Content Accordions

• Ecological Citizen Project

  Ecological Citizen(s) is a 4-year project, based at the Royal College of Art in collaboration with the University of York's Stockholm Environment Institute and Wrexham University. Our mission is to foster and proactively encourage (through technologically appropriate interventions) Ecological Citizenship for positive climate action.

  Funded by UKRI's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the project's aim is to establish the Ecological Citizens Network+. As a research network, Ecological Citizens will mobilise diverse groups of people to make impactful change through accessible technology and community-focused approaches – including citizen science, activism, collective learning, advocacy, design strategies, manufacturing, environmental science and engineering practices. Our agenda seeks to bring agency to people who want to be involved by giving them a voice. We are keen to lower barriers to entry (for publics) so all can be Ecological Citizens, through an inclusive digital sustainable society.

  https://ecologicalcitizens.co.uk/

   

• Christmas Switch Off

  The previous successful Christmas ‘Switch it off’ campaign produced results over the December/January period of an overall electricity decrease of massive 25,805 kWh’s, which calculated at just over 14 tonnes of CO² emissions.

  Staff were again encouraged to switch off lights and unplug equipment during the last Christmas break.

  December alone showed an overall electricity decrease of 27,945 kWh’s, which calculates at a saving of 15 and a quarter tonnes of CO² emissions. This is a decrease on last December by 0.4% and an extra saving of over a tonne of CO² emissions.

• Carbon Reduction

  Wrexham University are continually working to improve carbon efficiency of our buildings and systems. To provide a framework for this we have developed our Pathway to Carbon Neutral by 2030 which sets the strategy and the Low Carbon Transition and Delivery Plan which sets key objectives on the road to net zero.

  Recent projects we have undertaken include:

  • Upgrade of the Solar Panel wall on our St Asaph campus. It is projected they will produce 78,000 kwh of electricity saving approximately 21,000kg of CO2 per annum. We also added solar panels to The Alive Hub in 2021, our staff blended working space.
  • Purchase of 7 new electric vehicles in 2021, including 2 minibuses to transport students to our other campuses, 2 pool cars for business travel and 3 maintenance vehicles. Electric charging points have been made available at all campuses available for anyone to use.
  • We have an ongoing programme to replace lighting with LEDs and replacements in sports hall, corridors, teaching spaces, agile workspaces and metrology in 2022 was estimated to make 49,000kg reduction in CO2 per year. We have continued with the LED replacement programme and in 2023 and 2024 have refreshed the lighting in further areas including Library and Student Support Centre offices, corridors, sports centre, Bevan Building.
  • Heating in our Wrexham Regent Street campus was upgraded in 2021 to a newer more efficient boiler. Similarly replacement boilers in our Wrexham Village student accommodation provide a more effective heating solution.
  • In 2022/3 Wrexham University received a £85,000 grant from Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy to investigate an optimum solution for heating at the Plas Coch campus. Technologies currently under consideration include ground source heat pumps and air source heat pumps.
• Lighting Refurbishment

  New lamps have been installed in the Students Union area, the main walkway between the engineering and ‘D’ block buildings, and the Quadrangle/United Kitchen areas. Other areas include the health centre and ‘A’ block buildings, facing the stadium. So far, just under 60 lamp fittings, a mixture of SOX and SON, high and low-pressure sodium discharge lamps, have been replaced with more energy-efficient LED lamps.

  The new LED light fittings have a light spectrum, which is a vast improvement in comparison to the previous discharge lamps. They also have a life span of about 50,000 hours, with a very slow decay.

  The funding also covers LED lighting for the sports hall, engineering workshop, metrology lab and our main library, bringing environmental benefits along with financial savings. Lighting in the library is in use for many hours throughout the year, hence it was of particular interest for a modernisation programme. 

  Proposed savings achieved will reduce our library lighting energy costs by 40-60%. In addition, the lighting retrofit project will save on maintenance costs, because the replacement lights are used and their components have a much longer lifecycle than the previous ones. Additional savings will come from daylight sensors, so that lights can automatically turn off when daylight gives sufficient brightness in certain areas.

• Electric Vehicles

  Wrexham University is continuing to move forward with environmentally-friendly solutions after securing a £1.6m major capital funding boost.

  New electric vehicles have been rolled out as part of a raft of decarbonisation, green economy and digital learning infrastructure projects at the University.

  Facilities Manager Dennis Powell said: “This funding is a massive leap forward for our green agenda and has allowed us to replace our entire fleet with more environmentally sustainable vehicles."

  “The vehicles and other projects are part of our wider commitment to reduce our carbon footprint and create a more sustainable environment across all our campuses.”

  The electric fleet consists of two Vauxhall Vivaro e-life minibuses, two Nissan e-NV200 maintenance vehicles, a pair of Nissan Leaf staff pool cars and a site utility vehicle.

  The Students’ Union has been heavily involved in WGU’s Sustainability Action Forum who discuss green issues, and WGUSU Sustainability Officer Daniel Holmes welcomed the introduction of electric vehicles.

  The Welsh Government funding also sees the installation of electric vehicle charging points at Plas Coch visitors car park, charging for minibus/maintenance vehicles next to the Students’ Union building, and another charging point at the Regent Street campus. Also included are fast charging points at Northop and St Asaph campuses.

• Recycling

  An ambitious project to boost recycling at Wrexham University has been rolled out – with the first of a series of new recycling stations across campus arriving on site.

  The stations – which are themselves made out of fully-recycled materials – are part of a wider project funded by the Welsh Government’s Circular Economy Fund, which aims to see the amount of recycling the university carries out boosted to 50 per cent. 

  WU have reduced the amount of general waste bins by taking away individual desk bins, which was received well by staff. Each recycling station takes dry, mixed recycling and general waste as a minimum, with staff and students being encouraged to separate out their waste and do their bit.

  Senior Health, Safety and Environment Officer Jenny Thomas said: “When we’ve talked to our staff and students before about our work to boost sustainability, one of the key things they’ve told us is that they want more places where they can recycle."

  “That’s where these stations will come in – they are part of a campus-wide drive which helps people to do the right thing, and which we will use to drive our recycling rates up over the next year."

  As part of Go Green Week, the Students' Union hosted a Q&A session with Annie Doherty from Veolia and Jenny Thomas ,University SHE Officer, to answer questions and queries about waste. The session was posted across social media. Recycling Q&A with Veolia and WGU.

  All the general waste produced at WGU is sent for incineration, which generates electricity as a result of the process. This also means that WGU have sent zero waste to landfill since November 2019.

  To date, we have increased the percentage of waste recycled on site by introducing new collection points for wood and metal – contact Estates if you have these materials you need to dispose of. All electrical items, including batteries, are collected by Information Services for recycling.

  A new food waste collection has started to recycle the waste food and coffee grounds generated by on site catering facilities. Separate food waste collections will be increased further as occupation on campus starts to increase.

• Hedgehog Houses and Bug Hotels

  As our new recyclng bins arrived on pallets, WU are getting creative and making them into Hedgehog Houses to support our Hedgehog Friendly Campus project and Bug Hotels to attract more wildlife onto campus. 

   

• Wildflower Turf Donation

  A team of Wrexham University staff and student green champions have added fresh green shoots to their local environment – with the help of Keep Wales Tidy and Incredible Edible Wrexham.

  As part of the Welsh Government’s Local Places for Nature project, a 30 metre square donation of wildflower turf was given to the University by Keep Wales Tidy.

• Keep Cups

  Wrexham University, in partnership with Aramark Ltd, has introduced a 20p surcharge to all hot beverages served in disposable cups across its campuses – waived if you bring your own cup. The idea behind introducing the 20p penalty for disposable cups is to encourage staff, students and visitors to adopt a more sustainable approach to waste management, reduce the amount of waste going to landfill and to cut the amount of money the University has to spend on waste management, so that funds can be invested into other resources instead. Wrexham University Director of Operations, Lynda Powell said: “We’re encouraging all customers of our hot drink outlets to help us reduce and eventually prevent the amount of waste going to landfill by bringing their own reusable cup. Reusable cups are also available for purchase for £1 at all of our cafes."

• Horticulture Wales

  Horticulture Wales is a project managed and delivered by Wrexham University

  https://horticulturewales.co.uk

   https://www.facebook.com/hortwales

   

• Nature Based Social Prescribing Project

  Wrexham University and Student Union staff spent a day rejuvenating the University’s green spaces as part a nature based social prescribing project. They spent time potting plants, tidying, painting a horsebox which will soon be used for future events and activities and making our campus a nice place to spend time.

  Evidence suggests nature is a powerful tool that can be used by social prescribers to improve health and wellbeing.

  New outdoor pods to enable students and staff to meet, collaborate and study closer to nature have been unveiled at Prifysgol Wrecsam/Wrexham University.

  The new pods, which are situated in the Quad area of the Wrexham campus, have been purchased with funding from the University’s joint ‘Nature-based Social Prescribing’ project, which aims to strengthen students’ overall wellbeing and feel more connected to their surroundings through nature.

  As part of the project, which secured more than £400,000 of funding last year, both students and staff were invited to take part in the research element. This was to help the Research team gain an insight into ‘what matters’ to students and staff and how the green spaces on campus could be improved so that they could increase their time outside in nature with the aim of improving their mental health and wellbeing.

  The study team listened and took findings from the research to fund the pods – an alternative outdoor meeting space for all to enjoy.

   

  Mental Health

  Studies have shown that being exposed to nature increases wellbeing including happiness, resilience, and reduces social isolation.

  Physical Health

  Living or working close to nature can have many benefits such as lower levels of heart and respiratory problems, lower blood pressure, lower levels of stress and physical symptoms of stress and lower risk of diabetes and obesity.

  With all these benefits the refreshed spaces should allow staff and students to spend more time looking after themselves in nature.