Sustainability in the Faculty of Brain Sciences

Welcome to The Faculty of Brain Sciences Sustainability Blog. Here you will find updates on our mission to put sustainability at the forefront of Faculty activity. As a faculty, we are committed to raising awareness of sustainability and using our expertise, both academic and professional services, to tackle climate change. In 2021 we established the FBS Sustainability Committee to promote innovation and ensure sustainability is high on the Faculty’s agenda. With a membership of academic, professional services staff and students from each division and institute, we are committed to using our expertise to tackle one of the most pressing issues facing 21st century society.

Members act as ambassadors for embedding sustainability within the Faculty, sharing good practice and creating a network of engaged champions.

Faculty Pledges

Upon establishment we immediately made five pledges for the whole Faculty:

1. By next academic year (2022-23): Faculty implements Powered by Plants initiative.

2. By next academic year (2022-23): Faculty develop an implementable plan to reduce energy usage from the baseline year of 2018-19.

3. By next academic year (2022-23): all Division and Institute Executives and all-staff meetings to include sustainability as a standing item once per term.

4. By end of 2022-23 academic session: Each Division & Institute achieve gold in Green Impact & LEAF (where relevant).

5. Sustainability included in each student’s curriculum and induction.

Division and institute initiatives

Individual divisions and institutes have already made significant contributions to sustainability including: · PALS No-Fly Zone where PALS no longer support air travel within mainland UK and Eurostar destinations. This follows the highly successful Powered by Plants initiative piloted by PALS and now common across UCL and the wider university community. · Institute of Neurology won the UCL Xmas switch off pledge for 2021

· Institute of Ophthalmology implemented a printing policy aimed at significantly reducing printing

· The Ear Institute had moved from disposable to reusable fly viles, with reports of reduced water consumption for cleaning them.

Faculty Green Day

Our first ever Faculty Green Day will take place 24 March. We have a variety of activities planned, including:

· Talks on sustainability including food waste, the community and the circular economy

· Online interactive events and quizzes

· PALS Poster Competition – an in-person event where Year 1 undergraduate students will present posters based on the final project of their lab class. This year the lab is focusing on environmental issues and environmental charities.

Further details to follow but please save the date – we’d love to see you there.

Thank you to everyone for contributing towards raising awareness and improving sustainability within the Faculty. The committee is still in it’s early stages but we are looking forward to making significant progress within the Faculty and wider UCL.

John Draper

Chair, FBS Sustainability Committee