Newman University, Birmingham, launched a week of green activities as part of its annual Green Week.

The university is constantly thinking of ways in which it can add to its already sustainable campus.

The university was reaccredited with its EcoCampus Gold award in October 2017 due to its commitments to the environment and also achieved the CAFOD Livesimply award in May 2017 for its commitment to live simply, sustainably and in solidarity with the poor.

Newman has implemented a series of plans to reduce its carbon footprint and now produces 10% of its own electricity through the use of solar panels.

As well as this the university promotes greener travel by reserving car parking spaces for staff who car share and encouraging staff and students to walk or cycle to work.

Other initiatives include the landscaping of university grounds, planting a number of trees throughout the year, a composting area, bat boxes and swift holes being installed in new buildings, and growing its own produce such as berries and apples.

The university is also committed to promoting the broader understanding and awareness of Fairtrade, poverty and the developing world by ensuring that the its onsite catering facilities provide Fairtrade products and in turn has been awarded with Fairtrade status.

Since 2011 Newman University has continued to recycle and has reduced its waste from two skips a day to just one skip per week, an impressive 90% reduction.

In order to keep improving Newman constantly tries to find ways in which it can better its environmental output and the latest change for the university includes ridding plastic straws from its counters.

The university has a Starbucks, café and student bar which will now see plastic straws be a thing of the past. The Sanctuary café in the university has invested in compostable straws to ensure that the straws used around campus can be fully recycled unlike plastic ones used in the past.

The student bar has also promised to remove straws from eyesight to encourage people not to use them if they don’t need to and research suggests this reduces the use of straws by 70%.

With the government currently investigating the latte levy, Newman University’s next initiative will be looking at the idea of having reusable cups for its staff and students to cut down further on the use of plastics.

This news falls on the first day of the university's Green Week which will see a variety of events taking place on campus including a wildlife photography competition, lunchtime walks, chilli plant giveaways, free breakfast for cyclists and car sharers, green documentaries and much more.

Newman University is aware of its responsibility to ensure that it does all it can to promote sustainable living.