PALS Green Impact Team wins UCL Sustainability Award and visits the Eden Project

The UCL PALS Green Impact Team won the 'UCL Sustainability Leaders Prize' this academic year, which included a trip to the epic Eden Project in Cornwall, South West England.

It is the fourth year in a row that PALS has been UCL’s greenest department - an outstanding achievement that we are very proud of.

As a special prize for our sustainability activities, UCL awarded our team a guided tour of the Eden Project. The project is located in a reclaimed china clay pit 5km from St Austell and is dominated by two huge enclosures consisting of adjoining domes that house thousands of plant species from many diverse climates and environments. The biomes consist of hundreds of hexagonal and pentagonal, inflated, plastic cells supported by steel frames. The largest of the two biomes simulates a rainforest environment and the second, a Mediterranean environment. The attraction also has an outside botanical garden which is home to many plants and wildlife native to Cornwall and the UK.

The trip was a great success and stands as a testament to the excellent work undertaken by all in the Division who took part in our green impact initiatives. In fact, such was our success that there has been some high level talk of a ‘Beat PALS’ category for next year’s UCL Green Impact Programme!

We've returned inspired and full of lots of new ideas for how PALS can work to improve the environmental impact of UCL's estate, build community and further implement initiatives around sustainability. Watch this space...

Green UCL - if you're reading this: if we win again how about a trip to the Galápagos Islands?