In September 2020, The Students’ Union ran a survey to find out more about your thoughts, priorities and concerns surrounding sustainability. Over 500 of you completed this- thank you! The results have helped shape our activity for this year and The Students’ Union sustainability strategy. 

We’d like to share the survey findings with you in this blog post.

• 60% of you felt your course has given you the opportunity to learn about sustainability. Did you know, UWE Bristol is working to ensure that all programmes of study provide sustainability content. You can find out more about this here.

The top five types of events you wanted to attend this year were:

• Plastics and reducing waste
• Sustainability and mental health
• Food and food waste
• Social and climate justice
• Sustainable consumption

We have responded by running a Climate Justice panel talk, Climate Anxiety café and the Sustainability Committee ran their campaign week, Let’s Talk Trash in March.  

• The top three priorities you’d like to see The Students’ Union work towards by 2022 were:
  • Removing unnecessary single-use plastics (we now have biodegradable bags in The Students’ Union Shop as well as our zero waste section)
  • Reducing our carbon footprint (we are part of UWE Bristol’s ambition to be carbon-neutral by 2030)
  • Divesting from fossil fuels (see our divestment update)

We will use this information to inform our new sustainability strategic plan, which we are currently in the process of creating. If you have any other feedback on this please email thegreenteam@uwe.ac.uk

• Additionally, many of you made a pledge to reduce your impact on the planet! These are the key themes of those:
  • Minimising plastics
  • Trying to be more zero waste
  • Eating more responsibly and more veggie/vegan – buying local and encouraging others to do the same
  • Reducing personal carbon footprint – with fewer flights, electric cars and public transport

We also followed up to see how you were getting on with the pledge, and your updates were overwhelmingly positive. Here’s just a couple of the updates we received:

“I have enjoyed nature more and have gone for walks more often! I have only shopped ethically or on Depop/eBay for clothes, and I've not bought as much makeup and when I have it's been vegan and cruelty-free!” (Olivia)

“I am making a lot of my own meals from fresh produce and refrain from buying fruits and vegetables wrapped in plastic. My red meat intake is greatly reduced to roughly once every two weeks at most. Before it was multiple times a week.” (Emily)

To find out more about getting involved in sustainability at The Students’ Union, check out the Green Team, our Bike Loan scheme, and Zero Waste shop.