The Students’ Union at UWE is delighted to announce we have been awarded ‘Excellent’ in our Green Impact submission for the 2019/20 academic year. This is the highest rating that can be achieved.

Green Impact is a sustainability and social responsibility programme run by Students Organising for Sustainability (SOS-UK).

We’d like to say thank you to all the students and staff involved in sustainability, that have made this happen. It would not be possible to achieve Excellent without all their hard work and passion for change!

Here are some of the highlights and achievements of our Green Impact submission:

• Shampoo bars now account for 1/3 of shampoo products purchased in The Students’ Union’s Frenchay shops.
• As part of The Students’ Union’s ‘Own Mug Discount’ scheme, 19,501 single-use plastic cups have been diverted from the waste stream. At a height of 9.5cm per single-use cup, this equates to saving 1929 Big Ben’s worth of single-use plastic.
• Over the last three years, The Students’ Union has saved 17.88 Tonnes of CO2 equivalent through our electricity usage. These energy savings are enough to charge 2,280,276 mobile phones or power three homes with electricity for one year.
• At our Farmers Market, organised by the Sustainability Committee, we found 44% of people in attendance were ‘very likely’ and 33% 'somewhat likely' to eat more vegan food after attending.
• Raising and Giving (RAG) raised £97,461 for charity. This is £13,000 more than the previous year.
• 1 in 5 student ideas submitted, were related to sustainability.