Relaunching Green Impact and LEAF sustainability programmes in the faculty

Both the Green Impact programme and LEAF programmes have now launched for 2024-25, so this is a great time to start a team or join one to improve your area’s environmental impact. 

Being involved not only helps reduce our environmental impact, but also allows you to develop new skills, connect with others interested in sustainability, and have fun celebrating at the end!

If you are interested in taking part in one (or both) of these programmes, please contact your Department’s Green Champion or our Faculty Lead Green Champion, Cami Warren. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to join! 

Sustainable UCL update

Earlier this year UCL signed up to the UKRI concordat for environmental sustainability. This is just one of several sustainability requirements UCL is now either required to do or voluntarily committing to. 

From the NHS to Wellcome Trust to UKRI, partners and funding bodies are increasingly looking for sustainability to be embedded within the organisations they work with. One pertinent requirement for MAPS is that, by the end of next year, the UKRI concordat will require those in lab-based environments to achieve the minimum level of accreditation offered by high-quality sustainability schemes such as UCL’s Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF) scheme.

The simplest way for those working in MAPS labs to meet this requirement will be to take part in the UCL run LEAF programme and achieve at a minimum, a bronze level award for this academic year. 

Colleagues within MAPS who have participated in LEAF for several years have fed back that the requirements of bronze are not too arduous, but by adopting this good practice there are benefits to health and safety, sustainability and the general lab environment. 

From there, the more ambitious labs can push to silver and gold awards, which if done collectively can lead to significant sustainability improvements across the entirety of UCL, reducing our waste and carbon footprint, saving on energy costs and promoting sustainability awareness across a vast number of staff and students. 

Similarly, departments participating in Green Impact are playing a key role in helping UCL meet its overall sustainability goals. UCL will be reflecting this and other developments in the refresh of the institutional Sustainability Strategy, which is in progress and will likely be launched early in 2025. 

Please reach out to MAPS Business Partner, Evan Landy, in the Sustainable UCL team for more information on the refresh of UCL’s Sustainability Strategy and for wider sustainability questions.  

Links

• Green Impact programme 
• LEAF programme
• Departmental Green Champions
• UCL signs up to ground-breaking sustainable research agreement
• MAPS win over 20 awards at UCL’s Sustainability Awards

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• Faculty team at the last UCL Sustainability Awards