Taking and inspiring action

Our Sustainable UCL team brings together our students and staff to embed sustainability through our campus and culture. We want to tackle the climate emergency, the ecological crisis and the pressing social and environmental issues facing our local community. Our work is guided by our Sustainability Strategy, our plan for a truly Sustainable UCL. 

Every year, UCL's experts participate and contribute to the Conference of the Parties (COPs), also known as United Nations Framework Conventions on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Find out more

Generation One is an initiative run by UCL to raise awareness, inform and engage on climate change issues. This included a campaign in 2021-22 with a release of a series of science based articles on key topics with the opportunity for all to pledge and take action. The campaign also launched the Generation One: The Climate podcast, now in its 5th season.

Our students bring new thinking on climate action to their studies and their everyday lives. The UCL student experience provides a wealth of opportunity to take climate action while at UCL; and to upskill as climate leaders for when they leave us for the wider world. 

New thinking on climate action and sustainability at UCL comes from across our community: from climate experts, from professional services colleagues, and from grassroots initiatives developed by students and our partner communities.  

One big milestone on our path to being a zero carbon university, will be to achieve zero carbon buildings by 2024. This means saving energy, generating our own renewable power and creating a low carbon smart grid on campus. 

We have set ourselves an institutional challenge to be a net zero carbon university by 2030. To meet this commitment we are radically rethinking how we operate; from how we travel to what products we buy and the food we serve on campus.