Social responsibility

We have consistently been ranked amongst the greenest universities in the UK by the People and Planet University League. In the latest league we gained a First Class award and were ranked 13th out of 151 institutions.

We work in partnership with many local and national organisations, and social responsibility is the watchword for everything we do.

Giving a fair deal

We are a Fairtrade University, meaning we have made a commitment to support and use Fairtrade products. We also run awareness-raising events, which have included a visit by two Ghanaian cocoa growers to talk to students about how Fairtrade has helped their families.

Staff and Student Engagement

We aim to engage both our staff and our students in our work on sustainability to encourage them to take part in our projects and to raise their awareness about this important issue. All of our staff and students complete inductions which include information about our Environmental Policy, sustainability work and how they can get involved. The student e-induction contains a module on campus sustainability and the Sustainability team attend the Welcome Events for new staff. We regularly run awareness raising weeks and events for staff and students such as Climate Week, Green Week, Fairtrade Fortnight, DMU Blooming and activities and opportunities through our DMULocal project.

Making a green impact

Green Impact is a fun project to encourage staff at DMU to adopt greener behaviours by completing simple environmental tasks. The project encourages university staff, in the spirit of friendly competition, to 'green their workplaces' by completing a series of environmental activities, including saving energy, recycling, raising awareness amongst colleagues and making greener travel choices. Participating teams are awarded prizes depending on the number of environmental activities which they complete and DMU students are trained as special environmental auditors to check that teams have completed the activities to the required standard. Team are presented with their awards at a special Green Impact Awards ceremony.

Festival-goers face their elephants

IESD researchers have been taking their message of sustainable living to music lovers at festivals including Latitude and the Summer Sundae Weekender.

Local and international partnerships

DMU was an original partner of Leicester's successful bid to become the first 'environment city' in 1990. We have continued that partnership with the city and other organisations and are a member of the UN Regional Centre of Expertise for Sustainable Development as well as having chaired the former East Midlands Regional Assembly Energy Group. We are members of the Leicester Environment Partnership Board whose Expert Working Group is chaired by Professor Paul Fleming.