Sustainability Round Up 2025
Highlights and headlines from the last 12 months of sustainability activity at Kent. Including projects, initiatives, news stories and data from across the university.
Kent won the Benefitting Society award in the Green Gown awards in recognition of the work to become the world's first Right to Food University
Food waste is now being collected from all student accomodation, diverted from our general waste to anaerobic digestion.
We achieved an annual reduction of 6.9% across our scope 1, 2 ad 3 carbon emissions
Our Environmental Management System was recertified to ISO14001, the International standard for environmental management, for a further 3 years.
The Sustainability Team received the Gold award for the second year running for the work done by many across the University to support wildlife and sustainability at Kent.
The University of Kent Sustainable Food Plan sets out a roadmap to ensure that the food served on campus supports health, well-being, and environmental sustainability.
Throughout the year we hold cookery workshop which help students eat more affordable, healthy and sustainable food while learning how to reduce food waste.
Students, staff and community members growing sustainable produce collaboratively on campus, and boosting wellbeing in nature.
We recently celebrated 2 years as a Right to Food University, marking the occasion and next steps with a series of events and new collaborations and projects
Each May we leave some areas of our grasslands unmown to boost vegetation and invertebrate diversity on central campus
KentCOG run monthly walks where groups of staff and students are guided to identify and record bumblebees and reporting the results to the Bumblebee Conservation Trust
Work is underway to create a ‘river of vegetation’ across the Canterbury campus; a high amenity and pollen value trail that acts as a wildlife corridor, education tool, and foraging trail
Staff and students have been trained to undertake habitat mapping. This was provided by the DICE E3 team who are collaborating with the sustainability team to produce a full habitat map of campus.
The School of Architecture, Design and Planning were awarded £1.5 million from UKRI to explore how school playgrounds can be designed to be more comfortable across different seasons.
A partnership between the School of Natural Sciences and packaging supplier, Priory Direct, has developed a tool to help the fashion industry minimise the impact of their packaging and supply chains
Kent Business School and the School of Engineering are working with ferry companies to explore the feasibility of different electric ferry designs for future use between Dover and France
The Futureproof zone returned to bOIng! for a second year even bigger and better bringing workshops and activities themed on nature and sustainability
The 2024 BioBlitz brought together families, school groups, and local community members for one day to engage in nature-based learning. This year 337 species were recorded by participants
The School of Architecture, Design and Planning have hosted a number of events bringing together local stakeholders to discuss the role of architecture in addressing the climate challenge
Kent is now the proud host of the CDBN, which brings together local stakeholders to encourage joint-working on biodiversity-related issues.