Research

From testing plastic eating bacteria to creating carbon-absorbing bio-curtains on our campus, UCL researchers are leading the way in global sustainability.

UCL shapes the debate

At UCL, we spark debate to co-create sustainability solutions with the wider world.

We are committed to increasing our sustainability research, with increased focus on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

We do this, by opening a dialogue with our wider community, and using our campus as a living laboratory to create, test and disseminate sustainability solutions.

We have developed a programme called LEAF (Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework) to help scientists improve the sustainability of their laboratories, so our research has limited impact on the environment.

UCL is also a signatory to the UKRI Environmental Sustainability Concordat aimed at making research more environmentally sustainable.

Explore how UCL is helping to achieve the UN SDGs

YouTube Widget Placeholderhttps://youtu.be/ZQ3m_NViKno

Explore some of our research initiatives making change possible

UCL Climate Hub: a community for change

The UCL Climate hub illustrates the extraordinary breadth of climate-focused activity taking place at UCL, and how you can get involved.

Image of Antarctica retreating across the sea floor

UCL Environment Domain

The Environment Domain connects UCL's research community to support the development of new insight and expertise on environmentally relevant research activity.

UCL Grand Challenges: Climate Crisis

UCL's Grand Challenges initiative enables and encourages colleagues to come together across UCL to develop holistic solutions to the Climate Crisis.

Published research

Funnelback feed: https://cms-feed.ucl.ac.uk/s/search.json?collection=drupal-push-news-new...Double click the feed URL above to edit

Explore UCL Institutes researching sustainability

UCL Clean Air Network showcases the research on clean air conducted by UCL in collaboration with London hospitals, building on the Clean Air Hospital Framework (CAHF).
UCL Anthropocene works as a virtual school by assembling projects, people, courses, and events from across UCL to articulate and address the problems that the Anthropocene poses for our collective future.
Plastics Waste Hub is a multidisciplinary team of researchers, including scientists, engineers, designers, and social scientists, taking a design-led approach to the issue of plastic waste.
USAR carries out world-leading, interdisciplinary research into sustainability and resilience in the urban environment. USAR manages postgraduate programmes and works with industry and NGOs.
UCL ISR generates knowledge in the globally sustainable use of natural resources and trains the future leaders of this field.
CBER is an interdisciplinary centre within UCL’s Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment.
Circular Economy Lab is an exciting cross-faculty, cross-discipline initiative, aiming to use UCL's expertise to improve the design of buildings and products, their re-use and recycling, and the return of their constituent materials back to the economy.
The Climate Action Unit works to change how scientists, policymakers, businesses, media, civil society organisations and citizens engage with each other about climate change.

Living Laboratory

The UCL Living Lab programme enables students and staff to solve UCL’s sustainability challenges through research, teaching, dissertations and projects.

> View more information on Living Lab.

LEAF

Our sustainable laboratory programme is being used by 120 institutions across the globe to address the climate and ecological emergencies through science.

> View more information on Sustainable Labs at UCL.

UKRI Concordat

UCL is a signatory of the Concordat for Environmental Sustainability, developed by the UK research and innovation sector—a pledge to embed sustainability into our research.

> UKRI Concordat UCL Signed Letter.