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Sustainability Week offers a range of events, talks, workshops, and activities to engage the University community in sustainability practices.

Taking place in March each year, Sustainability Week is a week in which staff, students, alumni and our local community can take part in sustainability-themed events, talks and workshops. It also provides an opportunity to engage the whole community with the University's ambitious goals outlined in our Sustainability Plan 2021-2030.

“Sustainability is at the core of our University strategy, and is becoming ever more pressing. Our Plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030 is under way, so for Sustainability Week this year I encourage you to find out more about what we're doing, and to get involved with the research, educational and social events planned by our students and staff.” (Sustainability Week 2024 quote)

Charlie Jeffrey, Vice-Chancellor

Upcoming events

Get involved in Sustainability Week 2025 from 3 to 7 March by attending an event, talk, workshop or activity. 

The York Sport Walk and Talk event is no longer running during Sustainability Week. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Sustainability Week 2024 highlights

32 free events

organised for staff, students and alumni

Over 800 people

engaged directly with the events

9000 webpage views

or click throughs to all sustainability web pages.

300+ visitors

to Anne Lister's first ever Sustainability Fair

350 bookable places

offered for 18 events, plus 14 events requiring no booking

5 UN SDGs targeted

to link directly with our Sustainability Plan

Sustainability Week 2024

Sustainability Week 2024 took place from 4-8 March, with each day focusing on one of the five Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targeted in our Sustainability Plan, alongside sustainable research.

Over thirty free events were organised for staff, students and alumni, including the first ever Anne Lister College Sustainability Fair, a nature journaling workshop, campus biodiversity walks, a Zumba class hosted by York Sport Village, and a Taste and Talk session with the Catering Team, to name a few. The week also provided an opportunity to engage the whole community with the University's ambitious sustainability goals, including talks about the Sustainability Plan and Green Impact.

Our mission

Sustainability Week's mission is twofold:

  1. To encourage students, staff and alumni to take action and develop more sustainable behaviours in their studies, work and home life.
  2. To encourage participants to engage with the progress that the University is taking towards carbon neutrality and other elements through the Sustainability Plan.

How to get involved

Sustainability Week takes place in March each year. There are several ways that you can engage with Sustainability Week:

Learn about sustainability

Take the opportunity to learn about University's progress against the goals outlined in our Sustainability Plan 2021-2030. You can do this by reading our sustainability web pages or attending talks about our Sustainability Plan during Sustainability Week.

Sustainability isn't just for one week!

Being more sustainable isn’t just for Sustainability Week. Read through our web pages to explore other actions that you can take towards living, working, and studying more sustainably.