Warwick is committed to progressing its contribution to the United Nations' SDGs, guided by the insight from its research and building on its educational excellence. We are a world-leading research-intensive university, and are very well placed to tackle global challenges, through both disciplinary excellence and truly interdisciplinary and innovative research across the social sciences, arts and humanities, and science, engineering, and medicine.

This mission is supported by the Sustainability SpotlightLink opens in a new window, acting as a transdisciplinary gateway to research on global sustainable development at Warwick, and by faculties and many departments across the University that are focused on contributing to the SDGs within their research.

"There is an understanding that change is all around us. What is important is to develop a consensus as to how we make the world more sustainable. Sustainability is everything, and for everyone. It is actually about our real commitment to make the world better. We as a collective body, we need to ensure not only that each one of us is committed, we need to find consensus, share practice, and also have a policy impact, so that all this knowledge will be of relevance."

- Professor Elena Korosteleva, Chair of the Sustainability Research Spotlight

To achieve a more sustainable future, we recognise the important role of communities, partners and networks in coming together to consider, explore, and address different ways of thinking, testing and applying practical ideas and solutions.

Many of our suppliers, partners and networks will have their own methods of focusing on sustainability. Therefore, we need to broaden and deepen our partnerships and collaborations with different groups and communities to share our insight, our own experiences and collectively plan to achieve positive outcomes. Our approach will be addressed through local, regional, national, and international engagement.

Warwick is embedding sustainability into our operations to ensure that we can operate resiliently at Net Zero, or beyond, by 2050 from direct and indirect emissions; in doing so, we want to inspire our community, increasing collaboration with stakeholders and supply chain partners to inform and improve what we do.

We know we need to lead by example in reducing our own environmental impact and be guided by the insight from purposeful campus pilots and research that provide the latest knowledge to inform and impact our own operations.

"Net Zero is a clear endpoint. The challenge is finding the way to get there, and that 'way to sustainable' is a journey of many steps. Our role here is about generating knowledge and making sure that that knowledge makes its way into a community where it makes a big difference. We've got a huge amount of work going on here about how you de-carbonise transport, how you de-carbonise energy, how you de-carbonise industry, and that's the mainstay of our research. But it's not enough. We also need to think about Net Zero in terms of economic sustainability."

- Professor Dave Greenwood, Director for Industrial Engagement, and CEO of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult at WMG

Sustainability has recently been established as the fifth pillar of the University’s strategy, reflecting its importance as a core and continuously evolving focus. As we deepen our institutional knowledge and adapt to emerging technologies and opportunities, this strategy will continue to develop and adapt. We recognize that achieving our mission requires active engagement and collaboration with our communities, along with the development and implementation of action plans centred around our core principles. The University’s Sustainability Committee, which reports to Warwick’s Executive Board and is led by Professor Stéphanie Panichelli-Batalla (Academic Director – Sustainability), plays a key role in driving the integration of sustainability into the University’s strategic planning and operations.