LUU Sustainability Grant

Here at LUU we’re serious about sustainability. That’s why we have a Sustainability Grant Fund to support students looking to promote or develop sustainability at LUU and the University, for the benefit of current and future students. 

Applications for anything between £10 and £1000 are welcome, so if you’ve got a big idea when it comes to sustainability, keep reading to learn more about how the fund can help.

The source of this funding is the money raised through our extra charge on using disposable cups in LUU cafes. It’s great to be able to make the most of the policy – which in itself contributes to reducing our environmental impact – by being able to support our students’ sustainable innovation with the funds raised.

We seek input from the Student Sustainability Advisory Board when considering applications to ensure that students are involved in the allocation of the funding.

Earlier this year, the grant helped kick off a project trialling a food waste recycling scheme in Hyde Park, with 18 households currently participating. These households have been provided with caddies to collect their food waste in. When they’re full, they text a number to have their caddy collected by bike and taken to a composter at Kirkstall Valley Farm, where it’s used in the farm’s operations. The caddies are replaced with a clean one upon collection. LUU funding (£605 in total) has been used to purchase both the specialised bike trailer and composer for the project. With great feedback from participants so far, discussions are currently underway to expand the scheme with support from the University’s Sustainability Service.

We were also happy to award £1500 of funds to Plant Soc, who are using the funding for a range of re-greening initiatives in Hyde Park, including the rewilding areas of Woodhouse Moor, student community gardening workshops and planter installation around Hyde Park.

The society has an overall aim of making Hyde Park and Woodhouse Moor more attractive spaces for wildlife, while educating students on the benefits of community gardening and bringing students and local residents together in making decisions about local green spaces.

The funding has been used towards gardening equipment, materials for building planters, and wildlife cameras to witness the impact of their work.

This project is due to get underway fully in Autumn, with the delivery of community gardening workshops, construction of planters, and mini community gardening plots in the Hyde Park area.

These are just a few examples of how the grant is facilitating student sustainability initiatives, and we are keen to receive more applications to improve our environmental impact as a University community.

If you have a sustainability initiative you think could benefit from a little extra funding, check out our grant guidelines to learn more about how it works – including what you can and can’t spend your grant on – and submit your application through the forms below.