Undergraduate students, master’s students, PhD students, academic staff, support staff and contractors are all valuable members of the university community and have their own unique perspectives when it comes to campus life at UEL.

In the summer of 2017, the Sustainability Team conducted a series of stalls on each UEL campus in order to survey UEL personnel on what they thought about sustainability on campus. The aim of holding these stalls was to help with the development of the UEL Sustainability Strategy by gathering thoughts from the entire cross-section of people at UEL. We surveyed 482 members of the UEL community over the summer, asking them questions like which areas they thought UEL should focus on to show its commitment to the planet and its people, and how sustainability could connect students, staff and the community.

Given the question of which areas UEL should focus on to show its commitment to the planet and its people, both students and staff had the same top three answers of energy saving, education and engagement and waste generation and recycling. Both groups also reacted positively to the possibility of incorporating sustainability into practical projects on campus that could serve as work placements or dissertations.

The Sustainability Team had a great time interacting with so many different people across all UEL campuses, and received lots of interesting and innovative ideas for the vision of a sustainable UEL.