Xiaohongshu
One of our ambitions as a Students' Union is to lead the way in sustainable practices and to ultimately become the most sustainable students’ union in the UK. We plan to do this through embedding principles of sustainability into all aspects of our activities and services, minimising our impact on the environment, and working with you, our students, to educate and empower all of us in the ways we can help minimise our impact on the planet.
Our sustainability work has been recognised as 'Excellent'
Green Impact Students' Unions (GISU) is a flagship sustainability support package and awards programme for students' unions, run by the environmental charity SOS-UK.
It’s designed to help unions run effective projects and campaigns, using our power as the student movement to create lasting change.
For 2024 we've been awarded the Excellent Standard award, the highest level possible, for the second year in a row, which reflects our progress on the Sustainability Strategy launched in 2022. Our latest Sustainability Strategy will be available in Spring 2025.
Students' Union UCL has a really comprehensive sustainability plan and a wide breadth of sustainability work [...] It's great to see how well their existing work already aligns with Green Impact and how they're able to achieve such a wide range of sustainability outcomes
GISU
Leadership and strategy
- We have elected representatives responsible for sustainability: Sustainability Officer. Some of the work they are responsible includes launching a Sustainable Futures Training Course.
- We have also developed a dedicated strategy, including action plan for all departments.
- We are one of the founding members of the Sustainable SU's Charter.
- In our Commercial Operations (Union cafés, bars, shops and gym) we prioritise working with sustainable suppliers and making choices that minimise our environmental impact as much as possible. You can read more about our sustainable practices and partners here.
- As part of a national trial we became the first students union in the UK to sell draught Toast Brewery beer who use surplus bread in their brewing process to be more sustainable than your typical beer (and retain the highest B Corp Score of all UK breweries) .
Partnership and Policy
- We have many sustainability-related student-led groups and projects including our Sustainability Leadership Programme.
- Our dedicated sustainability hub is available online for all students and staff to find out ways to get involved.
Campaigning and Influencing
- As part of our Climate Leaders campaign, in partnership with Sustainable UCL we host an annual Sustainability Leadership Conference for students including the opportunity to receive dedicated training and join our Sustainability Leadership Programme.
- In 2023 and 2024 our Students' Union president attended the COP summit to represent and elevate the voices of students during this climate crisis. You can see their COP28 and COP29 summaries here.
- In our commercial outlets we continue to champion reusables with our Ditch the Disposable whereby we charge 50p for any single-use cup and provide crockery for eat-in orders. Between September - December 2025 for term 1 23.6% of all drinks sold in our cafés were served in renewable cups.
- We've partnered with Klimato to ensure all hot food items on our café menus are carbon labelled to help inform customers about the impact of their meal. We're also rolling this out to include drinks and other menu items
Outreach and Collaboration
- Through our e-recycling partnership with Relove technology, electronics such as old phones, laptops and cables can be recycled on campus.
- We have partnerships with community organisations for sustainability-themed volunteering opportunities for students and masters’ dissertations.
- We regularly invite our commercial sustainable suppliers to visit campus to host events and sampling sessions to give students the opportunity to meet our suppliers face to face and learn more about the impact of their work. Past events and visitors have included Toast Brewery and Unrooted with more lined up soon.
Our commercial department takes their responsibilities to put planet before profit seriously which is why they led the way in ensuring that Students' Union UCL became one of the founding members of the Sustainable SU's Charter. This coalition of students' unions from across the UK are dedicated about not only implementing sustainable practices in our own commercial operations, through championing low carbon nature-friendly operations, but in also inspiring and showing others how these practices can be successfully be implemented in our outlets and supply chains.
Recent and active projects include:
- Our ongoing Ditch the Disposable campaign which saw 23.6% of all drinks sold in our cafés being served in renewable cups in term 1 of 2025. Additionally oat milk is now our default milk for all hot drinks.
- Inviting suppliers to visit campus to host events and sampling sessions to give students the opportunity to interact directly and learn about the impact of their work and consumer choices. Past events and visitors have included Toast Brewery and Unrooted with more lined up soon.
- To celebrate UCL200 we worked with our coffee supplier Volcano Coffee Works to develop a bespoke Bicentenary Blend that makes a difference with every cup with links to their Sombra Agroforestry Project.
- We became the first students union in the UK to sell draught Toast Brewery beer as part of a national trial who use surplus bread in their brewing process to be more sustainable than your typical beer.
- To help avoid food waste, we keep a close eye on stock levels and our most popular items. Occasionally, when we have packaged products, like sandwiches or snacks, nearing their best‑before date we sell these in our cafés and shops at a reduced ‘yellow label’ price to customers. For any remaining items, we then work with Zero Waste UCL to make sure these are donated to charity before they expire.
We prioritise working with suppliers who share our sustainability goals, especially companies which are carbon neutral or carbon negative. Check out some of our suppliers and partners, their amazing work and initiatives we're working on below:
