UK rivers and microplastics

Life below water, in rivers and at sea, is threatened by waste flowing from urban river channels into the oceans.

We’ve been highlighting the effect of microplastics – very small pieces of plastic debris including microbeads, microfibres and plastic fragments – on river systems and marine life through a range of pro-active media coverage, engagement with water companies and input into UK legislation on water management.

Ocean warming and shark survival

Our undergraduate students have assisted a study into the effects of warming ocean waters on the small-spotted catshark embryo’s freeze response: a technique whereby the embryo stops moving so that predators won’t detect them.

The research found that with a 5°C water temperature increase there was a seven-fold decrease in the length of time the embryos froze for in the presence of a predator stimuli, indicating that as oceans warm, many shark and ray species may reduce in number due to increased predation.

Removing harmful pollutants from industrial wastewater with innovative technology

Researchers in Chemical Engineering and Analytical Sciences have worked with our spin-out company Arvia Technology to develop an electrochemical process that has dramatically reduced wastewater pollution levels and enabled water recycling across numerous industries.

The Arvia process has reduced pollutant levels from pesticides to match UK drinking water standards; removed 90% of pharmaceutical residues and natural hormones from industrial wastewater; and reduced the release of high microbial wastewaters which can cause anti-microbial resistance.

Arvia Technology has now installed treatment systems in 25 companies across 11 countries, including the UK and China.

Diverseafood

Through the Diverseafood project, our researchers are investigating how seafood can contribute to sustainable, healthy diets.

They are assessing the best methods to transition to more diverse seafood intake by looking at the impacts of sustainable aquaculture at the levels of business models, policy, and consumer acceptance.

Divesting from fossil fuels

We’re ending investments in fossil fuel reserve and extraction companies by 2022, and ‘decarbonising’ all other investments by 2038.

This policy was developed in consultation with the University’s Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and our Students’ Union.

Towards net zero

The University has pledged to support Manchester’s climate change target for zero carbon by 2038.

This involves reducing carbon emissions from a 2018 baseline of 54,000 tCO2 to at least 21,000 tCO2 by 2025 and placing carbon impact at the heart of strategic decision making in the University’s new strategic plan.

The carbon footprint of the music industry

Climate scientists at our Tyndall Centre are partnering with Bristol-based band Massive Attack to jointly examine the carbon footprint of the music industry.

Utilising data from the Massive Attack touring schedule will provide information and guidance to the wider music industry to reduce negative environmental impacts.

GrowGreen project

Our academics are involved in GrowGreen, a five year, EU-wide project that promotes nature-based solutions to climate change.

The project involves a range of citizens, business and public-private partnerships in neighbourhoods and across cities to promote learning, sharing and replicating nature-based solutions and strategies to urban sustainability challenges.

Roots and Branches

Our Manchester Museum has been awarded Arts Council England and National Lottery Project Grant funding for an ambitious two-year partnership project in collaboration with Museum Development North West and the Carbon Literacy Trust. The project will accelerate the museum sector’s ability to respond to the climate crisis.

The Museum will host the ‘roots’: creating a nationally significant co-working hub of cultural environmental action that will bring together museum staff, educators, environmentalists, artists, researchers, third sector organisations and students.

Student campaigning and activism

Our Students’ Union set up Climate Justice Fortnight, an initiative exploring the different ways that climate injustice manifests itself, and how we can tackle it.

There are Teach-Ins throughout the fortnight where students and academic staff collaborate on delivering content on these issues in their current class times.

Students also organise activities and actions through societies such as the People and Planet Society or Extinction Rebellion Youth; get involved in sustainability leadership roles such as the Students’ Union’s Ethical and Environmental Officer; take on  environmental representation roles in halls of residence; and attend events and campaigns such as the youth strikes for climate action.

Climate action in study programmes

Our students are taking on the challenge of climate change across hundreds of undergraduate and postgraduate modules in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering.

In addition, every undergraduate student has the opportunity to take Climate Change and Society, a unit offered by our University College for Interdisciplinary Learning, which explores the politics of climate change action and analyses the challenge from the perspective of multiple stakeholders and different nations.

Changing how international policy organisations understand and manage environmental problems

Research by Alliance Manchester Business School has demonstrated how large-scale transitions are needed to deliver significant climate change.

This has transformed how reducing greenhouse gas emissions is understood and addressed by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and has fed directly into policy recommendations made by the European Environment Agency.

Empowering local climate-change action

To enable the UK to deliver significant carbon emissions reductions, the University created the Tyndall Local Carbon Budget Tool, helping cities, regions and organisations to play their part in achieving the global Paris Agreement.

Building on the Setting City Area Targets and Trajectories for Emissions Reduction (SCATTER) project, this foundational research established the importance of embedding carbon budgets – rather than end point targets – in setting carbon reduction targets.

It has been used by 250 UK local authorities, led local policymakers to focus on immediate emissions reductions and shaped global policy as part of the United Nations’ Race to Zero initiative.

Social Value Portal

We’ve become the first higher education institution in the UK to adopt the Social Value Portal, the leading online tool that helps organisations prioritise and measure their social value when they procure, or pay for, major services.

Change Points

We worked with colleagues at The University of Sheffield on Change Points to develop new ways of understanding how householders’ routine activities end up demanding resources, including energy, food and water.

A key output was the co-design of a toolkit to support policy makers and other non-academic stakeholders interested in developing nuanced policy processes and business practices around household sustainability.

SCI Festival

Every year, our Sustainable Consumption Institute (SCI) holds the SCI Festival, promoting active discussion and networking among the public, practitioners and policy makers working on the front line of social change towards sustainability.

Want Not Waste

Want Not Waste is a student-run, zero-waste shop on campus, supported by the University to grow from a small stall operating out of our Students’ Union, to owning its own independent unit.

They’ve also developed a series of online resources to foster a community of knowledge sharing and inspiring pro-sustainable choices.

Sustainable materials research

Our One Bin to Rule Them All research programme has drawn on our Sustainable Materials Innovation Hub in our Henry Royce Institute, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and  Sustainable Consumption Institute to work with 17 industry partners and local authorities to address key challenges in the plastics lifecycle.

Researchers from our Sustainable Materials Innovation Hub are also working with the manufacturer Callaly to develop alternative sustainable materials for menstrual hygiene products to help combat the growing need for natural-renewable alternatives for plastics.

Setting the standard for cleaner skies

Research from our School of Natural Sciences and the National Centre for Atmospheric Science formed an integral part of informing new regulatory standards on emissions of non-volatile particulate matter (nvPM), the metric used for aircraft emissions regulation. The work has enabled two new international standards for soot emission measurement; contributed to an aircraft emission regulatory update, affecting air quality around the world; and is also driving a reduction in global aviation soot in new aircraft engines.

Sustainable travel

We received platinum accreditation from Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), recognising the University’s contribution to sustainable low-carbon travel.

Cultural institutions

Our four key cultural institutions – the Manchester Museum, the Whitworth, John Rylands Research Institute and Library and Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre – provide access to more than a million visitors each year to engage with buildings, collections, monuments and natural heritage landscapes, advancing how our city and region can be inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

From 10,000 to 50,000 Actions

In 2016 we launched 10,000 Actions, the biggest environmental sustainability initiative in the UK higher education sector, with 50% of our 10,000+ staff accessing the platform.

In autumn 2021, we’re launching a revamped 50,000 Actions that expands the platform to the whole of our student body.

Ageing-friendly culture

Our Manchester Museum is working with regional and national partners to host a pioneering Creative Ageing Development Agency (CADA) – a national organisation advocating for and supporting the culture sector to be more age friendly.

Towards Inclusive Environmental Sustainability

Our Towards Inclusive Environmental Sustainability research project is engaging with communities of Pakistani and Somali heritage (two of the largest and fastest-growing groups in Manchester) on research to understand how knowledge and practices of migrants from the Global South contribute to building just and sustainable cities in the Global North.

Air quality

Our Policy@Manchester publication On Air Quality explores how air pollution affects public health, economic outcomes and acts to widen existing inequalities.

Some of the recommendations include extending projects such as the Manchester Urban Observatory and citizen science projects like Britain Breathing to provide accurate on-the-ground information about poor air quality, which disproportionally affects already-disadvantaged communities.

We’ve also helped create the Clean Air for Schools Framework, which engages and educates the next generation to help them and their families make cleaner air choices.