Introducing the Student Enquiries Centre Green Awareness Group

In the Student Enquiries Centre Team, we are committed to helping create a sustainable UCL and are continually looking for green improvements to our service, to ensure that the way we operate is as sustainable as possible. The SEC Green Awareness Group was established to support this shared goal and to raise sustainability awareness within the department and the UCL community more widely.

We are currently working hard to complete the Bronze Award for the Green Impact, a United Nations award-winning programme, designed to support organisations improve their environmental impact and achieve better sustainable practice. This includes working through a range of important sustainability actions to get us thinking about the positive changes we can make in the Student Enquiries Centre, as well as working remotely.

We’ve also introduced our own green monthly newsletter! This is a great way for us to share updates with the rest of our team, promote upcoming sustainability events and ‘Do Nation’ Pledges, featuring green challenges for us all to get involved in. This month the SEC team have pledged to become ‘Recycling Ninjas’ and master our recycling habits. Here are some recycling tips from the SEC Team:

• "I am only buying mayonnaise in a glass bottle. Once finished I have washed it, taken the label off and reuse it to store half used tinned items."
• "We’ve cut back on the use of cling film or kitchen foil which can’t be recycled. So, instead we are using the reusable silicone covers and my dad has the reusable beeswax papers. Both seem great so far!"
• "Check what can be recycled at the supermarket. Some supermarkets do in-store recycling for: batteries, water filters, printing cartridges, plastic bags and hangers."

You can find more suggestions and tips on how to reduce your waste and make sure materials are being recycled on UCL’s Stay in the Loop webpage.   

Louise Bone, a member of the Green Awareness Group, has said:

“Since working within the SEC green team, I have really enjoyed seeing what other teams have been doing especially during these strange times of working from home. In our May Green Newsletter, we asked our immediate team to share their recycling tips from home – it was great to hear of the many activities and has encouraged me to follow suit for instance checking where you can recycle small broken electrical items, batteries and clothing.”

Shila Panchasara, a Student Centre Officer in the SEC, has said:

It is really important that we as a team are engaged with UCL's Sustainability projects. The newsletter is really useful, very engaging and fun to be part. It’s beautifully informative and colourfully put together, giving us ideas on what other team members are doing and useful tips on how we can recycle. What the Green Awareness Group are doing is very useful for the team!

Interested in sustainability? Want to make a difference at UCL?

Please visit our staff and student sustainability webpages, where you’ll find lots of great information on how to get involved and take action!

Get involved - become a Sustainability Ambassador!

UCL Student Enquiries Centre Team