Environment Institute

Social Media

Subscribe to our monthly Newsletter

Like us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

For Twitter Feed click here

Past Conferences

Please click on the links below:

Nordic Environmental Social Science Conference (NESS) / 10th IWA UK National Young Water Professionals Conference / Sustainable University Conference / Stinkfest Conference

NESS

9th Nordic Environmental Social Science Conference (NESS) - Knowledge, learning and action for sustainability, 10th - 12th June 2009

Keynote Speakers:

Andrew Barry, Oxford University, UK
Commentator: Pekka Jokinen, SYKE/Joensuu University, Finland

Maria Åkerman, Tampere University, Finland
Commentator: Claire Waterton, Lancaster University, UK

Terry Hartig, Uppsala University, Sweden
Commentator: Tim Ingold, University of Aberdeen, UK

NESS 2009 provided a multi-disciplinary platform for the elaboration and discussion of research on environmental social science. The conference was held in London for the first time, provided a special opportunity for Nordic and British scholars working in the field of environmental social science to meet and talk.

The conference centered on 9 thematic workshops where groups of researchers met over three days to debate.  Each workshop was run by two convenors. A visit to the Finnish Embassy was also organised for all 100 delegates at the end of the first day.

YWPC Conference

10th IWA UK National Young Water Professionals Conference
22nd - 24th April 2009

The International Water Association (IWA) takes an active role in encouraging young professionals in the water industry.  The IWA UK National Committee has supported and developed this event, and with the help of sponsors, has made it affordable and attractive for students and young professionals.

IWA

The 10th IWA UK National Young Water Professionals Conference was hosted by the UCL Environment Institute.


The 10th IWA Young Water Professionals Conference had four main objectives:

  1. To bring together young water professionals in the process of establishing careers, in particular, in the UK industries;
  2. To provide a forum for top young water professionals to present their research work;
  3. To promote network with other young water professionals, industry, academia and professional associations;
  4. To increase awareness of the present water issues.

The Keynote Speaker was Professor Roger Wotton and the title of his talk was:
‘An Academic Meets Water Professionals’.

The conference drew together top young water professionals, in the process of establishing careers in the UK water industry, and gave them a forum to present their work and network with other young water professionals and industry.  The conference was not a specialist conference, and invited papers on all aspects of the Water Cycle including water and wastewater research, technology and management. The conference consisted of formal presentation of papers and posters and a workshop with water industry professionals who provided information on water career opportunities in the UK. On the third day, 20 participants went on a technical tour to the Thames Barrier in London.

The conference was organised by the UCL Environment Institute and sponsored by the International Water Association (IWA) and the Environment Agency (EA).

Sustainable University

The Sustainable University: Relating Ecological Thinking, Learning & Research: One-day symposium Hosted by the Faculty of Laws and the Environment Institute, 19 Sept 2008

‘The modern university is at a tipping point.  It can either continue its contemporary flirtation with the corporate world and submit to its assigned role as enforcer of the status quo or it can reassert its claim to leadership on society’s intellectual frontier...Only by reinventing itself can the university hope to become society’s champion for the locally-rooted global sustainability that is the quest of people and communities everywhere’ (Professor William E. Rees, School of Community and Regional Planning, University of British Columbia.)

Law and policy is increasingly touching the university, but how much can the university influence change? There is currently a great deal of activity about sustainability and higher and further education. The Higher Education Funding Council for England reported on Sustainable Development in Higher Education in 2005 and the Higher Education Academy has set up a project on Education for Sustainable Development, which formed the basis of a conference on Sustainability and the Curriculum, held last year at the University of Bradford’s ‘Ecoversity’. Many of these initiatives quite rightly seek to ‘embed’ sustainable development in the curriculum. 

A one-day symposium on The Sustainable University: Relating Ecological Thinking, Learning and Research will be held on 19 September 2008 at UCL. The symposium will seek to move beyond a concern with the curriculum, allowing us to question more fundamentally and hopefully more radically, the role of the university in ‘sustaining the world’.

Keynote speaker: Professor Michael M’Gonigle: Professor and Eco-Research Chair of Environmental Law and Policy, University of Victoria.  Michael M’Gonigle is the author (with Justine Starke) of Planet U: Sustaining the World, Reinventing the University (New Society Publishers, 2006) and co-founder of Greenpeace International.  Planet U has been described as ‘above all a call for action at a time when much is spoken and disappointedly little is done in respect of the practical implementation of sustainable principles into university life’.

ukcle

Sponsored by:

Stinkfest Conference

Stinkfest: A one day conference commemorating the 150 year anniversary of the Great Stink of London

The UCL Environment Institute organised a conference on 17th June 2008 to commemorate the 150 year anniversary of the Great Stink of London which led to the construction of London's sewerage system. In the early 19th century the River Thames was practically an open sewer, with disastrous consequences for public health in London, including numerous cholera epidemics.

Proposals to modernise the sewerage system had been put forward in 1856, but were shelved due to lack of funds. However, after The Great Stink of 1858, Parliament realised the urgency of the problem and resolved to create a modern sewerage system. The conference sought to mark this anniversary as well as to raise awareness and discussion of a number of environmental issues facing London in the 21st century.

Faraday

Issues included:

  • storm water overflows into the Thames;
  • climate change and renewable energy;
  • urban planning.


Speakers included:

  • Richard Dennis, UCL - The Great Stink of 1858
  • Phil Stride, Thames Water - The Thames Tideway Tunnel
  • Jill Goddard, Thames Estuary Partnership - Current pressures on the Thames
  • Sarah Bell, UCL - The vulnerability of the Thames to climate change
  • Yvonne Rydin, UCL - Urban planning and the environment in London.
Punch Cartoon

 THE "SILENT HIGHWAY"-MAN
“Your MONEY or your LIFE!”
Punch, July 10 1858