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Colleagues attended the recent Awards Evening at Guildford Baptist Church in Millmead, after the University was recognised for its achievements in the category ‘Nature Champion’ for its conservation work in the southern area of Manor Park campus.

The ‘Nature Champion’ category is open to areas with public access that have nature conservation at their core and focus on protecting and conserving wildlife habitats and species population, while also enhancing connectivity with similar areas.

Judging took place on campus in July when the wildflowers and grasses were at their best, demonstrating that minimal intervention increases biodiversity.

Richard Bigmore, Assistant Sports Grounds and Landscape Manager, received the award from the Mayor of Guildford, Councillor Sallie Barker.

Richard said: “I am delighted to accept this Gold Award on behalf of the team, which puts so much time and effort into making both of our campus havens for wildlife.Through our conservation work we aim to create homes for a variety of wildlife and improve biodiversity in our green spaces, which are so valuable to our whole community.”

The University has been sponsoring Guildford in Bloom, which aims to encourage the whole community to create biodiverse pockets across the area to encourage and protect our wildlife, for many years and was asked by organisers to enter a category in 2024.

Through its links with Guildford in Bloom, the University has partnered with other organisations to breathe life into street planters in Guildford town centre and will do again in the year ahead.

The Grounds team’s efforts to protect wildlife onsite and improve biodiversity is a part of the University’s ambition to embed the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals into everything we do. Their work tackles ‘Life on Land’ - SDG15. Find out more about biodiversity at the University.