Creating a fairer and greener energy supply

Our Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Tyndall Manchester have been collaborating with Electricity North West to help better manage its network, improving sustainability and saving money for the company and customers alike.

Our research with them addressed three key areas that impact electricity supply: smart distribution networks for managing supply with demand; managing power flow fluctuations; and assessing the carbon footprint of different network investment options.

Our work led to changes in their network investment, enhancing renewable energy sources and reducing energy bills for customers. This work could fundamentally change electricity supply in the UK, with approval being agreed for national rollout.

Sustainable urban drainage

We utilise sustainable water extraction technologies on associated university grounds off campus.

This includes using sustainable urban drainage techniques to minimise surface water run-off and flood risks in an environmentally friendly way by mimicking natural water systems such as ponds, wetlands, swales and basins.

Water procurement

We sell exclusively One Water on campus, an ethical company that donates all of its profits to fund clean water systems in Africa while costing the same as other water brands.

Female sanitation

We’ve worked with our Students’ Union and current Women’s Officer to initiate and fund a new scheme providing free period products for our students, helping to combat period poverty and ensure sanitation for all.

Green spaces, health and wellbeing

Our Natural and Cultural Health Service is a programme of outdoor activities run by the Whitworth to promote good physical and mental wellbeing.

Staff, students and the public are also encouraged to use our FIRS botanical gardens to bring gardening, wellbeing and botany to more people.

Kindling Trust

We support the Kindling Trust, a local organisation aiming to combat climate change, biodiversity loss, and economic inequity, by challenging and subverting the industrial food system. We buy vegetables through Kindling’s operatives and have taken shares in Kindling Farm – a new blueprint for fair, organic and ecological farming.

Take a Bite out of Climate Change

Our Take a Bite out of Climate Change partnership aims to share the scientific consensus about how food and agriculture contribute to climate change. It funds easily accessible information and fun activities for citizens such as Climate Food Flashcards, Farming for the Future workshops and the free e-book Food and Climate Change – Without the Hot Air.

Sustainable food study programmes

Our BA Geography students undertake a Food and Farming unit covering hunger, ethical consumerism, environmental sustainability, animal rights and social equity.

Biosciences undergraduates take a Plants for the Future unit exploring how plant biology can address social and environmental challenges.

Through a Green Biotechnology unit, students engage with the latest developments in sustainable food production, energy generation and pharmaceutical production.

Sustainable agriculture through electronic engineering

Our Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering is examining how electronic engineering can improve food supply and sustainable energy production without increased pressures on our land.

E-Agri Manchester is using e-devices for reducing waste, increasing yields and making crops more resilient.

We also work on sustainable agriculture with the eight most research-intensive universities in the north of England through an N8 AgriFood programme.

Creating sustainable livelihoods through group farming

Our Global Development Institute has examined whether cultivating in groups – by voluntarily pooling land, labour, funds and skills and sharing costs and benefits – enables small farmers to create larger, more profitable enterprises in South Asia and beyond.

The research in Kerala, south India showed that carefully structured group farming created sustainable, food-secure livelihoods for vast numbers of poor women farmers.

Amrita Live-in-Labs

Our Amrita Live-in-Labs Project puts scientific and engineering research to practical use for societal benefit in India, a country that is home to 33%  f the world’s poor. For example, students from our Department of Materials designed a smokeless stove for cooking in huts to reduce respiratory problems and developed strategies to educate children in mathematics in Chhattisgarh, a state with one of the poorest rates of educational achievement in India.