Sustainability

Our Carbon Reduction Management Plan aims to provide direction for our overall carbon reduction strategy. This document acts as a policy for BSU to focus on our most impactful areas, and is updated regularly. 

BSU have set targets to reduce waste, including within our Food Waste Minimisation Plan, and our Sustainability Strategy. With these targets we aim to reduce the amount of waste produced, as well as ensure it is disposed of in a sustainable manner to support a circular economy. None of our waste is sent to landfill. 

BSU are currently Fairtrade accredited, reflecting the work done to promote fairtrade, and the products sold across campus. We are working towards Food for Life and Green Kitchen Standard accreditations, and expect these to be awarded summer 2025.

Vegetarian and planet based food is available at all of our food outlets, and one (our Pitta Bar) is completely meat-free. 

We also support community involvement in our food supply, by working with the grounds team to collect and use fruits grown on site. We have a shared allotment space at Newton Park that’s open to all students to grow fruit and veg, from first time growers to expert gardeners. Find out more about our allotments on our Growing Spaces page.

You can find out more in our Sustainable food policy and Food Waste Minimisation Plan.

Our beautiful grounds are a source of pride for BSU, and we aim to look after them well, with annual biodiversity monitoring and reporting, as well as living lab opportunities offered throughout many of our Bath based courses.

We have set specific targets for biodiversity within our Sustainability Strategy, and are also working towards our Green Flag certificate to recognise the hard work we do to maintain and improve our historic surroundings.

Travel and transport are recognised as an important part of our sustainability strategy, where we’ve set specific goals to improve our active and public travel uptake. We work closely alongside the Students Union to improve the buses available for travel to our campuses, and have set specific goals to improve air quality and reduce staff business and commuting emissions. 

Our Travel Plan and Travel Policy provide more detail.  

Bath Spa University understands that the goods and services procured in the course of University business have environmental, social and economic impacts throughout the supply chain, as well as financial impacts upon Bath Spa University.

Our Sustainable procurement policy contains more detail.

Our policy and targets for water use reduction are included within our Sustainability Strategy. We aim to improve our resource efficiency as well as investigate innovative ways of reducing consumption and promoting reuse.  

BSU are aware that construction is a significant source of emissions, and as a growing organisation we must ensure any new or refurbished builds are as sustainable as possible. Our Sustainability Strategy and Sustainable Construction Policy lay out our goals for this area.  

We are committed to ensuring students have access to green career prospects, and will only advertise jobs that align with our ethical careers policy.

We have a dedicated sustainability team at BSU, but all staff are involved in sustainability in one way or another. Our current team is as follows: 

Sustainability Manager: Ripley Hill-Nixon 

Sustainability Co-ordinator: Harry Richardson, Emma Jakins 

Energy Performance Officer: Eve Winwood 

We understand that to make a difference, we need everyone at the university to get involved. For this reason we host an Eco champions network, where our members of staff can get involved in our schemes, and start their own initiatives. 

Key responsibilities are to:

• Assist with the development and delivery of the Carbon Literacy Training programme
• Disseminate any changes to policy, practices and staff benefits focused on sustainability
• Share and take responsibility for department/school responses to the Travel Survey
• Coordinate the enhancement of the Sustainable Development Goals within the curriculum of employee’s department
• Relay any ideas or concerns highlighted by colleagues to the Sustainability Team

Any staff member with a passion and drive for sustainability is welcome to join the Environment Champion Network. We aim to have at least once representative from each department and school across all Bath Spa campuses. 

Meetings are open to all employees and are held quarterly.  

BSU are committed to looking after our employees, and are accredited as a Living Wage Employer. 

Bath Spa University are signed up to the Can’t buy my silence pledge, a campaign committed to end the misue of NDAs to buy victims' silence.

We are also committed to sustainable procurement practices, and are covered under the Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium by the Electronics Watch to ensure fair treatment of workers in global supply chains.  

Outsourced staff statement 

The University is committed to ensuring equal pay and conditions of employment for directly employed staff and for individuals hired outside of the University’s internal staff workforce, often referred to as outsourced workers. 

We expect outsourced workers to receive equivalent pay to that of staff directly employed by the University for undertaking equivalent roles and tasks, and as we are proud to be an accredited Living Wage employer, no less than the Real Living Wage for the time they are employed. 

We also ask contractors to pay at least the Real Living Wage rate to staff assigned to work under tendered contracts for the duration of the contract. 

We commit to regular review of all individuals hired outside of our internal staff workforce to ensure ongoing equality of pay and conditions for all staff and workers involved with the University. 

Proportion of academic staff on fixed term contracts 

We are proud of the work that we have completed in partnership with our Trade Union, UCU, to introduce permanent Teaching Fellow contracts, which have reduced the use of casual academic contracts at Bath Spa University. Providing greater job security for those working within these roles. 

As at May 2025, the proportion of academic hours worked by those on a fixed term contract compared with those hours worked by individuals on a permanent contract was 5.83%. This data set will be reviewed on an annual basis to ensure we maintain an appropriate proportion of academic staff on fixed term contracts. 

Engaging with our staff and students is key to reducing our environmental impact. This policy outlines how we will engage with staff and students, our targets and reporting mechanisms.

BSU have also signed up to Green Impact, a methodology to engage with staff across the university, encourage more sustainable action, and involve students in our annual auditing process.  

Bath Spa University (BSU) holds an active, robust and publicly available which applies to the full scope of the Institutions investments.

BSU is fully committed to acting in a socially responsible manner, its policy sets out consideration of Environmental, Social and Governmental (ESG) issues relating to all decisions regarding the Universities investment portfolio. 

Our Responsible Investment Policy is reviewed regularly by the Finance and Infrastructure committee to ensure the policy remains fit for purpose. Any proposed changes are subject to approval by the Board of Governors. This has been actively reviewed in the prior 5 years. 

The University is committed to ensuring the banks we hold deposits with are aligned with our sustainability goals, and comply with our Ethical banking policy. 

The University publishes its annual report and financial statements following formal approval at the December meeting of the Board of Governors.

Annual reports and financial statements for previous years are available online.

As part of our 2030 Net Zero target, we think it’s essential that our investments support the decarbonisation agenda.

In addition to our Fossil Free Pledge, we’ve developed a Responsible Investment Policy, which prevents us from investing in companies with corporate behaviour that leads to "Environmental Damage or Climate Change", which excludes investment in the fossil fuel industry. We also have an Investment Management Strategy.

To ensure this is upheld, we have in place a Financial Portfolio Committee, which reports to the Board of Governors.

To ensure transparency and share best practice, we publish an annual report on our investments, which measures ESG performance.

Bath Spa University has no investments in extractor fossil fuel companies and commits to ensuring that they will be excluded from any future investments we make. 

Read more about our commitment in our Fossil free pledge.

Our Finance and Infrastructure committee advises on the management of the University's assets, reporting to the Board of Governors.

A list of committee members that oversee investments can be found in the Finance and Infrastructure Committee Terms of Reference.

Meeting minutes can be found in the Board of Governors’ Documents archive list.