Sustainability and Sustainable Development Goals

We recognise the necessity to adapt our approach to reflect the changing international, national, and local challenges of climate change. We are making progress in establishing ourselves as a sustainable university. To assist in achieving this strategic goal, we embed consideration of our contribution to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals into our research, learning, teaching and operations. We also hold permanent observer status for Conference of the Parties (COP) and are signatory to SDG Accord which inspire, celebrate and advance the critical role that education has in delivering the SDGs. Secondly, the Accord is a commitment learning institutions are making to one another to do more to deliver the goals. These awards recognise the University’s strategic commitment towards achieving its sustainability objectives.

We have three main goals: 

• To have a sustainable campus and university
• To drive sustainable social and economic development through outstanding teaching, research and innovation
• To motivate the next generation of students to go out and tackle the sustainability challenges through their learning

The annually approved University budget supports sustainability in three ways:

• A specific budget pays for the staff and operating costs of the Sustainability team (including the Student Prize fund)
• More generally, the University budget supports the strategic objective to embed a consideration of the SDGs in the University’s teaching, research and operations.  The budget is allocated to faculties and service departments, and funds the staff and operating costs deployed to advance sustainability as reflected in the Sustainability Leadership Scorecard. Examples include: research furthering the SDGs; sustainable procurement; teaching related to the SDGs; improving energy efficiency; health and wellbeing initiatives; managing a biodiverse campus; business and community engagement initiatives; and a host of EDI activity. 
• The University provides a subsidy to the University of Bradford Union, whose activities include student engagement on sustainability.

The University’s annual report and accounts includes a section on Governance, Planet, People and Prosperity, which sets out how the University deploys these resources in support of sustainability

News from Sustainability 

Our people

Our team works closely with internal and external partners to deliver our sustainable initiatives. Our partners include Bradford Metropolitan District Council, West Yorkshire Combined Authority and many local charities and organisations. In addition to these partnerships, we engage with our student community through their elected sabbatical officers and have recruited a number of student Green Ambassadors who run environmental projects throughout the year.

Here are some of the key staff with sustainability within their remits: