University of the West of England, Bristol and Students' Union

Circular economy in action!

We’ve brought circular economy to life at UWE Bristol! The Students’ Union at UWE have run a series of clothes swapping, sharing, and mending events and the sustainability team have opened the new “UWE Sustainability Hub” (SHUB) – a physical space where students and staff can come and swap out everyday items, socialise in a sustainability-themed space and avoid fast fashion.

This hub-and-spoke approach is demonstrating true collaboration between the university sustainability team and its Students Union, and a coming together to best help our students and staff to live sustainably. The approach is highly cost effective, making use of existing spaces and resources – the sustainability hub itself is located in the vacated Students’ Union Shop. To date the hub has had over 2,000 customers with 1,305 items swapped.

Overall this Circular Economy work altogether has seen more than 5,000 positive student interactions, enabling our community to live sustainably.

Annual carbon savings achieved with the initiative:

• CO2t savings 2022/2023: 22t  (Estimated).

What the Judges Thought

A great initiative, and one that we felt really stood out due to the holistic approach to sustainability and the collaboration efforts between the HEI, SU and students to create tangible impact. This project has a great opportunity to be scaled across the country creating sizeable impact across the sector. 

What it Means to Win

“Winning this prestigious award would be a fantastic endorsement of UWE Bristol’s exceptional commitment to sustainability. It validates our efforts to create a greener campus environment, inspiring and motivating our students and community to practice ecological responsibility.  The recognition strengthens our commitment to a more sustainable and promising future!”

Professor Steve West, Vice Chancellor 

Top 3 Learnings

1. Be persistent! This project challenged ways of working - repeated conversations with stakeholders was vital.
2. Have fun! This was a steep learning curve, but we enjoyed the setting up process.
3. We worked together with a wide variety of staff and students from an early stage.