Sustainability Steering Group

In 2021, Ulster University's Senior Leadership approved a request to establish a Sustainability Steering Group (SSG) in place of the Environmental Sustainability Steering Group (ESSG) which was established in 2013. The SSG is responsible for governance and oversight of the university’s sustainability, climate change, and social responsibility agendas and for developing and implementing a Strategic Sustainability Action Plan.

The revised group has a broader remit for cross-university sustainability and enhances Ulster's ability to meet strategic sustainability and social responsibility objectives, submit to consultations and engage both with internal and external stakeholders

Revising the sustainability governance structures within the university is the next step on Ulster's sustainability journey, to commit to making a meaningful contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals with a particular focus on taking urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts including reducing emissions to align with global commitments. Further, a key objective is to use sustainability as an opportunity to recruit and retain staff and students and to increase our influence locally/nationally and internationally.

The new sustainability governance group seeks to embed a culture of sustainability thinking and action across the institution with the aim of developing our leadership and governance; our teaching, learning, and research; our climate change activities: our inward and outward collaboration; and our people

Policies and Performance

Ulster University aims to be sustainable in everything that we do, in order to achieve a sustainable environment we have implemented a variety of policies.

Environmental Management System

Our Environmental Management System (EMS) gives us a structured framework for managing and minimising the impact of our operations on the environment and incorporates our estates and procurement operations.

In May 2017, Ulster University achieved the new and more challenging ISO 14001:2015 standard.  The new ISO 14001 standard places greater emphasis on how organisations integrate environmental performance into governance, management and operational processes.

The internationally recognised standard is awarded by an independent external certification body and re-assessed each year.