

Students’ Union Sustainability Update
The Students' Union has made some significant changes within the last few years and are trying to continually improve the impact that we have on the environment and local community.
In seeking to build upon this we now have sustainability specifically written in to the job description of both the Education and Welfare Officer and General Manager. In addition we now have an elected environmental officer on the SU executive for the first time. Our intention is to place sustainability within all job roles as they are reviewed over the next year.
We are aware that simply having sustainability written in to a job description is not good enough and so it is encouraging that many of our staff and students are engaged and in support of our new ethos. The brief headlines below outline some of the work we have done recently:
Sound Impact Awards
We are entering the Sound Impact Awards for the 2nd year and hope to improve upon our working towards accreditation status gained last year. A group of students and staff met to work through our application for this year. There are 192 criteria against which we are measured of which we currently fulfil 114 and 12 of the criteria are not applicable. Following our application we have been selected to be audited and we hope the process will result in a successful assessment of our sustainability credentials.
Clothing Supply
We now stock crested hoodies from the countries biggest supplier of Fairtrade clothing, Epona. These have proved popular and are profitable for us but there are some issues in terms of supply which remain difficult. Our other supplier, Gildan, is an American firm who have Fair Labour accreditation which is an American equivalent. We have now also insisted that all new sports clothing purchased must come from an ethically sourced provider however this has thrown up its own issues around assessing which suppliers are ethical as well as ensuring that these suppliers have the equipment we need at a competitive price.
Battledown Brewery
Battledown microbrewery is based in the centre of
Community Engagement
Our volunteering projects continue to provide a much needed service to the local community and as ever particular for young people in the
For details of how to volunteer click on the volunteering link on the navigation bar.
Black Out
Each year the Union supports 10 – 12 student groups from the event management course who have to organise an event as part of a second year module. We act as a client and set the events we want to see put on and the student groups make it happen. This year we have asked one of the groups to organise a black out day on the 9th February 2009. The idea was based on world earth day which began in
Green Edition of Space
The Green edition of space is now out. Pick up a copy of the current Space and you will find an 8 page pull out covering issues of sustainability on and off campus.
We are working with Cheltenham Borough Council to improve the amount of recycling done by our students in private housing in
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