The University launched a reusable and sustainable cup scheme in collaboration with Manchester City Council and InOurNature. The reusable Bee Cup can be found in several hot drink locations across campus and on Oxford Road, encouraging our students and staff to sip sustainably wherever they go. The scheme aims to significantly reduce the number of single-use paper cups used at our campus café locations every year. 

We have won the ‘2030 Climate Action’ prize at the prestigious UK & Ireland Green Gown Awards in recognition of its “forward looking and innovative” work to decarbonise the University’s operations. The Green Gown Awards celebrate the innovative and transformative initiatives and projects in sustainability across the further and higher education sectors, and the University of Manchester claimed the top prize for work supporting its new Environmental Sustainability strategy. Further details of our award can be found here.  

The University’s Whitworth gallery is the first gallery in the North-West of England to proudly join the hundreds of local councils, schools, universities, libraries, and cultural institutes who have Sanctuary status, pledging to create a culture of solidarity and inclusivity, and welcome people from a forced displacement background. The Sanctuary Awards recognise and celebrate the organisations who go above and beyond to welcome people seeking sanctuary.

Every September, our University takes part in a fun and friendly biking competition called Cycle September. The initiative encourages staff and students to ditch their cars and hop on their bicycles for their daily commute. In 2023, we placed 1^st in Greater Manchester and 3^rd overall in the UK, but there’s more to it than just the competition, choosing to cycle improves physical and mental wellbeing, reduces our carbon footprint and helps decrease traffic congestion around campus.

Our Manchester Museum has been working with the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) and the Anindilyakwa Land Council on a landmark repatriation project, returning 174 cultural heritage items to the Aboriginal Anindilyakwa community of Australia’s Northern Territory. The process of returning these items has supported Anindilyakwa cultural strengthening and revitalisation.

Previously known as ID Manchester, Sister is a joint venture between The University of Manchester and Bruntwood SciTech. The project will see the transformation of the University’s former North campus into a 4 million sq ft globally competitive innovation district and will help elevate Manchester’s position as a national centre for science and technology.

It will deliver commercial, innovation, and retail space, over 1,500 new homes, nine acres of public realm, and create more than 10,000 new jobs, training, and apprenticeship opportunities for people across Greater Manchester.

Each year, we host the Making a Difference Awards to celebrate the incredible and inspiring work of our University community. The awards highlight the extensive range of social responsibility initiatives of our staff, students, alumni and external partners, and covers categories such as benefit to research; widening participation; environmental sustainability and equality, diversity and inclusion.

We have cut our air travel emissions by 46% compared to pre-pandemic levels, decreasing them from 18,641 tonnes of CO2e (CO2equivalent) in 2018/19 to just over 10,000 tonnes of CO2e in 2022/23. The reduction in our emissions is equivalent to the carbon produced from driving over 32.5 million miles in an average petrol car. Our new  travel policy, which was put into effect last year, supports our ambition to be a leader in developing sustainable research and teaching practices. It includes several changes such as encouraging staff to have meetings online rather than in-person and to consider travelling by rail rather than air.

At the University of Manchester we are proud to be part of the City of Manchester team who worked together to achieve the Living Wage City Status. The University is a pioneer and advocate for the Real Living Wage in the City and has been a Real Wage employer since 2019.

Examples of our civic partnerships include:

• those with Manchester City Council on education, planning and the environment;
• the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and other local universities on a new Civic University Agreement to enhance regional social, economic and environmental wellbeing;
• a Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership and Health Innovation Manchester to drive local health improvements;
• the Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership to deliver growth, jobs and prosperity for the area;
• Innovation GM to catalyse inclusive economic growth, level up the north, and increase global trade.

We also prioritise global partnerships to advance our work towards the SDGs. These include:

• our Engaged Member status of the global Talloires Network;
• as a founding member of the global University Social Responsibility Network;
• as a member of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI).

To help promote biodiversity on campus, we’ve developed:

• an online, interactive campus Tree Trail highlighting 50 of the 1,500 trees across Oxford Road Campus, North Campus and Whitworth Park.
• a tree plan requiring the planting of two trees for every one removed by our campus developments.
• UMAPIT (University of Manchester Animal Positions and Information Tracker) – a bespoke app to allows the public to record sightings of urban wildlife species.

We ensure our biodiversity hotspots are taken care of:

The Firs is located on the University’s Fallowfield campus and houses a suite of facilities for environmental research, monitoring and engagement.

Our UNESCO World Heritage site, Jodrell Bank, is another area rich in biodiversity. 

We’ve also transformed a former road into Brunswick Park – a pocket park to enhance green space and wellbeing on campus.

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.

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

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.

We’re working with leading innovators from business, science, academia and local government in developing Innovation GM.

This is a new partnership to form the basis of a collaboration deal with government to create as many as 100,000 new jobs and boost the economy by £7 billion.

We have a University policy (PDF) on divesting from carbon- intensive energy industries.

Our entire investment portfolio is going through a staged disinvestment based on carbon intensity as well as fossil fuel reserves and extraction.

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.

Our Sporticipate programme serves to provide free and low-cost entry-level sport sessions for the University and wider community.

Sports staff also facilitate volunteering by colleagues and students for the good of local organisations.

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.