University of Northampton Sustainability Summit

THEME
The Summit is being organised under theme; “Adapting to a changing world: Identifying our shared sustainability challenges”.

RATIONALE
This event will provide a platform which brings together academia, businesses, policy makers and other relevant stakeholders to identify shared sustainability challenges (environmental, social and governance) mainly within but not limited to, the food/drink, logistics and footwear sectors, and devise a roadmap to address these challenges. Furthermore, this event will provide an opportunity for networking across sectors, which will help build lasting partnerships to pursue actionable solutions to the sustainability challenges which are identified.

As a higher education institution, the University of Northampton is well placed to play a central role in catalysing partnerships and much needed collaboration between stakeholders. The University has ample research and consultancy expertise within the area of Sustainability. Through its various research groups, centres and institutes, the University of Northampton has a strong track record of working collaboratively with external organisations to address sustainability challenges.

These collaborative efforts have yielded a rich portfolio of successful research, enterprise, and knowledge exchange sustainability projects. The Summit will provide an opportunity for the University to make its rich expertise available to local stakeholders to identify the best solutions to their shared sustainability challenges.

SUMMIT OBJECTIVES

• Identify shared environmental, social and governance sustainability challenges.
• Identify the most suitable sustainability solutions and provide access to University of Northampton research and development capacity.
• Develop actionable challenge briefs to enable acceleration of innovation to solve industry challenges.
• Utilize University of Northampton expertise to provide access to grant funding opportunities which can be pursued towards collaborative research and enterprise projects.
• Enable sharing of knowledge and best practice between academia and industry.
• Highlight and exhibit the high value of sustainability projects being undertaken by organisations across the Northamptonshire and the Midlands region.
• Agree the Northampton Sustainability Accords; a set of sustainability goals which will pave the way for the establishment of the ‘Sustainability Local Policy and Innovation Partnership Agenda’ (SLIPA), a resource hub at the University of Northampton which will coordinate a long-term sustainability agenda for organisations in Northamptonshire working closely with stakeholders in the county.

For full details, click here.