University takes gold award for its green credentials

21st May 2013

Sheffield Hallam University has been awarded 'Gold' status in the Business in the Community Environment Index 2013, finishing above household names such as BUPA and Balfour Beatty.

  And with a score of 95% for environmental management, the University is the best performing education institution in the whole of the East region, covering Yorkshire and the Humber, the East Midlands and the North East. The Business in the Community Environment index scores businesses for their commitment to sustainability and their environmental policies and procedures. Sheffield Hallam's success is down to maintaining its international standards in environmental and energy management (recognised by ISO 50001 and ISO14001 statuses). The University has also demonstrated cuts to its carbon emissions and introduced behaviour-change campaigns - such as having 90 employees act as green champions across the University to promote the importance of sustainability to staff and students. Richard Cartwright, assistant director of estates development and sustainability at Sheffield Hallam, said: "We are delighted to be recognised as the highest rated educational provider in the Business in the Community Environment Index. In particular, we are pleased to be outperforming major household names from across a wide range of industries. "We hope to further improve our green credentials by introducing a dedicated environmental board to give us a more strategic focus on others areas of sustainability such as travel and waste management. "We are committed to ensuring sustainability is at the heart of our new developments, and our new building projects on Charles Street and at the Heart of the Campus on Collegiate Crescent are testament to this." Sheffield Hallam became the only university in the world to jointly hold ISO 50001 and ISO 14001 status across all operations. These are awarded to companies that can demonstrate exceptional environmental management, energy efficiency, reduced consumption and a reduction in carbon footprint. Only a handful of businesses across the world hold both.