The UCL PALS BSc Psychology 1st Year poster conference session took place on 28 March 2022 in Bedford Way and online via Gather Town.

This year, students presented their research on the question: “What makes people donate to charity?” The idea was to encourage the UCL PALS student community to think about environmental charities. At the end of the online experiment, participants were directed to the “PALS Green Team Fundraiser” JustGiving page where they donated a total of £396. This sum was matched by the Division of Psychology and Language Sciences to make a total of £792. The funds raised will be split equally between the following three charities:

• Harington Scheme – provides a unique opportunity for young adults with learning disabilities and/or difficulties, delivering individual learning programmes in horticulture designed to help them into employment, further education or a more rewarding life.
• Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) – a charity that protects wetlands and wildlife. Rebecca Hobbs on behalf of the WWT said the following: “We at the WWT are honoured that UCL students and the UCL PALS Green Impact Team chose to donate to us as part of their sustainability experiment. This generous donation will help protect blue spaces for wildlife and people alike.”
• LifeAfterHummus – Community Benefit Society based in Somers Town which acts as a foodbank to Bengali and Somali families suffering from food poverty.

Dr Miles Tufft (Lecturer at UCL), who helped adjudicate the event, shared: “The overall quality of the research was excellent and I was particularly impressed by the levels of insight, critical reflection and poise shown by the students when presenting their posters. Delivering research to this standard in only their first year is a real testament to the hard work they’ve put in across the year, and added to the fact that real donations were raised for excellent causes, made this a real pleasure to be involved with.”

Dr Katie Fisher (Lecturer at UCL), who ran the event together with Professor Daniel Richardson, said the following: “The students produced impressively high-quality research and poster presentations which would not be out of place at any academic conference. They gave very interesting insights into the psychology of charitable giving, and had lots of great ideas for future research into sustainable and pro-environmental behaviours – topics which are clearly of the utmost importance to them.”

John Draper (Head of Administration at UCL PALS) added: “It was really pleasing to see such great engagement from students and staff in this event, and I was particularly pleased that the PALS Green Team was able to take such an active role. One of the Faculty of Brain Sciences’ five sustainability pledges is that ‘Sustainability is included in each student’s curriculum and induction’. This event plays a significant role in enhancing student awareness of sustainability issue.”

The poster conference was a great opportunity for students to hone their academic communication skills, meet other members of the department and become more involved in the PALS Green initiatives.

• View the three posters selected as the winners
• Find out more about the work of the UCL PALS Green Impact Team

The UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology (IoN) Green Team reflect on how IoN is committed to raising awareness of sustainability and using its expertise, both academic and professional services, to tackle climate change.

ION sustainability initiatives and activities

EpilepsyClimateChange

Professor Sanjay Sisodiya is co-ordinating investigations of the impact of climate change on people with neurological conditions. To address these issues, Professor Sisodiya established a consortium of neurologists, scientists, epilepsy nurses, representatives from industry and charities supporting people with epilepsy, called Epilepsy Climate Change:

 “Climate change is with us. How will it affect people with epilepsy? How do we contribute to climate change in our professional lives? What can we do about it? EpilepsyClimateChange is hosting its first virtual conference to begin to address these important issues. Please join us so we can begin to plan and take action for a challenging future”.  

Epilepsy Climate Change hosted its first virtual conference in November 2021 and won PR Week’s ‘Favourite Campaign of COP26’.

IoN have also recently advertised a three-year clinical fellow post for epilepsy and climate change.

Sustainability events

The Institute held its first Green Day Symposium on 25th January 2021, celebrating initiatives at UCL and beyond. The virtual event was joined by nearly 120 UCL staff and students.

Find out more about Sustainability activities at ION on our intranet and website

Sustainability awards at ION

ION’s commitment to sustainability has been recognised at UCL’s annual awards ceremonies, including three Bronze, three Silver and two Gold LEAF awards, one gold and two silver office awards in 2021. Office Green Impact is led by Sarah Lawson, and LEAF is led by Steffy Czieso, who are both are members of the Faculty Sustainability Committee, alongside Sanjay Sisodiya.

ION sustainability pledges

The institute has made several pledges to complement the Faculty’s, including a sustainable travel policy effective 15^th February 2022: air travel for all UK-based business travel and any business travel to Northern Europe that is supported by Eurostar/ train links will no longer be reimbursed or permitted.

Sustainability roles at ION

In 2021 we appointed both our first Deputy Director for Sustainability, Professor Sanjay Sisodiya and our first Student Sustainability Ambassador, Heather Sampson.

Student sustainability

As the new Student Sustainability Ambassador for the IoN, Heather (MSc Clinical Neuroscience) will be working with the IoN Green Champions to improve student engagement and participation as well as help shape and build new sustainability projects.

‘We all have a responsibility to address the climate emergency, one of the biggest challenges of our time. The actions we take today to decrease our negative impact on the environment will directly influence the future of our planet. Together we can make change happen, so join us in creating a more sustainable IoN and UCL! I am very excited to work with the IoN Green Champions and encourage greater sustainability in the department’. Heather Sampson, ION Student Sustainability ambassador

Links

Find out more about Sustainability at ION on our intranet and website

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