Welcome

Snow capped mountains, golden beaches, a National Park, pristine lakes rivers and coastal waters - there are not many Universities that can boast these assets on their doorstep! Whether you’re a student, a member of staff, or a visitor, you can’t fail to be impressed by what our surroundings have to offer.

We take immense pride in the quality of our environment at Bangor University, and we are committed to its protection and enhancement. That means thinking about the impacts of everything we do, and whether, from an environmental perspective, it can be done better. With an estate of some 100 buildings across more than 300+ hectares, as well as a complement of over 10,000 students and around 2,000 staff, we recognise the implications of our impact on the environment.

Sustainability at Bangor University

Being a truly sustainable university means not only looking after our natural resources and the environment – it means caring for our communities, our culture and our economic resources. The Sustainability Implementation Group oversees the evolution and implementation of a Sustainability Agenda for Bangor University, which includes the environmental stream.

For more information on the wider sustainability agenda at Bangor University, visit our Sustainability Website. Our sustainability streams and what we're working on can be seen here, and a list of our Policies, Strategies and Reports are also available to view.

Environmental Management System

We have developed an Environmental Management System (EMS) to support our commitment to achieving continual environmental improvement. The EMS is certified to the prestigious ISO14001:2015 environmental standard, and further information can be viewed on our Environmental Management System Pages, which also includes our Environmental Targets.

A Campus Environmental Performance Team has been established to ensure as much engagement and inclusion as possible. Further information relating to our EMS can be accessed in these pages.

View our latest Annual Environmental Report, and SDG Progress Reports.

Get in Touch - Environmental Incidents

If you spot any pollution or other environmental incidents at the University please don’t hesitate to let us know straight away by completing the Environmental Incident Reporting Form.

University Information and Events & FAQs

If you have any ideas or suggestions for even better environmental performance, please e-mail environment@bangor.ac.uk. But check out our Sustainability FAQs first, in case we already have an update on a topic you are interested in.

We have listed many events and research items from around the University surrounding the topics of the environment and sustainability, check them out here.

In November 2022 the University launched a new sustainability campaign for staff and students.

The '25 by 25’ campaign aims to reduce 25% of emissions by 2025. To achieve this the University will examine how it uses all types of power and fuel, the waste we throw away, the water we use and just about anything and everything that creates a greenhouse gas emission.

25 by 25 kicked off its activities with an open invitation to all colleagues and students to offer their ideas on how to support this campaign, with ideas, thoughts and initiatives on how the University can reduce carbon footprint within our key target areas of Energy, Waste and Travel.

The ‘25 by 25’ logo appeared across our campus in the form of ‘clean graffiti’ which hopefully piqued interest in the campaign!

Read more on the projects which have received University funding.

25 by 25 sustainability campaign logo

World class

Bangor University is among the top universities in the UK for environmental and ethical performance, as judged by the People & Planet University League. The League is an independent league table that ranks institutions annually on environmental and ethical performance.

In the 2023/24 league, Bangor University once again achieved a First-Class award putting Bangor in the top 15% of all UK Universities, ranking joint 18th out of 151 Universities.

The University’s ongoing commitment to Sustainability has also been recognised in the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings. In 2024 Bangor ranked 19th in the UK, and 77th globally.

The Times Higher Education Impact Rankings assess over 1,900 universities from around the world on action taken towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Institutions are evaluated across the areas of research, stewardship, outreach and teaching.

Investing for Sustainability

Our Estates Strategy is currently being reviewed, and will incorporate sustainability as an integral consideration in the future development of the University. Completed developments in previous years achieved the BREEAM 'Excellent' rating including the multi-million pound Pontio building, the Marine Centre Wales in Menai Bridge, and the St Marys Student Village. Significant development of the University’s Science Quarter on Deiniol Road is proposed, whilst the Menai Science Park in Gaerwen was completed in 2018.

We are also embarking on an ambitious “Invest to Save” energy efficiency programme as we seek to achieve our long term objectives and targets. Recent examples include Horticultural LED lighting in our Henfaes and Memorial glasshouses, the installation of waterless urinals, retrofitting water efficient shower heads in our halls of residences, and the purchase of electric vehicles to replace end of life diesel vans in our Campus Services fleet. If you have a suggestion for such a project please get in touch with environment@bangor.ac.uk.

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