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Taking care of our environment
We have set up a Green Impact Team and for the third consecutive year, we have been recognised as the greenest department in UCL, but we will need to continue to work hard in order to become even greener in the years to come.
- 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.
The rankings of the People & Planet University League 2016 show UCL's jump forward in its environmental and ethical performance. UCL is ranked 29th out of 151 UK universities. In 2014, UCL was ranked 61st, so this is a great achievement.
PALS was also heavily involved in the audit for UCL's ECO Campus Platinum Award.
Read the full audit here to see how PALS played a part in UCL becoming certified to ISO14001 and Eco Campus Platinum
Green Impact 2016-17: 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 a platinum award for our research projects on topics such as the media's influence on public concern about climate change, and UCL's policy action inconsistency on staff and student pro-environmental behaviours.
More on the UCL Sustainability Awards can be found on the Green UCL website.
PALS completed the following seven excellence projects as part of the 2016-17 scheme:
PALS Green Love Project & Green Day
PALS has been UCL’s greenest department for the last three years and previously had been very prominent in the Green Impact Programme. We wanted to widen our profile beyond PALS so that other departments could benefit from our experience and knowledge. Our aim was to engage with the UCL wider community, particularly in our home Faculty, and to pass on good practice where possible. We organised a Divisional Green Day; set up a Twitter hashtag #PALSGREENDAY16 and shared our work at departmental meetings across UCL, and much more.
PALS Green Research Projects
One overarching goal of Experimental Psychology at UCL is to conduct experiments to understand human behaviour, including how individuals make complex decisions. Our Research projects focussed on topics such as the media's influence on public concern about climate change, and UCL's policy action inconsistency on staff and student pro-environmental behaviours.
PALS Lecture-to-Lecture Feedback System
We propose a lecture-to-lecture feedback system that can be integrated into the UCL Go! app across all subjects and modules. Students would be given 5 minutes at the end of the lecture to rate it via their mobile phones or tablets. This innovative approach would not only improve UCL’s environmental performance but save it money and make it more efficient by hopefully improving ratings feedback as well as significantly reducing paper usage across UCL.
PALS Squeeze my Green Balls
This was an interactive installation to raise environmental awareness of staff and students and to encourage them to kick-start pro-environmental habits. A significant impact requires a campaign to raise the awareness of staff and students and kick-start pro-environmental habits. To attract attention, we created a playful interactive installation based on our existing research which we called the Green Ball Kiosk. The Kiosk consisted of a set of green squeezy balls that varied in shade from light to dark. Staff and students were invited to rate themselves each day on how green they have been that day.
PALS Junk Project
The aim of this project was to get members of PALS to think about green issues by recycling objects for reuse in a fun way. All members of PALS were eligible and encouraged to take part in a competition for the best reused item. The winning entry was for a project where a seminar group recycled broken umbrellas into clothes.
PALS Garden
Students, academic and professional service staff worked together to create a green space in our Chandler House offices. We wanted to start a small garden in the rear courtyard of Chandler House. The aim was to recycle as many unused items in the building such as bins and old office equipment and turn them into plant pots. This encouraged people to use the outdoor space more frequently and get away from desks during lunch breaks and also improve the general environment for both people and wildlife.
PALS Green Impact Video
As part of Green Impact PALS has put together a short film highlighting our green impact which includes a host of familiar faces and sparkly shirts...
The UCL Environment Awareness e-Learning course
The UCL Environment Awareness e-Learning course focuses on environmental good practice and is an essential introduction to sustainability at UCL.
- Environment Awareness E-Learning course (Moodle)
- Contact the Environmental Sustainability team for more information at greenucl@ucl.ac.uk
Ways you can help:
Further information on environmental issues
Contact
Contact the Divisional Green Team for advice. If you want to join the Green Impact Team then please contact John Draper.
