UWLSU has a commitment to creating an environment that promotes sustainability for our students. We work continuously to support different sustainability initiatives. The Sustainability Network is something that any student can get involved in and is here to further the sustainability of our community and society.
What does Sustainability mean?
The term ‘sustainability’ covers four different areas, which are called ‘The Four Pillars of Sustainability’. These pillars are Social, Human, Economic and Environmental. Here’s a quick summary of what they all mean:
Social Sustainability
Social Sustainability includes work done to ensure communities, cultures and societies can thrive and exist in a fair and healthy environment. This includes a lot of our liberation work, to celebrate and raise awareness for different cultures and groups within our community.
Human Sustainability
Human sustainability refers to the maintenance of human capital. This basically means giving people the knowledge, skills and health to be productive members of society. Our commitment to this area includes providing work and learning opportunities, and following awareness campaigns that we think directly impact or interest our students’ wellbeing.
Economic Sustainability
Economic sustainability aims to maintain economic growth, so that a standard of living is kept up for members of society. This can feed into other areas where we can keep opportunities accessible for everyone. This can include keeping our food and drink pricing as low as possible, running cheap or free events, and providing resources that will help people to manage their money better.
Environmental Sustainability
Environmental sustainability includes actions taken to help to contribute to the preservation of the environment, which will in turn help towards protecting future generations. UWLSU are mindful of our environmental impact in every activity we put on, service we provide and resource we use. We are continuously working on improving our delivery. This year, that has included cutting down on physical promotional material, sourcing better packaging options, and making reusable items more accessible.
The Purpose
We want to create an organised community in which students can develop, build connections and strategically engage in sustainable actions. UWL and UWLSU are rapidly incorporating sustainability in their practice, as a student body, we can have a huge impact even with small changes.
We have a responsibility to create a sustainable way of life for everyone. This means a fair, healthy environment with equal access to opportunities and resources. We all have an influence on the world and society, that will impact not only our own lives, but those around us and future generations. We want to create the best community we can for students, as well as set them up for successful futures.
How you can get involved
Want to be part of our sustainability initiatives? There are loads of things that we would love your help on, like events, video content, blogs and workshops. Reach out to us at uwl.su@uwl.ac.uk and we can let you know what we have coming up or how you can start your own idea! Make sure you include “Sustainability Network” in the subject, so we know straight away what it’s about.
Useful Resources
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Future Events
Take a look at events we are running in the future here: