookham-Simms (Head of International Office)	August 2023

• Community and Voluntary Impact

  Action	Co-owner	Target delivery date
  11. Promote an increase in volunteering amongst staff and students - including introducing a new staff volunteering allowance	Matthew Naish (Reward Manager)	August 2021
  12. Identify opportunities to help make our employees homes more sustainable		August 2024
  13. Be active partners in various community sustainability partnerships	Sue Baxter (Director of Innovation and Business Partnerships)	Ongoing

Objective 4: Environmental Champions

• 50% of Waste Recycled by 2025

  Action	Co-owner	Target delivery date
  1. Set target to recycle 50% of our waste by 2025 (subject to further compositional analysis)	Adam Tickell (Vice-Chancellor)	June 2021 to set targets and August 2025 to achieve them
  2. Set target to reduce the volume of weight produced per student by 10% by 2025
  3. Set annual recycling targets for all of our waste streams	Scott Noble (Head of Service Delivery Estates and Facilities Management)	August 2022
  4. Tender our waste contracts, ensuring appropriate recycling targets and innovation are included within them		December 2022
  5. Review of our current bin numbers, locations and signage		December 2021
  6. Launch a waste and recycling communications and engagement plan by August 2022 that will enable us to recruit a network of waste champions to help support and promote recycling and create behaviour change		August 2022
  7. Produce policies on plastic and project waste reduction		December 2022

• Responsible Food and Water Production and Consumption

  Action	Co-owner	Target delivery date
  8. Introduce four new sustainable food priorities that encourage: a. sourcing fresh produce from local suppliers b. better consumer information on food sustainability c. an increase in net zero cafes d. a reduction in meat consumption	Helen Power-Hosking (Head of Commercial Services)	August 2023
  9. Active support for sustainable food production and distribution on campus including the continued redistribution of surplus food		Ongoing
  10. Conduct a strategic review of options to improve water sustainability and set water consumption targets	Rachel Mills (Provost)	August 2024

• Biodiverse Campus

  Action	Co-owner	Target delivery date
  11. Publish our draft biodiversity policy	Rachel Mills (Provost)	August 2021
  12. Hold a Big Biodiversity Conversation from January 2022 to agree our target for setting aside either 30%, 40% or 50% of the land on campus for nature		January 2022

• Behaviour changers

  Action	Co-owner	Target delivery date
  13. Engage every member of staff, students – and where appropriate community members – in bringing our sustainability vision and strategy to life	James Hakner (Senior Communications Manager)	August 2021