Communications were issued throughout the year to staff and students via email and social media on subjects including UCA’s commitment to reaching Net Zero Carbon emissions by 2030, the commencement of our two year project to decarbonise our Farnham and Epsom campuses and our two-week focus on local community environmental activity in March 2023.
Read more about the Net Zero target here.
A month-by-month breakdown of engagement activities throughout 2022/23 is given in our Student & staff engagement strategy and plan for 2022/23.
In November 2021 prior to the COP26 International Conference on Climate Change UCA announced to students, staff and external stakeholders its commitment to reach Net Zero carbon emissions by 2030. This commitment is focused on Scope 1 and 2 emissions.
During the COP26 conference UCA partnered with Surrey County Council which funded Coming Up for Air; a three-week public exhibition of work by our Fine Art students and staff at UCA Farnham. Students and staff were briefed to create work in response to climate change and sustainable travel. The exhibition and interviews with contributors were livestreamed at the COP26 conference in Glasgow on 10 November 2021.
In August 2021, UCA Students' Union (UCASU) took part in the National Union of Students (NUS) Green Impact awards and achieved reaccreditation of their ‘Excellent’ ranking. The award is in recognition of UCASU’s achievements in sustainability.
In September 2022, the Sustainability Manager took part in the Fresher’s Week Fairs, distributing information and meeting with new students and delivered talks at each campus on UCA and Sustainability.
In 2015 The Centre for Sustainable Design® (CfSD), part of UCA’s Business School for the Creative Industries, set up a collaboration with Transition Town Farnham to establish Farnham Repair Café (FRC). FRC is a place where local people can seek advice and get free assistance from local volunteers to repair and extend the useful life of broken or faulty products, including electrical and mechanical products, furniture, clothing, textiles and bikes. Between January 2015 and June 2023, FRC has attracted over 4,500 visitors and achieved over 2,000 fully repaired products, diverting over five tonnes of products from disposal to landfill and reducing carbon emissions by almost 53 tonnes (Farnham Repair Cafe). During the course of its operation, twelve Farnham students and two UCA members of staff have regularly volunteered their time and expertise to assist with repairs and help run the Repair Café.