Environmental Sustainability
Godalming College is very committed to playing our part in contributing towards environmental sustainability. As a result, sustainability is currently one of Godalming College’s key strategic priorities and we have a team of staff and students working towards helping the College become carbon neutral.
We have a
Sustainability Strategy and a detailed implementation plan covering actions that we aim to achieve over the next few years.
Key achievements to date include:
• Established a Sustainability Committee consisting of staff and student volunteers.
• Switched nearly all buildings to LED lighting - we are changing our historic Main Building to LEDs in Summer 2023.
• Installed solar panels on our 900s Building and the Performing Arts Centre - further solar arrays are being added to the campus buildings in Summer 2023.
• Focused heavily in 22/23 on energy optimisation - so far this academic year we have reduced our gas consumption by 33% and electric consumption by 9%,
compared to the previous year. This has purely been achieved by a cultural change and increased awareness!
• Received a grant in 22/23 to work in partnership with energy specialists to prepare a bespoke Heat Decarbonisation Plan for our College campus - this maps out the measures that need to be taken for each of our buildings to become carbon neutral. Godalming College will be applying for further grants to help enable these works take place over the coming years.
• Installed 4 Electric Vehicle charging points in our car park - these are available to staff during the College day, and the local community outside of these times.
• Launched our Electric Vehicle Salary Sacrifice scheme to staff.
• Introduced No Mow May for the first time in 2023!
Exciting things to look out for in the 23/24 academic year include:
• Starbuck and Costa on site will no longer stock disposal coffee cups. Students will be given a reusable College travel coffee cup when they start at the College instead!
• Our catering outlets will no longer sell plastic bottled water on site – there are plenty of cold fresh water stations around the campus so remember to bring a water bottle to refill with you each day.
• Launch of our new ‘Recycling @ Godalming’ stations positioned around the campus for clear and easy recycling.