Five things you can do at Southampton uni to help the environment

We asked SUSU, Stags and Sport and Wellbeing what they are doing to try and make Highfield more environmentally friendly, and what students could do to help them out.

Turns out SUSU provides a ton of reusable and environmentally friendly options, and surprised that you wouldn't necessarily have come across otherwise! So here's some easy ways you can help the environment at Soton.

Love a bit o' vegan sushi

Have a meat-free meal at SUSU

25 per cent of all of SUSU restaurant's menus is now vegan, which is pretty awesome. So now wherever you're on campus you can have a cheap, environmentally friendly, and healthy meal. The shop has also just expanded it’s vegan range so there’s now a super yummy focaccia, vegan sushi as well as your classic falafel. There’s also a new vegan saag aloo lattice – curry, potatoes and pastry!? That’s literally the dream. The shop also has a massive new section as you go in with dairy-free snacks and even chocolate!

So many treats!

Get your caffeine fix in a reusable cup

SUSU has switched coffee providers from Costa to an ethical brand which uses recyclable cups, which they told me has saved 16,305 non-recyclable cups from being used and thrown away! Plus, you get money off if you use a re-usable cup, which makes those late night library sessions much less painful!

Not bad, not bad

Buy reusable items in the shop

The SU shop now sells reusable cutlery, menstrual cups, metal straws, reusable water bottles and coffee cups! They also introduced a new plastic-free range in October including wooden combs, biodegradable cotton buds, bamboo toothbrushes and solid shampoo and conditioner bars. You can also buy recycled pens, pads and notebooks, of which they've sold over 500 in about a month.

The metal straws are an essential

Drink at Stags

This is a pretty easy one but it’s important to support somewhere that's trying to lower it's environmental impact. Although The Stags team use glass wherever possible, sometimes karaoke gets a little too rowdy for real glasses to be cost-effective and safe. However, the plastic cups they now use are all reusable, and all get washed out and used again throughout the night. And when they eventually die they all get recycled, so we can enjoy our karaoke cocktails guilt-free!

Enticing and ecological

Go to the gym

Jubilee gym now has machines that create energy as you use them so you can save the planet and work up a sweat at the same time! This energy goes straight back into the University grid, so it’s directly benefiting the students. Since their installation, 456,760 watts of energy has been generated; enough to power a laptop for just over a year! So now you literally have no excuse not to get on that exercise bike…

Grow stronger indeed