Green Impact July round-up

Sustainability awards

UCL recently hosted the latest edition of the Sustainability Awards, celebrating work across the institution from both staff and students. Led by the Sustainable UCL team, the virtual ceremony also featured the likes of Deborah Gill (UCL VP for Education and Student Experience) and Ash Ghadiali (keynote speaker, and Activist in Residence) for wider perspectives. And also several pets!

In Olympics-esque fashion, areas across UCL (including labs) are able to win Gold, Silver, and Bronze awards for Green Impact based on meeting certain criteria. We are very pleased to announce that as SRS Green Champions, we achieved another podium finish in the Green Impact Office category, albeit a Silver this year. It has been a difficult year to engage in meaningful work on this front, as well as losing some of our team members to pastures new, so we hope to be back to our Gold-winning ways again in future.

We did however make the “front cover” of the YouTube video of the Awards so we will count that as a bonus placing. Also, congratulations to associated SRS groups (Careers, Student Enquiry Centre) for their Gold awards! We look forward to working with these groups more closely in future.

Virtual SRS Green Champions Drop-In Session

We’d love to hear thoughts from colleagues across SRS about sustainability, be that new ideas or questions, or an expression of an interest to join our team – please pop into our virtual drop-in session on Wednesday August 4^th between 12-12.30.

If you would like to receive an Outlook calendar invite of the meeting or arrange a chat another time, please feel free to contact Saam Das via email or Teams message.

Sustainability Tips for Return to Office

With some teams across SRS already back in the office and others due back soon, we thought it would be useful to remind people of some good practice sustainability-wise!

1) Re-usable water bottles – many of you will already be using some form of re-usable water bottle but with potential hot weather and hot offices, it might be worth considering an insulated bottle, which you can fill up with cold water and ice before you head to work. Your existing one may even already have that capability, give it a try!

2) Cycling or walking to work – UCL has some useful resources regarding cycling and walking to work (avoiding enclosed spaces on public transport may also be preferable during this pandemic) but of course, for some this might not be feasible. Perhaps instead, you might be able to get off a stop or two early on the tube or the bus and walk to work in the morning.

3) Switching off equipment – please try to switch off equipment at the end of your working day, where possible. This especially applies to items of personal use such as computer monitors, a quick and easy win that will add up if everyone does it!

Your SRS Green Champions team is currently comprised of Saam Das (Admissions) and Rachel Euba (Student Psychological Services) – please contact either of us if interested in joining our team or simply if you have any feedback!