The University of Worcester seeks to promote principles of sustainability and social responsibility in their broadest sense. Through teaching, research and knowledge exchange activities we will promote sustainable communities, services and use of physical resources.

Our vision

“Change Today, Protect Tomorrow”

Sustainability Policy

University staff sign a sustainability accord

Agreed in February 2008 and reviewed annually by the Board, the University of Worcester sets out how it will promote sustainable communities through our teaching, research, and knowledge exchange activities in a detailed policy. We will foster a culture that values sustainability in arts and culture and promotes social enterprise in the region.

One of the University’s core values is to promote sustainable development and active engagement with the community and fully accept our broad responsibilities to society. We are committed to continually improve our environmental performance and we have an environmental management system (ISO14001:2015, EcoCampus and Energy Management System ISO 50001:2018) to achieve this in a structured way.

We have performance indicators to help us to assess our current and future level of sustainability performance. We have signed up to the SDG Accord and are reporting annually our progress on the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This enables us to benchmark our performance against similar institutions and sector standards. Objectives and targets have been set to have a positive impact on society as well as to prevent pollution and mitigate the University’s negative environmental impacts.

Download and read our full Sustainability Policy.

Download and read our Sustainability Strategy 2020-2030.

Sustainability at the University of Worcester – a message from the VC and the Director of Sustainability to our staff and students

Sustainability Strategy Committee

The University established a Sustainability Strategy Committee, which includes student, academic, service department and union representation, in 2005, chaired by the Pro Vice Chancellor Research who is a member of the University Executive Board.

Read the terms of reference and membership of the committee. Its reporting route is via University Executive Board and the Board of Governors Audit committee receive an annual report.

The Director of Sustainability acts as a focal point for all aspects of sustainability within the University and works to develop local, regional, national and international networks to further the sustainability agenda. The Director of Sustainability reports to the PVC students who is a member of the University Executive Board.      

Sustainability Performance

We produce an annual sustainability report which summaries our activities and performance against quantitative and qualitative targets each academic year. Here we report on progress of our annual targets for last academic year 2022-23. Loreus have undertaken an independent verification of this Sustainability Report (2021-22) which has been prepared in accordance with the core option of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sustainability Reporting Standard. The scope of Loreus’ verification covers the data and information used to evaluate the University’s sustainability performance for the period 1st August 2021- 31st July 2022. 

Our Annual Sustainability Report has been a Green Gown winner in the Reporting with Influence category in 2020 and highly commended in 2023.

Get in touch

Katy Boom
Director of Sustainability
Email: k.boom@worc.ac.uk