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2023 Sustainability Awards: Another incredible year for sustainability at UCL!
1 August 2023
UCL commemorated its 11th Annual Sustainability Awards Ceremony on the 12th of July, applauding the sustainable accomplishments of 48 Green Impact teams, 77 LEAF teams and 10 Special Awards recipients.
Celebrating our community
UCL’s Sustainability Awards Ceremony witnessed over 200 staff and students from all corners of the university join together, both online, and in person, to celebrate the unwavering dedication and hard work of our community members who have been striving to enhance the sustainability of UCL. Amidst joy, celebration and ice-cream, the event shone a spotlight on the importance of collective action, the strength of community, and the significance of coming together to celebrate and inspire one another.
From laboratories pushing the boundaries of energy efficiency, to departments cultivating green spaces and well-being initiatives, our community at UCL strives for progress. Together, we are weaving sustainability into the fabric of our institute. The passion and dedication of our staff and students inspire us to reach even greater heights, and I look forward to celebrating more remarkable stories of sustainability and innovation in the years to come." Jason Clarke, Assistant Sustainability Director, UCL.
The Ceremony, hosted by UCL’s new Assistant Sustainability Director, Jason Clarke, celebrated an astonishing 77 LEAF teams making their laboratories more sustainable, and 48 Green Impact teams working towards improving the sustainability of their offices and libraries. This year, we had 67 teams receive Gold Awards - more than ever before!
There were also five Special Sustainability Awards. These Special Awards were given to nominated individuals and teams who have shown to go the extra mile to achieve greater levels of sustainability in teaching, research, and operations at UCL and beyond. View the winners, and those who were highly commended at the end of this article.
Networking
To foster meaningful relationships between members of staff and students working towards the same sustainability goals, the ceremony began with an engaging networking event, attended by 10 stallholders from across the university. This was followed by a delicious vegetarian and sustainable barbecue on the Wilkins Terrace, before the awards ceremony began.
Guest speakers
To commemorate the winners, attendees were graced by three guest speakers:
- Aimie Chapple, UCL Vice-Provost (Operations), sharing her insights on the significance of sustainability in her new role, expressing admiration for the commendable sustainability efforts at UCL and recognising the university's widespread engagement in sustainability initiatives.
- Zihan Xuan, a UCL Philosophy, Politics, and Economics BSc graduate and the YOUNGO Global North Focal Point, speaking passionately about the vital role of young people in addressing climate change. YOUNGO is the official children and youth constituency of the UNFCCC. Drawing from his experiences at the Conference of Parties (COP), he highlighted the importance of youth voices in climate conferences.
- Professor Priti Parikh, Director of the Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, sharing her profound journey in sustainability and climate change. Emphasising the power of interdisciplinarity and the Sustainable Development Framework, she outlined how these approaches can effectively address the pressing issues across the entire university. Priti concluded her inspiring talk with a quote by Mahatma Gandhi, urging everyone to "Be the change you wish to see in this world."
From left to right: Jason Clarke, Professor Priti Parikh and Zihan Xuan
The awards
All winners were presented with wildflower seeded certificates and delicious cakes to celebrate their achievements. The cakes were baked by Luminary Bakery, a social enterprise providing training, employment, and community to women in need.
UCL in numbers
The fantastic accomplishments across UCL add to a positive year for sustainability at UCL. In 2022/2023:
- UCL ranked 7th in the People and Planet University League, moving up 12 positions from 2021/2022.
- 21 academics represented UCL in the international climate negotiations at COP27.
- The UCL Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education launched to support teachers to prepare them on how to teach subjects relating to climate change and sustainability.
- An Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Network launched for staff to share best practise in embedding sustainability into the curriculum.
- 788 staff and students pledged to switch off during the Christmas and Easter periods, helping UCL to reduce 139 tonnes of CO2, equivalent to planting 2,224 trees and saving UCL over £190,000.
- UCL’s caterer, Gather & Gather, received a prestigious UDine award for the 'Best Plant-Based Menu.'
- Club Zero, a returnable cup scheme expanded to 10 UCL cafes. Club Zero launched at UCL in 2021, which has since enabled over 6,000 fewer single-use cups to be produced.
- The UCL CAVE Research Laboratory achieved BREEAM Excellent and UCL East and Marshgate are on the track to achieve BREEAM Excellent.
- UCL collaborated with 9 other London-based universities for the London Student Sustainability Conference.
*On average, one tree can consume approximately 60kg of CO2 from the atmosphere.
2023 Winners of the Sustainability Special Awards
- Staff Award for Outstanding Commitment to Sustainability
The winner of the 2023 Staff Award for Outstanding Commitment to Sustainability is Dr Deniz Bakkalci, Research Fellow in the Department of Targeted Intervention.
Deniz is a tissue engineer and develops 3D models of disease and healthy tissue from biodegradable materials to study basic biology and how disease progression impacts tissue form and function. Deniz also leads the Division of Surgery & Interventional Science Green Impact team and seeks greener alternatives in laboratory settings by introducing innovative initiatives and working collaboratively with staff and students to conduct case studies aimed at conserving energy and minimising the use of plastic.
Deniz has also implemented a mandatory sustainability induction for new staff to raise awareness and ensure that sustainability principles are ingrained in our daily activities.
The highly commended Staff Award for Outstanding Commitment to Sustainability was awarded to Professor Paolo Taticchi, UCL School of Management Deputy Director & Professor in Strategy.
Paolo introduced a well-received sustainability module for the Global Business School for Health Master of Business Administration (MBA) and played a pivotal role in developing the UCL MBA Sustainability Lab. Additionally, as the School Deputy Director for Global Engagement, he spearheaded the strategy for a new summer school addressing grand challenges through ecosystem innovation.
- Student Award for Outstanding Commitment to Sustainability
The winner of the 2023 Student Award for Outstanding Commitment to Sustainability is Tom Weston, MBA student, UCL School of Management.
Tom founded the UCL Sustainability Lab in May 2022, as a collaborative, sustainability-focused platform to build an impactful link between academia and industry and to tackle grand business challenges. During the 2022-23 academic year, Tom has established partnerships with 6 companies and industry organisations, as well as two non-governmental organisations.
The highly commended Student Award for Outstanding Commitment to Sustainability was awarded to Engineers Without Borders. Rachel Wan, second-year Biomedical Engineering student, collected the award.
Engineers Without Borders are a student-led project that deliver hands-on sustainable engineering workshops for students in primary and secondary schools across London. They encourage young people from different backgrounds to choose a career in engineering. This academic year, Engineers Without Borders have organised 19 workshops, promoting sustainable engineering in nine schools across London, where their activities reached out to more than 500 young students.
- Sustainability Education Award
The winner of the Sustainable Education Award is Blanche Cameron, lecturer at The Bartlett School of Architecture, for leading UCL’s Greening Cities module.
The Greening Cities module explores how integrating biodiverse nature-based solutions into the urban fabric can help to cool buildings and neighbourhoods, reduce flooding, filter water pollution, reduce carbon emissions, energy and costs, and improve people’s health and sense of wellbeing.
Blanche has been testing out innovative solutions with her students on campus.
> UCL installs biodiverse rain planters for nature-based climate adaptation.The highly commended Sustainability Education Award was awarded to Dr Nicole Blum, Senior Lecturer, Insitute of Education (IOE) and Dr Frances Hunt, Senior Researcher,IOE.
Created and built by Dr Blum and Dr Hunt of the IOE, and funded by the Sustainable UCL team, the Educating for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Schools and Universities’ online short course provides educators in schools and universities with support and continuing professional development to embed ESD within their practice. To date, 1,015 participants have enrolled in the course from 115 countries, and they have received very positive feedback from participants located around the world.
This project had support from academics and professional staff from across the UCL institution.
> Educating for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Schools and Universities.
- Sustainability Research Award
The winner of the Sustainability Research Award is Professor Catalina Turcu, Professor of Sustainable Built Environment, The Bartlett School of Planning.
Professor Turcu is the Founder and Director of the SDG’s Research Accelerator. This is a transdisciplinary research initiative that provides scientific evidence through participatory engagement between researchers and policymakers to advance the understanding and implementation of the UN SDGs and sustainable urban transformations.
> SDG Research Accelerator initiative
The highly commended Sustainability Research Award was awarded to Alexa Wong, Rebecca Nasterlack and Asma Laali, Students in the Mathematical & Physical Sciences Faculty.
Following mounting mental health and wellbeing concerns, Asma, Alexa and Rebecca (under the supervision of Dr Peter Bratby) applied to UCL’s ChangeMakers Project for funding and support to develop an understanding of disabled/neurodivergent (D/ND) students’ experiences in Natural Sciences. Through rich testimonies, survey results and research, they produced a 25-page report that surfaced several shortcomings and opportunities to improve support.
- Sustainability Impact Award
The winner of the Sustainability Impact Award is UCL’s Student Zero Food Waste Project, collected by Daisy Li, Claudia Low and Cynthia Allen.
The Student Zero Food Waste Project is a student-led volunteering project that aims to tackle food waste and enhance sustainability on campus through food redistribution. Since October 2022, the project organises volunteers to deliver unsold food from 9 food outlets (cafés/shops) across campus to nearby homeless shelters and other locations. They have saved almost 4,600 food items from being thrown away.
The highly commended Sustainability Impact Award was awarded to Gather & Gather, UCL’s catering contractor.
Gather & Gather, also known as ‘Food at UCL’ are committed to serving food that has a lower carbon impact thereby reducing the most significant driver of their climate impact at UCL and supporting UCL’s campaign Positive Climate. Gather & Gather have been tracking not only the availability of very high to very low impact dishes, but also have built systems to track their sales in their main refectory against the dishes carbon intensity.
Gather & Gather have run behaviour change trials in the main refectory to see whether menu descriptions, larger icons, inclusion in meal-deals, and increased comms around carbon and food will change customer’s choices. The learnings from these trials will guide Gather & Gather on what methods they should use across all UCL outlets to help the community make better-informed choices.
- Special Awards for Outstanding Sustainability Plan
The Sustainability Plan is a bespoke plan, which focuses on the unique sustainability opportunities and challenges that are connected to a division or faculty’s area of work.
Green Laws
Laws have dedicated time and effort in gathering data and consulting staff and students in finding appropriate and impactful solutions that can make a difference with their faculty. They also have a Green Impact Committee of 49 staff and students.
A major project that Green Laws are working towards is the installation of water fountains in Bentham House. This is being undertaken to help increase the number of students bringing in reusable bottles.
Mullard Science Space Laboratory (MSSL)
The Green Impact team have worked tirelessly over the last few years to increase awareness of the issues surrounding climate change. One example is how they have been bringing nature into the surrounding areas of MSSL through the reduction of mowing, native planting and exclusion of chemical herbicides.
PALS Green Team
The PALS Green Team continue to lead the way on sustainability at UCL. One incredible example is their partnership with JogOn, which collects trainers from staff and students to donated for distribution around the world or to be shredded and recycled, as opposed to going to landfill.
Read more about the special award winners and highly commended
Green Impact Awards
- Bronze
ARC Green Team
ICH Sustainability
IOE Library
SSEES Library
Student Psychological and Counselling Services
UCL Institute of Orthopaedics Library
Wickford Stores
Wilms Team- Silver
Bartlett Library
Bloomsbury Theatre
EPH
Green Laws
Institute of Clinical Trials & Methodology
IRDR – Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction
Medical Physics & Biomedical Engineering
Senate House UCL Hub
Student Centre Library Team
UCL Statistical Science- Gold
Bartlett Faculty Office
BASc Green Team
BSEER Green Team
BSSC Green Onions
CBER
Central Library Services
Cruciform Hub
Dementia Research Centre [ION]
Division of Surgery
Ear Institute Team
Green Team: Office of the President & Provost
ICH Library
IGP
Institute of Archaeology Library
Institute of Ophthalmology
IoO Library
Language & Speech Science Library
Legion of Eunomia
Main Library
OVPA
PALS
Psychiatry
Royal Free Library
School of Pharmacy Library
Science Library
Student Enquiry Centre
The Green Team at Prion
UCL Careers
UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory
UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology Admin
UCL Queen Square Library
LEAF Awards
- Bronze
Centre for Cell & Molecular Dynamics Imaging Unit
Confocal & Light Microscopy Core Facility
Darwin Research Facility (DRF)
Franz lab CBD
Immunosenescence and Ageing
Long/Scambler Lab (204/209)NMD
Mass Spec lab
Medawar Pain and Somatosensory Labs
Morris Lab and Schorge Lab
Parrinello Lab
Patricia Salinas Lab
PSL1/PSL2 and Clinical skills
Purton Lab
SoP-MSc Teaching/Instrumentation Laboratory (B56)
Tedesco Lab
Thrasher Lab
Waudby Lab (421)
Worm Lab Anatomy 2nd Floor- Silver
Centre for Clinical Microbiology
Dubowitz Neuromuscular centre
Farrant/Cull-Candy Lab
G16 Electrochemistry Lab
GGM MBRD 1st Floor
ICH - Ground Floor Labs (Jenkins et al)
ICH - Respiratory Infection
Knapp Lab
Lab-308_exNDU
LG30 - Volpe Lab
LG31 - Clarke Group
Pallett lab (IIT)
UCL Genomics
Williams Lab
ZCR Cancer- Gold
A.C.B.E.
Barnes Lab
Booth (ZCR)
Brogan/Eleftheriou
BSU Biological Services
Carmalt and Parkin Research Group
Clinical and Experimental Epilepsy Labs
Crompton Lab
Cruciform 3.4
Depatment of Clinical and Movement Neuroscience
Department of Neuromuscular Diseases
Department of Neurodegenerative Diseases
DSIS labs
Ear Institute Labs
Flow Cytometry Core Facility Lab
Fly Lab Rockefeller
GCLP Facility
Geography Labs
Graham Lab 101
ICH Lab Management Team
IoO Labs
Kurian Lab – ZCR
MRC Prion Unit at UCL
Neural Computation Laboratory – Cruciform Wing 2.2
NMD – Cruciform Building
PALS LEAF Lab
Rheumatology labs - Rayne
Sainsbury Wellcome Centre
School of Pharmacy Teaching Labs
Spinal Repair Unit
UK DRI
Wedderburn Lab
Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging
WHO PSLR
WLDI Skin Lab
Read more about the Green Impact teams
Read more about the LEAF teams
Get involved
We extend a heartfelt thank you to all the individuals and teams who have contributed to our remarkable sustainability achievements this year. Our staff, students, Green Impact, and LEAF teams, as well as our Special Award winners, have been instrumental in making these accomplishments possible. As we continue our journey, we invite everyone at UCL to join us. If you are eager to be part of a Sustainable UCL, you can find out how to get involved below. Together, we can make #ChangePossible.
Help us make change possible:
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