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Waste reduction challenge

Last updated:
20 November 2025

Wooden tools on a table with collage style recycling signs on it
Tools on a workshop table for Earth Day Appetite for Justice event, 2022, Central Saint Martins, UAL | Photograph Ana Blumenkron

How might we innovate to reduce waste and embed a circular economy at UAL?

Waste at UAL has proven to be a topical issue with many passionate stakeholders. Across our community, there is recognition of the tension between our creative disciplines and the large volumes of waste generated within the creative industries.

The climate crisis demands urgent action to reduce waste and transition to circular systems, especially within resource-intensive sectors like the arts. At UAL, recycling rates remain low and waste outputs remain high. While there have been promising initiatives, like reuse schemes and sustainable material exploration, these are often siloed or small scale.

We have a responsibility as a global leader in arts and design education to model and promote sustainable practices. We also have significant creative, technical and academic expertise in systems thinking and the circular economy that can be applied to address these challenges.

Sector-wide shifts, including new regulations, rising student demand and industry expectations, make this an especially timely challenge. There is now a strategic opportunity to leverage existing efforts, new ideas and innovative solutions to embed circularity more deeply into UAL’s systems, teaching, learning, and operations.

The waste reduction challenge is organised by the Social Purpose Lab and Estates Sustainability team. The total pot available for this challenge is £10,000. Staff and student projects may apply for up to a maximum of £5,000 and must be delivered between February and July 2026.

Projects should aim to:

1: Prevent waste and preserve value by reducing the unnecessary loss of materials and resources and scaling or connecting existing pockets of circular best practice across UAL.

2: Embed circular systems and principles by addressing the ‘consumption, use and recover’ phases of the waste hierarchy (reuse, repair, refurbish, repurpose, recycle, recover) and testing new models within creative practice, operations, and teaching.

1: Budget efficiently with an itemised breakdown of spend, naming the intended hiring manager for staffing contracts and the intended suppliers for materials or services – you’re strongly encouraged to use UAL suppliers.

2: Ask for no more than the maximum challenge allocation of £5000 and allocate no more than 50% of the proposed spend to staffing costs.

3: UAL staff: get approval from your line manager, dean or director and key project stakeholders.

4: UAL students: get approval from your course leader and key project stakeholders.

5: Deliver a clear output within the project period: February to July 2026.

6: Design and deliver collaboratively so that benefits extend beyond individual practice. Collaboration across UAL Colleges, disciplines, staff and student groups is highly encouraged.

7: Consider how you can involve students and positively impact the student journey, directly or indirectly. The fund can’t support students’ final projects.

8: If your project involves sensitive data or direct engagement with vulnerable or marginalised communities, set out how:

  • data risks will be managed, including GDPR compliance
  • participants will be safeguarded (for example: a named, qualified safeguarding lead or experienced project partner)
  • appropriate support and signposting will be provided.

In some cases, submission to the UAL Ethics Committee may be required.

9: Represent genuinely new initiatives, or a new, distinct phase of existing work. We cannot fund ongoing initiatives that already have substantial funding. If an existing initiative does not have enough or sustainable funding, you’ll need to make a strong case for how your proposed phase clearly aligns with the challenge brief and brings something innovative. You cannot rely on the fund to extend current work.

1: Projects must consider how outputs could deliver long-term benefits for UAL.

2: Projects that have no measurable impact on waste reduction or circularity, or that are limited to individual practice without wider application to UAL systems or communities will be considered ineligible.

In January 2026, proposals will be reviewed through a participatory grant-making process. This means that applicants and a group of UAL staff and students will come together in person and decide how to allocate the available funds.

It’s mandatory for a representative from each project to attend 2 half-day meetings on 16 and 28 January. At these sessions, applicants will pitch their proposals in a short presentation.

Attendees, including applicants, will then provide each project with a score based on 3 criteria:

1: Togetherness and co-creation

Does the project bring people together, involve diverse voices, and strengthen connections across communities?

2: Innovation and legacy

Does the project introduce new ideas or approaches that create lasting benefits, with outcomes and learning that continue to make a difference into the future?

3: Clarity and alignment

Is there a clear and realistic plan that aligns with the challenge brief objectives and can make the vision a reality?

Apply for the Social Purpose Innovation Fund.

Download the Social Purpose Innovation Fund application guide (Word 65KB).