Green Gown Awards 2016 – Best Newcomer – Royal Agricultural University – Winner

Green RAU – Caring for the fields and the beasts

The Royal Agricultural University (RAU) has a history of promoting sustainability - it was founded with the motto ‘caring for the fields and the beasts’ – but in 2014 our Environmental Action Plan set ambitious sustainability targets to achieve before 2016.

The targets were across ten areas and contributed to two main aims: to embed sustainability throughout the curriculum across each of the schools of study and to achieve an ISO14001 accredited environmental management system (EMS). Despite a small budget, these goals have driven a holistic series of interventions including installing innovative technologies; improving biodiversity on campus and in the community; incentivising behaviour change and reviewing supply chains. In 2015, the project led to a 14% decrease in carbon emissions on the previous year; or 32% since our 2005 baseline.

In early 2016 the academic validation process was amended to ensure all programmes include principles of Education for Sustainability in their design.

Top 3 learnings

1 Get as many people as you can involved and help them to take ownership

2 Celebrate successes and build on momentum

3 Try to embed sustainability in all projects – not just sustainability projects.

CO2t Savings: 14%196t CO2e
CO2e  Actual/Estimated: Actual
No. of yrs: 1

Videos

• Green RAU – Caring for the fields and the beasts (click to hide)