The Sustainability Service holds Sustainability Celebration

Last week we held a Sustainability Celebration event to bring together members of the University community to celebrate the diverse and innovative sustainability actions and initiatives being delivered across the University.  

Thank you to everyone who attended the event, we loved seeing so many familiar and new faces and it was great to talk to you all about the different sustainability activity going on! 

With talks from Ann Allen, Director of Campus Innovation, and Thom Cooper, Acting Head of Sustainability, the event allowed guests to gain valuable insights into impactful sustainability projects and discover opportunities to get involved and collaborate with like-minded individuals passionate about creating a sustainable future at the University. 

As part of the event Jonathan Pitches, Head of School of Performance and Cultural Industries, chaired a panel session with staff and student representatives from across the University who are delivering sustainability initiatives.  

Faye Blinkhorne kicked off the panel discussion talking about her experience as a Research Technician in the Faculty of Biological Sciences. Faye talked about the LEAF framework used to assess sustainability in laboratories as the PIXC Research Facility which she works in was the first lab at the University to achieve Gold LEAF accreditation. 

When asked, Faye said:

An absolute pleasure to be involved in the sustainability celebration - discussing our incredible sustainability efforts as part of the panel was a highlight!

Julie Mathes followed next to discuss her experience working with the Sustainability Service as a Student Sustainability Architect. Over the past year Julie has been working on gardening projects both here on campus and in the local community.  

On her experience at the event, Julie said:

Events like this always remind me how crucial it is to bring people from different disciplines together and discuss sustainability, from reducing waste in labs, to work with the local communities, to planting trees. Only by collaborating across sectors and discussing different views, we will be able to truly upscale sustainability at this university and beyond.

To round off the panel, Robin Hayward, Communication and Engagement Officer for the Leeds Ecosystem, Atmosphere, and Forest group (LEAF) discussed their involvement with Gair Wood, a new woodland of over 60,000 trees which was planted earlier this year. Robin talked about how as the woodland grows, the trees will remove carbon from the atmosphere and contribute towards the University’s target of delivering net zero emissions by 2030, as part of the University of Leeds Climate Plan. 

When asked about the event, Robin said:

The celebration was a fantastic opportunity to reflect on the sustainability successes within our team and to discover achievements from elsewhere within the university. It was great to meet colleagues working on sustainability with different focuses and to consider how we might work together in the future.

Thanks again to everyone who came along and, if you didn’t manage to make it this time, we hope to see you next year!