The University of Manchester has announced that it has been working with a Manchester-based social impact platform to measure and evaluate the environmental sustainability initiative, “10,000 Actions”.
Developed by the University, ‘10,000 Actions’ is an initiative that gives staff the opportunity to engage and contribute towards a more sustainable society. These actions are being recorded and analysed by Impact Reporting, a social value platform and tool that measures the environmental and social impact of an organisation.
Social responsibility is one of the University of Manchester’s three core strategic goals, which sits equally alongside world-class research, outstanding learning and student experience.
Last year, The Mancunion revealed that the University of Manchester had nearly £10m invested in fossil fuel companies, despite priding itself on being the first English Russell Group university to join the United Nation’s Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI).
In response to that, Impact Reporting has recorded a variety of societal and environmental savings by University of Manchester staff this year. Cycling, walking and running to work has reduced CO2 emissions by 5.6 tonnes. Thousands of staff have also engaged in actions aligned with the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals, including gender equality and responsible consumption.
In addition, over 50 staff have been trained to be carbon literate, and the number of staff accessing reuse schemes since 2017 has more than doubled year-on-year.
Chris Farrell, Managing Director of Impact, said: “The University of Manchester has a global reputation of being at the forefront of research. They are taking sustainability seriously and chose to partner with us to measure their pro-social and environmental initiatives because of our historical connection and expertise. We will assist them in analysing their ground-breaking sustainability programme – 10,000 Actions and help benchmark its social value and environmental activities against other institutions.”
Lucy Millard, Environmental Sustainability Manager at UoM, said: “Impact works well across a large organisation like a university because it’s fully scalable to our requirements. It’s also a quick and easy system for staff to log onto to record socially impactful actions. We’re hoping to open Impact up to students in 2020 and we have committed to zero carbon by 2038.”
Impact is helping staff at the university to become more proactive and sustainable. By 2020, students may also be able to measure their own environmental and social impact and support the university in becoming a global sustainability leader.
