Delivering a Strong, Effective and Sustainable Organisation
Environment
As an organisation, we reduced our general waste compared to the previous year by over 4 tonnes, marking a 3.2% decrease. This was mainly achieved by increased use of our extensive recycling facilities, which include paper, card, glass and plastics and are available to both staff and students. We also used over 15% less A4 paper than in the previous year and now use only 100% recycled paper in our photocopiers and printers.
Following the appointment of an Environment & Ethics Officer, Facilities and Safety Manager Andy Bastable created an Ethical & Environmental Policy for the SU website. Overall, our carbon footprint reduced by 5% and our energy rating reduced from an “F” to a “C”.
Following our attainment of Gold standard in the NUS Green Impact Awards for the last 3 years running, Warwick SU became eligible for – and won - the NUS Green Impact Excellence Award during 2012-13. In our application, Postgraduate Officer Anna Chowcat chose to focus on the area of ‘educational sustainability’, which embeds environmental issues into academia by working with key stakeholders in the University to create ‘green’ modules and support research in these areas.
In addition, Anna Chowcat authored a funding bid for the NUS Student Green Fund, totalling £176,000 for a Green Action Space on campus in order to run campaigns, outreach and expand the Food Co-op. Whilst this was ultimately unsuccessful due to the extent of competition for funds, the Food Co-op has since gone from strength to strength. We also received support from the University on the Green Steps programme, which involves students in educational sustainability through module creation and amendment.
Commercial Provisions
A major revamp of our restaurant, Xananas, took place over the summer and yielded improved lighting, kitchen facilities and flooring. In a bid to widen our appeal and range of offers, we also introduced a range of new or revamped initiatives, events and deals throughout the week, including:
-
Provided advice on non-alcohol-related events throughout Freshers
-
Meat-Free Mondays in The Bread Oven, plus Vegetarian Week in Xananas
-
Un-Plucked: taken over by Ents department to provide a line-up of local & student acts
-
Quackstar Karaoke: new karaoke machine purchased
-
Cleverducks Pub Quiz: introduced fortnightly then became weekly
-
TDI Fridays in The Dirty Duck
-
Introduced our Cheep Cheep brand for The Bread Oven, The Dirty Duck and Curiositea
-
Jewellery-Making Workshops and Vintage Fashion Fairs at Curiositea
-
Bread Oven ‘treat receipt’ introduced – discounted offer in Curiositea for that afternoon
-
Bread Oven Meal Deals simplified to provide better student understanding
-
The Bread Oven trialled Saturday opening during Term 3 in a response to student demand
-
Regular Offers at The Dirty Duck:
-
Burger & Pint for £6
-
Curry Night
-
2 for £10 on Main Courses (Saturdays)
-
2 for £10 on Roast Dinners (Sundays)
-
£5 Roast Dinners (Sundays)
We sold in the last year:
-
77,000 teas & coffees
-
109,000 baguettes
-
65,000 squeezed fresh oranges
-
15,000 shots of Jungfrau
-
53,000 shots of vodka
-
80,000 pints of purple
Financial Sustainability
The SU has worked hard to build back its reserves position from the deficit it had in 2009-10. The Trustees feel that the current position will ensure that the SU is protected in the event of any unexpected event. The organisation works hard to review the risks to its operations and believes it has adequate systems in place to mitigate these risks. Financial performance has been steady and there is a strong focus on maximising the impact of resources on our members.
Human Resources
The staff, officers, volunteers and trustees of the SU are critical to its success, and consequently the SU works hard to ensure that everyone feels valued and that there are opportunities for development. This year, all staff have received training in Equality & Diversity from an expert in the area, while online training has been introduced for a number of induction-related areas such as Health & Safety and Food Hygiene. Trustees receive good induction training together with additional training throughout the year, as do elected officers.
The HR team have run a number of activities aimed at supporting the wellbeing of our staff, including stress surveys, action plans and NHS health checks.
The recent reward review has given some clear indicators on benefits that staff would like us to explore, but thankfully the feedback on working for the SU has been extremely positive with staff feeling the environment is fun, friendly, empowering and flexible.
-
Entertainments beat budget due to a strong spend-per-head at Pop!, savings on casual labour and strong turnouts throughout the year at Skool Dayz and Pop!
-
The Terrace Bar,Curiositea and Xananas all beat budget to comfortably offset a year slightly down in The Dirty Duck
-
We reduced Freshers print costs by 20%
-
Printing costs for The Bubble were also reduced
-
We beat budget on NUS Extra sales by 55%
-
Marketing department beat budget
-
Facilities department beat budget
-
We launched Grapevine – a staff intranet to facilitate better communication to SU staff members
-
Our total Facebook ‘likes’ increased to over 10,000, placing us in the Top 15 UK Universities
-
We increased opening hours at SU Reception and allocated additional hours for ticket pick-ups during peak-times (e.g. summer events)
-
The number of student driver cards applied for increased by 12%, while minibus & van hire increased by 63%.
None of these activities could have been achieved without the input and hard work of our members, volunteers, officers, representatives, exec member, staff and trustees. We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who played a part in Warwick SU during 2012-13!