UCL’s 2018-19 Annual Sustainability Report is out!

UCL has some of the most ambitious sustainability commitments in the sector. Our buildings will be net zero carbon by 2024, and we are working towards providing sustainability education for all staff and students at UCL. Our Annual Report showcases how UCL has advanced its sustainability agenda in teaching, research, and operations in 2018-19. It also contains many stories of how the UCL community is integrating sustainability in their life and work at UCL. 

“This report is testimony to the work which is already taking place across UCL – reflecting the energy and enthusiasm of our community to tackle social and environmental issues” says Professor Geraint Rees, Dean of the UCL Faculty of Life Sciences, Chair of the Sustainability Steering Group at UCL. 

Highlights 

From saving 250,000 disposable cups on campus, to climbing sustainability league tables, the report highlights our sustainability progress in numbers:  

• UCL ranked 18th out of 150 institutions in the People and Planet League table on UK universities’ environmental and ethical performance. 

• 618 students and staff pledged to switch off during our Christmas and Easter switch off campaigns, saving £134,000 and as much carbon as would have been absorbed by planting 5,733 trees.  

• Over 1000 meals were saved from the bin with the introduction of the food waste app - Too Good To Go. 

• 250,000 disposable cups were saved by introducing a cup charge as part of the “Ditch the Disposable” campaign. The campaign has increased drink sales in reusable cups from around 5% to well over 20% across campus. 

• 26,195kg of waste were reused and thus diverted from the waste stream using WarpIt. 

• UCL’s carbon emissions are 20% below our 2005 baseline thanks to energy reduction initiatives and more renewable energy.  

The People behind sustainability at UCL:                                       

From the Clean Energy Projects Society who worked with Sustainable UCL to install a 30kW solar array on the roof of the Langton Close Hall of Residence, to architects at the Bartlett collaborating on the development of algae bio-curtains to capture carbon dioxide, the Annual Report showcases the myriad of ways in which members of the global UCL community are making change possible at UCL and beyond.  

• Dr Zhifu Mi, lecturer in Economics and Finance of the Built Environment at the Bartlett School of Construction and Project Management, won the prestigious 2018 World Sustainability Award at the World Sustainability Forum in Beijing for his work on climate change economics and sustainability, focusing in particular on the methodologies and applications of carbon foot printing. His current work centres on consumption-based carbon emission accounting and sharing economies as a pathway to sustainable societies. 

• Isa Ibrahim, MSc student for Environmental Design and Engineering investigated issues around the maintenance of solar panels as part of his dissertation project using UCL’s own solar panels as his laboratory. His research showed that on average the panels’ electric power generation could be increased by around 25% after two rounds of cleaning.  

• Sustainable UCL and UCL academics supported Camden Council to launch its Citizen’s Assembly on Climate Change aiming to identify the best way to tackle the climate crisis. The ideas developed by the Assembly were presented to Camden’s full Council in October and helped shape a new Climate Action Plan for Camden from 2020.  

• Whilst competing in the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGem) competition, UCL students Clare Robinson and Rupali Dabas fashioned their own campaign to embed sustainability into the fabric of the competition. Taking inspiration from UCL’s Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF), which provides criteria to help departments make their labs sustainable, the “Emerald Challenge” (Emerald being a green gem) seeks to help students competing in the iGEM competition practice sustainable research. To gain “Emerald Status”, students must complete a set of criteria from taking photographs of positive sustainable practise, to listing the materials which are usable for future contestants and documenting negative findings to prevent repetition of research. UCL’s iGEM team have been meeting with Westminster and Oxford teams to launch the challenge. It is now taking on the title of “Little leaf”. 

• UCL professors Jim Watson and Paul Ekins (UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources) chaired Groups which fed into the UK’s Committee on Climate Change’s latest report to reduce the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions and informed key recommendations.  

The UCL community’s ingenuity and creativity is a continuous source of inspiration as we look towards the future:  

“as we launch our Sustainability Annual Report for 2018/19, which celebrates some of our successes, we find ourselves in uncertain times, not least trying to navigate through new ways of working and new routines. Despite this uncertainty, I have been immensely proud of the UCL community and the response which we have made. It is emblematic of what we can achieve as an institution when we work together. […] I hope the Annual Report serves to offer some hope and motivation.” Richard Jackson, Director of Sustainability. 

 Read the full Annual Report for 2018-19 here.