Sustainability

ASE takes the global environmental and climate crisis seriously.

A raft of carefully-conceived courses and initiatives aims to make the ASE Programme – and our community – as environmentally conscious and responsible as possible.

Courses and Placements

Semester students from any discipline can choose from a growing range of seminar courses and internships which make Climate and Sustainability their focus, from Environmental History and Global Activism to a placement with a local charity dedicated to reducing the harms of climate change and the depletion of nature.

Meanwhile, the Advanced Tutorial Programme offers students the opportunity to work one-on-one with a UK professor specialising in any area of Environmental Studies that can be taught outside a laboratory.

Green Week

ASE’s Green Week highlights local environmental issues, opportunities and activities available throughout the semester. Students visit the vegetable gardens run by Bath Organic Group, take in the natural beauty of the Bath Skyline and are encouraged to shop in the city’s many charity shops (thrift stores).

Carbon Counting, Reduction, and Offsetting

We recognise that the field of international education as a whole has a significant impact on the environment, and believe all organisations in the field have a responsibility to measure and reduce that impact.

To that end, ASE is actively involved in CANIE (the Climate Action Network for International Educators) and works closely each year with Carbon Footprint Ltd, measuring and aiming to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.

The carbon accounting process covers all aspects of the Programme, from the flights our students and staff take to and from the UK, to study trips and residential stays, the energy used in our buildings, and every staff and faculty commute.

Each year, we receive (and follow!) expert advice on how to cut our energy use and reduce emissions.

Where those emissions cannot be reduced, ASE invests in Gold Standard offsetting projects designed to move us closer to carbon neutrality.

The projects we currently help fund include a tree-planting project in our local area, a safe water initiative in Zambia, a cookstove project in Malawi and a wind power project in Thailand.

While we accept carbon offsetting is not a long-term solution to climate change, we are confident the fully-verified projects we support make a positive difference.