UCL’s Sustainability Awards 2021

Library Services performed tremendously well for another year in the latest round of Green Impact, when results were presented at UCL’s Sustainability Awards Ceremony 2021. With 17 awards in total to UCL Library Services, the UCL Sustainability hosts observed that “we must have one of the greenest libraries in the UK”!

This year’s ceremony coincided with the Library Services Staff Conference, however organisers of both events kindly arranged for the programmes to allow a 15-minute slot for our Library Green Champions to receive awards as close as “in person” gets for virtual events. Unfortunately this meant a number of us missed the Provost’s introductory remarks at the Staff conference, but we look forwards to catching up with the recordings of this part of the conference!

During the presentation of the awards, Library colleagues could hear which awards they had received and turn on their cameras at the Sustainability Awards, to receive well-deserved praise and recognition. A number of UCL colleagues celebrated the Library’s achievements at the awards, and it was a joyful celebration, where I enjoyed seeing the faces of many colleagues, although not all Green Champions were able to attend.

The full list of awards for Library Services is below; well done to everyone who was involved in the Green Impact Awards, especially our Green Champions who coordinated submissions for each site. In addition to our Sites and central award for the department as a whole, Bernadette d’Almeida was also recognised individually through a “highly commended” UCL Sustainability staff award.

Change Possible: The Strategy for a Sustainable UCL 2019 – 2024 sets us all the challenge of “inspiring sustainability action on an international scale”. The Library’s strong engagement with Green Impact, over many years, will inspire other services to follow suit and I know that our achievements in this area have already been noticed at a national level. Our Library Sustainability Committee is looking to ways we can achieve even greater impact in future years by working more closely together across sites. If you would like to get involved, please get in touch: you can find more information on LibNet.

Bronze:

• Bartlett Library
• Institute of Orthopaedics Library
• SSEES Library

Silver:

• IOE Library
• Main Library
• Ophthalmology Library
• Queen Square Library
• Royal Free Medical Library
• Science Team Library
• Senate House Hub

Gold:

• Central Library Services
• Cruciform Hub
• Institute of Child Health Library
• Institute of Archaeology Library
• School of Pharmacy Library
• Language and Speech Science Library
• Wickford Zero Waste

You can find out more about the Awards, and view a recording of the ceremony and a booklet with an overview of the highly commended and award-winners (including Bernadette) on the Sustainable UCL pages.