Sustainable campus

DMU is committed to ethical careers, placements and recruitment. Strong sustainability and ethical considerations are given to the involvement Careers and Placements team have with all third-party organisations.

DMU also has a dedicated Careers Team responsible for helping students and graduates with their careers. This team is not part of any combined careers services. Meet the careers team working to help our students make the most of their potential.

DMU are proud to support the Can't Buy My Silence, signing the pledge to the initiative that aims to create legislative and regulatory change that will make NDAs unenforceable for anything other than their original purpose – the prevention of sharing confidential business information ("intellectual property") and trade secrets.

The university is proud to be partnered with the Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium (SUPC), a charity and not-for-profit organisation that delivers tangible, sustainable impact through high-quality consulting and procurement services.

The Sustainability Team worked closely with the Head of Campus Services to include sustainable food sourcing criteria when the catering provision was renewed several years ago. The compliance of contractors with relevant DMU policies, such as: Fairtrade Policy, Sustainable Food Policy and Environmental Policy, has been included as part of the Service Level Agreement within the contract. Requirements around sustainability have also been included in the vending contract for the university. An extract of the contract for external food providers can be viewed, detailing the universities sustainable food and drink requirements.

The university works closely with Chartwells to embed sustainability into its food offering across campus and through its hospitality service. These commitments are contained within the Sustainable Food Policy which is reported on annually to senior management. Further commitments are also highlighted on our hospitality page and in our hospitality brochure. As part of our commitment to sustainable produce, DMU also grows food on campus in the Trinity Herb Garden which is then used by Chartwell chefs in their cooking. DMU also has the vegan and vegetarian SKVP café on campus which offers award winning Mumbai street food.

In addition to serving more sustainably and ethically sourced produce, De Montfort University is also tackling single-use plastic through the 'Choose to Reuse' campaign and through the installation of a large number of water fountains and 'refill points' on campus which provide free drinking water for staff and students. Make sure to check out the water fountain locations.

The 2023/24 academic year saw the opening of a DMU student and staff allotment in a new location between Kimberlin Library and the Queens Building. The allotment has moved to a new location to enable more staff and students to take part in growing a variety of fruits, vegetables and plants. The aim of the allotment is to offer the produce to students, the local community, and through the DMU venues. Check out the pictures from the opening day of the allotment on our Instagram account and read the full story.

De Montfort University has been recognised for its high standards of ethics and sustainability from campus food and drink outlets. The university’s catering partner Chartwells was awarded 2 stars from the Sustainable Restaurant Association's Food Made Good assessment.

We understand the importance to recycle as much waste as possible on campus. As a result of this, we have set highly ambitious recycling targets at DMU.

DMU has a comprehensive monitoring system in place which records water consumption in our buildings across the campus. The system is used by the DMU Energy Team to monitor trends in consumption, identify water leaks on campus and to encourage greater water efficiency in our buildings. The University has water reduction targets that it is working towards and progress against these targets is reported annually to the senior leadership team.

Our waste water is treated through the local sewage system and we have a number of management practices and training programs in place to ensure that our waste water discharges are in line with the requirements of our sewage provider Severn Trent. These practices include an environmental management system which is external assessed on an annual basis to ensure that the university is compliant with environmental legislation including waste water discharges and Health & Safety policies to manage practices in labs.