Aston Students’ Union Sustainability Achievements

This year we have scored a total of 101 points in Green Impact Students’ Unions, which gives us a “Good” Accreditation mark. Next year, we are hoping to improve and achieve Very Good or Excellent.

In a challenging political and global climate, it is unions, universities, colleges and communities leading the way on sustainability. Students’ unions have excelled, implementing and embedding good environmental practices, while expanding their engagement with sustainability to integrate social, political and economic factors.

2017/18 has marked the 11th year of GISU, and to ensure the programme continues to meet the sustainability challenges and opportunities faced by students unions, the toolkit is in its second year

of focusing on fewer, more meaningful actions to best equip students unions’ to properly embed sustainability. This renewal has led to a year of learning, navigating new issues and better critical reflection.

70 unions have engaged with the programme this year, with 61 reaching the audit stage. A total of 14,099 points were awarded across the 50 sustainability actions each union could complete

through the Green Impact toolkit. This is a significant achievement encompassing a breadth of activities from campaigning and influencing to conducting sustainability research and inducting and training student and staff members. These results are the collective achievement of all the students, officers and staff members involved in your local Green Impact committees or working groups.

For more information, news, case studies and information about NUS’ other sustainability programmes, visit www.nus.org.uk/sustainability