What we're doing

At Winchester Student Union, we are always striving to be more sustainable by changing the way we do things or implementing new initiatives. It's important you know about the work we've done to become more sustainable, and the work we intend to do in the future.

Work undertaken so far:

• Charging a 50p ‘cup tax’ at our coffee shop, to discourage single-use cups.
  • Reusable coffee cups can be obtained during Fresher's Week or from the University's reception.
• Tackling period poverty through our Freebie Bin and providing sustainable period products as well.
  • Not able to come and collect items in person? We have a Freebie Bin Delivery service!
• Our shops do not supply plastic carrier bags and encourage students to bring their own reusable bags.
  • This is the same for events such as Freshers, and off-campus trading such as Graduation.
• We’ve held Sustainability Sessions throughout this academic year for students to come along and give us their feedback. If you've missed them - don't worry. Any feedback is welcome via Student.Union@winchester.ac.uk or by completing this feedback form.
• We hold a Sustainability and Environment Committee, and students are invited to come along! 
  • More information about the Sustainability and Environment Committee can be found under Bye-Law 1.
• We publish a range of articles to help you with living sustainably, which can be found here.
  • Make sure to educate yourselves on Recycling, and ensure you're familiar with the Waste Hierarchy.
• We’ve made an effort to help with the rising CoL and to tackle fast fashion by hosting Clothes Drives for 2 years now, along with a range of other initiatives including a Food Swap Shop, Breakfast Clubs, and Shuttle Buses to Aldi.
• This year we are participating in Green Impact, to push ourselves further with our sustainability work.
• In 2023 we updated our Environmental Policy.
• On 27th March we hosted an Energy Efficiency pop-up in the Terrace Bar. Students came along to find out about how to save money by being more efficient with their energy, and helping the planet too! Students could also come down and customise their own piggy bank! (Missed the pop-up? Don't worry! You can find a digitised version of our energy efficiency tips here).

What’s next for us

• We are continuing to work towards a Green Impact award, and are aiming for 'Good' this year (with future work to feed into a 'Very Good' score by next year).
• We work very closely with students, and the Events Society to put on student-led events in our venue. With this in mind, we are currently developing a Sustainable Events Plan, to let students and third-parties know how to make events held on-campus more sustainable.
• On April 22nd we will be hosting our first Sustainability Hub! Offering an enrichment session for StARs, a Sip Smart Stay Safe pop-up, and an Energy Efficiency pop-up so make sure you don't miss out!