Brain Sciences dominates at the UCL Sustainability Awards 2018

The event, held on September 4, celebrated the achievements of staff and students across UCL who are making a real contribution to the University's sustainability agenda by taking part in Green Impact, UCL's Sustainability Engagement Programme.

PALS was awarded the top prize due to their outstanding contribution to sustainability and a commitment to improving the environmental impact of the UCL buildings and laboratories in which it operates; building a community; and implementing initiatives around sustainability within various areas of the department.  

Sustainable projects led by PALS included creating an urban pollution mask; developing the Eden Project Video; the Chandler House Garden; upholstering departmental chairs instead of buying new ones; conducting research projects on behaviour and recycling; introducing a PALS Food Cam (a camera monitoring food waste); and conducting a research project on phycology of environmental donations.

PALS were also awarded 'Platinum' in their laboratories, and 'Excellence' in their offices for the sustainable practices they have implemented in recent years.

Other teams that received awards included: Cortexlab (Bronze award); UCL Language & Speech Science Library, Science Library (Gold award); Institute of Neurology, Queen Square Library, The Joint Library of Opthalmology, Moorfields Eye Hospital & UCL Institute of Ophthalmology (Platinum award); PALS, ION, Action on Hearing Loss & Ear Institute Libraries, UCL Eastman Dental Library (Excellence award); Wakefield St. Brainiacs, UCL Respiratory Laboratory (Bronze Lab award); IoO Green Labs (Silver Lab award); Sobell Laboratories (Gold Lab award); PALS Laboratories (Platinum Lab award); and Division of Psychiatry (Excellence special award).

John Draper PALS Divisional Manager said: "I'm delighted that we have achieved such outstanding success in this year's Green Impact awards and in previous years as well. It's a huge recognition of the outstanding work that is undertaken within PALS by the staff and students in our Green Impact Team.

"It also highlights the commitment we have to sustainability issues within PALS. It was also pleasing to see awards for all the other Divisions and Institutes within Faculty of Brain Sciences who hopefully were inspired by some of our work."

Richard Jackson, Director of Sustainability at UCL, presented the awards and thanked all teams for their hard work and enthusiasm. 

"It is remarkable to see so many UCL departments taking on the tremendous responsibility of developing and promoting sustainable initiatives.

"The growing number of departments who have joined the Sustainability Engagement Programme are a testament to the strength and power of the sustainability programme at UCL," said Richard.

Sustainability ran throughout the entire event and showcased how events at UCL can have a reduced environmental impact. The ceremony, which took place in the Jeremy Bentham Room, presented awards to teams that were made from plastic collected during beach cleans imprinted in clay. The plastic objects, which ranged from plastic forks to children's toys, are a stark reminder of the longevity of the objects we throw away. The awards were painted in a misty blue to represent the future.

Links

• Eden Project Video
• UCL PALS Green Awareness
• Green Impact
• Green UCL
• Ditch the Disposable