Sustainable construction, travel and food

Construction and refurbishment

Over the past 10 years, we’ve invested over £350 million across all our campuses. We’ve revamped historic buildings and built state-of-the-art facilities. We’re proud to be one of the most sustainable universities in the world. Our Design brief for Sustainable Development (PDF 274KB) means that all new major developments achieve BREEAM Excellent and an Energy Performance Certificate rated ‘A’. This policy has helped us to create sustainable buildings across our sites.

Travel and transport

Our Workplace Travel Plan (PDF 1.33MB) encourages sustainable transport.

In 2020/21 Scope 3 carbon emissions associated with staff and student commuting accounted for 603 tCO2e. Our target is to reduce Scope 3 carbon emissions associated with staff and student commuting by 54% no later than 2040, from a 2018/19 baseline.

Detailed baseline and reduction targets for all scope 3 emissions can be found in version 12 of our Carbon Management Plan (PDF 4MB).

Read our Sustainable Travel Guidance (PDF 87 KB), part of the Staff Travel Policy that is available on our staff intranet.

Cycling to our Colleges

On top of having access to London's world class public transport network, we have great facilities for staff and students to make cycling to work easier, including:

over 600 secure parking spaces
showering facilities available across several Colleges
funding to buy a bike as part of the government's Cycle to Work initiative.

View our Workplace Travel Plan (PDF 1.33MB) for more information.

Sustainable food

Our goals to reduce the environmental and ethical impact of the food we serve are set out in our Sustainable Food Policy (PDF 676KB).

We make sure our external contractors and agencies are compliant by making sustainability a key part of our tender process. In 2019, following a competitive tender process (tender ref. number CC-UK1.FID23448287 as published in the Delta procurement portal), we appointed BaxterStorey to manage and deliver the services set out in the contract.

In 2014, we were the first university to achieve Gold Standard under the Soil Association's Food for Life rating (PDF 369KB). We’re proud that 100% of our catering outlets meet the food for life accreditation scheme to Gold Standard.

All food served at UAL is assessed to high environmental and ethical standards. This includes fish and seafood which is certified by the Marine Stewardship Council (certified through BaxterStorey). We work with BaxterStorey to reduce the environmental impact of food. Local produce is used, with 70% of the fruit and vegetables coming from the South East of England. A major supplier is Chegworth Valley farm, less than 35 miles from London. All meat comes from Rother Valley near Petersfield, Hampshire. All sites have free drinking water in catering outlets and across the sites in dispensers.

Plus:

local food is regularly used in our menus and across our sites like the vegan café at London College of Communication and the canteen at Camberwell - example of a Previous Menu (PDF 192KB)
Central Saint Martins (CSM) have removed red meat from their canteen menu
students have also collaborated with BaxterStory on regenerative vegan recipes as part of our Earth Day celebrations.

UAL was a case study in an academic paper which explains our use of local and sustainable food.

Read more about the vision and mission of canteen services at UAL.

Growing food at UAL

There are several food growing and gardening initiatives taking place across UAL:

On the roof terrace at Central Saint Martins and at Wimbledon College of Arts, staff and students created a green growing space where food like strawberries and herbs are grown. This is maintained by the Green Roof Society and the Wimbledon Garden Club, respectively.
Students at Chelsea College of Arts also grow edible plants such as herbs and wild garlic with GREENHaus.
Camberwell College of Arts is currently in the process of building a garden space at Wilson Road.
We also grow plant-based textiles dyes in our dye gardens at Stave Hill Ecological Park and London College of Fashion and on our roof terrace at Central Saint Martins.