BU achieves EcoCampus bronze award

29 July 2009

New award recognises BU’s commitment to be being a leading environmentally friendly university.

BU’s progression as one of the country’s most environmentally friendly universities has gathered pace after the institution was awarded a Bronze Award under the national EcoCampus scheme for higher education.

BU received the award for its effective Environmental Management System (EMS) following a successful external audit of BU procedures and policies by EcoCampus representatives.

The auditors were particularly impressed with the standard of BU’s submission of documentation and systems which EcoCampus described as being "of the highest standard”.

"We are delighted to achieve this first stage of national recognition through EcoCampus,” said Amanda Williams, BU’s Environmental Officer. “The Bronze Award underlines the commitment of BU’s senior management to reducing the University’s environmental impact and ensuring its environmental sustainability for years to come.

“The Award also signifies a great deal of work by colleagues throughout the University behind the scenes to ensure that BU is ready to move forward to the continued development of its EMS,” she continued.

Funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), EcoCampus encourages, rewards and provides tools to assist universities in moving towards environmental sustainability and good operational and management practices. EcoCampus also benchmarks environmental improvement.

Through the scheme, BU has built on its previous work in environmental management to develop the framework for enacting a more structured approach to improving the institution’s environmental performance.

Bronze is awarded on successful completion of the planning stage. This included developing an outline management structure and general requirements procedure, conducting a baseline environmental review, examining key legal requirements and environmental history of University sites, reviewing the environmental policy, establishing roles and responsibilities, evaluating training needs and developing a training plan.

Work is now well underway at BU towards achieving the Silver award – the implementation phase - which involves identifying the University’s significant environmental aspects and impacts, setting objectives and targets and implementing an environmental programme to ensure that these are achieved.