Sustainability Action Plan

Read our plans for the next few years.

Introduction

Welcome to Keele Students’ Unions First Sustainable Action Plan passed by the Keele SU Board of Trustees December 2022. The Climate Crisis and Environmental Injustice is becoming an increasingly important issue for our members, highlighting the importance of combatting this crisis not only by the University but by the Students’ Union to meet the needs of current students but also future student generations.

“Since 2010, around 80 per cent of students have told us that they want their institutions to be doing more on sustainability, and around 60 per cent want to learn more about it.”

Students Organising for Sustainability UK. (2010-2022) SOS-UK Sustainability Skills Survey

Vision

To be a global leader in sustainability within the Student Unions Sector, ensuring our organisation combats and minimises environmental, social, and economic injustices to create positive sustainable change for current and future students.

Mission

To embed sustainable justice in everything we do at Keele Students’ Union, empowering and developing our members with the skills and opportunities to facilitate worthwhile change within and outside our institution.

Core Themes

To achieve what is set out in this plan, we have determined 3 core themes which outline the specific areas of work in our action plan. They are as follows:

Governance

  • Ensures the organisation creates short- and long-term policy within through our democratic processes that keep the organisation accountable in the actions set out in this plan.

Empowering and Engaging Students

  •  Including students in our decision-making process and supplying them the opportunities and skills they need to embed sustainability within the organisation, institution, and wider community.

Operations and Commercial

  • Covering how the Union operates as an organisation and reviewing how we can be more sustainable infrastructurally and commercially.
     

Strategic Aim

This Sustainable Action plan, following the climate emergency declaration from the Students' Union aims to;

  • Facilitate positive and sustainable political and infrastructural changes to the Keele Students' Union Building.
  • Engage staff and students in the topic of economic, social, and environmental sustainability.
  • Emphasize Keele Students’ Unions pledge to sustainability now and in the future.
  • Embed sustainability in everything we do operationally and strategically.
  • Lead this plan with the Keele SU Sustainability Working Group
  • Lead an Intersectional approach into solving local sustainable problems based on a system of climate justice.

This plan will be led by the Sustainability Working Group and will meet every quarter to set out actions, reviewing and updating the plan every year. Decisions made and taken by the group will follow the triple bottom line concept to ensure all initiatives set out in the plan

are environmentally, socially, and economically conscious. Everything decided and completed will be reported to AGM and The Board of Trustees every year.