Leaf Award 2024

sustainability at the Ear Institute

      

We embed sustainability in our choices on how we run our office and encouraging others to commit to more sustainable lifestyles. 

We take part in Green Impact and are delighted to have received Gold at the 2023 UCL Sustainability Awards.

As part of this we have made the following changes:

  • Ditch the disposable – mugs are provided for people to use for tea and coffee, at events and day-to-day we use glasses and plates.  
  • No more tissue – we have moved to tea towels to reduce the tissue we buy for kitchen spaces. 
  • Recycling – we have recycling and normal waste with clear signs on the bins, we also recycle our Nespresso pods from our coffee machine. 
  • Reduce paper - we are committed to not purchase any new printers and encouraged staff and students to use the two main printers we have in the building. 
  • Plastic free – we encouraged staff and students to use only dishes available in the kitchen. All our events are plastic free.
  • Offer dairy milk alternatives including Oat and Soy milk and encourage staff to try them.
  • Organise events and talks on sustainability.

We’ve also supported projects across the EI including our Roof Garden which was built from disposed pallets found on Kings Cross Road, and now supports a thriving insect community, and improving current bike storage.

Laboratories 

We strive to ensure our laboratories are working sustainably given the impact of labs on carbon footprint is 203 higher than the same area of the office space. 

We take part every year in LEAF and are delighted to have achieved Gold for the second consecutive year, an achievement that was celebrated at the 2024 UCL Sustainability Awards.

Changes we have made as part of LEAF: 

  • Provide glass pipettes to replace plastic serological pipettes 
  • Wash and reuse centrifuge tubes 
  • Reduce plastic in consumables bought including no more polystyrene racks for centrifuge tubes 
  • Only buying consumables for the whole lab on Fridays so more orders are transported together 
  • Using Warpit to rehome equipment and using UniGreenScheme to find equipment/accessories we may need before buying new 
  • Putting in place schedules for autoclave runs to ensure maximum capacity is reached 
  • We have lowered the ULT freezer temperature from -80C to -70C to reduce energy consumption. 

Photo shows a woman pointing at a projector screen. On the screen it says ‘UN Sustainable Development Goals, with the UCL logo in the top right corner. The colour behind the image of the UCL logo is yellow blues and purples and a snapshot of the IPCC repo
We ensure all our BSc and MSc students are given an introduction to sustainability in their first week.

Education

We are committed to embedding sustainability throughout all aspects of our students’ education, with a particular emphasis on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our aim is to support future Audiologists and Scientists in understanding how these global goals relate to their professional practice.

We are also reviewing the use of consumables and personal protective equipment (PPE) in our clinical skills lab to ensure these resources are used purposefully rather than wastefully, aligning with sustainable practices.

Key SDGs we are focusing on include:

SDG 3 – Good Health and Wellbeing: As future healthcare practitioners, our students will play a vital role in promoting and supporting the health and wellbeing of their patients.

SDG 10 – Reduced Inequalities: Our students will be working closely with the Deaf and hard of hearing communities, ensuring equitable access to hearing technologies and services for those who choose them.

SDG 4 – Quality Education: By delivering high-quality training, we empower our students to become advocates for their patients, supporting informed healthcare decisions and promoting inclusivity in clinical practice.

Faculty Sustainability Pledges 

The Faculty of Brain Sciences has a Faculty Sustainability committee and each department and institute is incredibly supportive of each other’s individual goals. We as a Faculty have made sustainability pledges including:

  • Pledge 1 – By next academic year (2022-23): Faculty implements Powered by Plants initiative.
  • Pledge 2 - By next academic year (2022-23): Faculty develop an implementable plan to reduce energy usage from the baseline year of 2018-19.
  • Pledge 3 - By next academic year (2022-23): all Division and Institute Executives and all-staff meetings to include sustainability as a standing item once per term.
  • Pledge 4 – By end of 2022-23 academic session: Each Division & Institute achieve gold in Green Impact & LEAF (where relevant).
  • Pledge 5 - Sustainability included in each student's curriculum and induction (Faculty Sustainability Committee to work with Faculty Education Committee to achieve).

UCL Sustainability 2023-2024 Highlights

  • UCL ranked 1st in the UK and 5th globally in the QS Sustainability Rankings and retained First Class Honours in the People & Planet University League.  
  • UCL became a signatory of the Concordat for Environmental Sustainability in Research and Innovation. 
  • UCL’s LEAF sustainable lab tool expanded to over 100 organisations in 11 countries. 
  • Sustainable education expanded, with 4,850 modules aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and a new Sustainability Leadership Conference was launched, empowering 120 students. 
  • Reduced waste per person by 60% compared to the 2019–20 baseline. 
  • Achieved a 56% reduction in carbon emissions from building energy use since 2019–20.

UCL Annual Sustainability Report 2023-2024

Want to get involved?  

EI Staff/PhD students: Visit our EI intranet Sustainability page for more details.

EI Students: Please see your moodle page for more sustainability information or email ear.admin@ucl.ac.uk .