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Taking care of our environment
We're very proud to be recognised by UCL as the greenest department (6 years in a row and working hard to make that 7!) and we're on a mission to improve the impact of UCL's estate, build community and further research.
**Please note that UCL PALS Green Day 2020 has been postponed until further notice due to the ongoing Covid-19 situation. Please check back here for updates**
We are delighted to announce that this year’s UCL PALS Green Day #GreenUCLPALS will take place on Thursday 26 March 2020. We have a green-packed programme of events across our various PALS sites (Bedford Way, Chandler House and Alexandra House) including the infamous green feet, seed-planting, sustainability talks, green-themed films, vegetarian food, vegan wine tasting... and loads more. We will keep this webpage updated with the latest information about the event: ucl.ac.uk/pals/pals-green-awareness/pals-green-day-2020 but for now please SAVE THE DATE!
UCL PALS are walking to the moon as a Green and Wellbeing initiative.
Find out more and get involved with the #PALSMoonWalk at www. ucl.ac.uk/pals/pals-moonwalk
Congratulations to the UCL PALS Green Impact Team who picked up numerous awards at the annual UCL Green Sustainability Awards. We’re UCL’s greenest department for the 6th year in a row and John Draper won a Lifetime Achievement Award for all his amazing green impact work over the years.
We are thrilled to announce that from 1st January 2019 all food provided at catered UCL PALS events will be 100% vegetarian. Find out more about our 100% Veggie initiative here.
UCL PALS Extinction Rebellion Talk
The UCL PALS Green Impact Team hosted an Extinction Rebellion talk "Heading for extinction & what to do about it" as part of #PALSGREEN19. Watch the talk, featuring Professor Kate Jeffery, here.
PALS Green Day 2019 was a great success!
On 14 March 2019, PALS Green Day took place with a jam-packed programme of events across our various PALS sites including the infamous green feet, seed-planting, sustainability talks, green-themed films, vegetarian food, vegan wine tasting... and loads more! Read more about PALS Green Day 2019 by clicking here.
UCL PALS Recycling Field Trip
UCL PALS Green Team members Sabine Topf and Paul Troop are looking at ways of reducing the quantity of waste produced by UCL and increasing the proportion that is recycled.
To find out more about how waste is treated by UCL, they conducted a research trip to the plant where UCL's waste is disposed of. They were given a tour of the plant and gained insight into the processes involved.
UCL waste that is not recycled or treated as food waste is sent by train to a plant in Bristol. There it is incinerated. Heat from the process is used to heat steam, which is fed through turbines to generate electricity. Ash that remains is used to make building blocks. None of the waste goes to landfill.
Find out more about the UCL PALS Recycling Field Trip by clicking here.
The #PALSGREEN19 Foodcam Initiative is a waste reduction project started by the PALS Green Impact Team that revolves around the simple principle that food is better in a stomach than in the bin. Find out more here: ucl.ac.uk/pals/pals-green-awareness/foodcam
For several weeks, UCL PALS Student Sabine Topf and colleagues studied the contents of the mixed-recycling and non-recyclable bins in six locations at UCL, including 2 from PALS. Each evening they emptied the bins, categorised the contents and put them back in time to be collected as usual. Find out more about this #PALSGREEN19 project by clicking here: ucl.ac.uk/pals/pals-green-awareness/studying-contents-bins-ucl
The UCL PALS Green Impact Team have helped prepare vegetarian and vegan meal options in the UCL IOE canteen as part of one of the UCL PALS #PALSGREEN19 initiatives. Find out more here: ucl.ac.uk/pals/pals-green-awareness/helping-prepare-veggie-and-vegan-food-options-ucl
Congratulations to our Green Impact Team who picked up numerous UCL Sustainability Awards at the epic annual Green UCL Sustainability Awards.
Watch the video the UCL PALS Green Impact team made on their trip to the Eden Project in Cornwall:
- Travel - find out about how you can do your bit to reduce carbon emissions by changing the way you travel.
- Recycling - find out about UCL's recycling systems.
- Consumption - see how much energy the Faculty of Brain Sciences uses and how you can help reduce it.
- PALS was heavily involved in the audit for UCL's ECO Campus Platinum Award.
Green Impact News: PALS is UCL's Greenest Department... again.
We are delighted to announce that we have been awarded UCL Sustainability Leaders and UCL's Greenest Department at this year's Green Impact Awards Ceremony.
Our excellence projects also won multiple awards, such as Platinum award for Labs, Excellence for Office and Excellence for Special Projects. You can find out more about the UCL Sustainability Awards on the Green UCL website.
Here are some of the projects that we are really proud of:
- Reducing chair loss…recycling our furniture
- Chandler House Garden
- I See What You’ve Done! – How Behavioural Traces Influence Recycling Behaviour at UCL
- Following the Crowd or Following the Norm? Effects of Behavioural Traces vs. Social Norms on Pro-Environmental Donations
- Pollution Mask
- PALS FoodCam / Food Waste
- PALS Green Impact visit to Eden Project video
