Helping UWL achieve its sustainability objectives 

The University of West London is a public university in the United Kingdom which has campuses in Ealing and Brentford in Greater London, as well as in Reading in Berkshire. We provide a combination of Hard and Soft Facilities Management services to the university. 

Within recent years sustainability has become central to almost every university’s strategic plans and policies, and many choose to pit themselves against each other in international ranking systems. Nowadays universities are under increasing pressure to define themselves as attentive to their environmental impacts as this can ultimately influence prospective students and staff. 

Universities can sometimes be likened to small cities due to the variety of dynamic and interconnecting systems within them. For the successful running of these institutions, factors such as building usage, waste generation, transportation and resource consumption are all essential considerations as are the array of educational, social and scientific activities that take place within them.   

A recent study described a sustainable campus as a ‘healthy environment, with a prosperous economy through energy and resource conservation, waste reduction and efficient environmental management that promotes equity in its affairs and exports these values at community, national and global level’. In order to attain a sustainable campus, its various stakeholders must come together and work synergistically.    

Sustainability can be a uniting theme and in this context great partnerships can be built between universities and the private sector, with a view not only to encourage sustainable development, but also towards finding common solutions to shared issues (i.e. adapting to climate change, eliminating single use plastics, resource efficiency).  

We have been working in partnership with UWL to identify areas where we can support the university in achieving its ambitious environment and sustainability objectives, which currently include switching to 100% renewable electricity by 2025, embedding the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), achieving ‘Platinum Eco Campus’ status plus several others. 

The immediate focus is tackling the waste objectives; diverting 100% of non-hazardous waste away from landfill and achieving a 55% recycling rate by 2021. Over the next 18 months we will work closely with UWL to implement various measures to reduce recycling contamination, raise awareness via campaigns and support student engagement workshops.  

Each year our client’s sustainability goals are becoming ever more ambitious; however, by sharing knowledge, working collaboratively, utilising emerging innovation and technology and making best use of our partnership with the Supply Chain Sustainability School we are able to effectively support them in achieving their vision.