King's Sustainability

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Learning for change (infographic)

July 10, 2014 /

Hi all,

Over the past four months I’ve been busy working on a review of Education for Sustainable Development at King’s. My colleague Kiran and I conducted 21 qualitative interviews with heads of departments and professors across the College. Last week I was given the opportunity to present our work to the Central Education Committee and Karen O’Brien, our Vice-Principal of Education. I’m very glad to report that my presentation and paper were positively received, and that concrete steps will be taken to further develop ESD at King’s. At 37 pages, the report is a bit too lengthy for this blog, so I would like to share our findings in an infographic. I hope you like it!

Janne

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Paid internships available now with the Sustainability Team

June 26, 2014 /

Would you like the opportunity to work as a Sustainability Projects Assistant in the King’s sustainability team?  

We’re currently [June/July 2014] recruiting for a number of roles in the sustainability team to work with us either over the summer or longer term. As well as providing day to day support for the team the projects that you could be involved whilst working with us include:

  • Sustainability strategy development
  • Sustainable procurement strategy
  • Sustainable food and Fairtrade
  • Sustainability communications and engagement
  • Sustainable labs
  • Carbon reduction
  • Waste management
  • Water reduction
  • Education for sustainable development
  • Data management and analysis
  • Biodiversity
  • Sustainable construction and refurbishment
  • Implementing an environmental management system – ISO14001

See the Careers Group website for more details and to apply.

Passion and commitment to sustainability is a pre requisite but it doesn’t matter what your degree is. We are looking for at least one person to start straight away but we will also accept applications from anyone who can’t start until later this year.

This is offered under the Step internship programme which gives you an income exempt from tax of £308 a week for up to 6 months. There will be an opportunity to apply to extend the placement for up to a year. The role is for King’s students or graduates only.

Please contact Kat Thorne, Head of Sustainability with any questions about the role. If students are interested in researching sustainability at King’s for a project or dissertation, please also be in touch, we would be happy to help.

Watch this space for future opportunities in 2015.

 

Reflecting on my time with King’s Sustainability team

June 24, 2014 /

janneHi everyone, I’m Janne and I work with the Sustainability team as a Sustainability Projects Assistant. As I will be leaving the team soon off to a new job, I thought this would be a good time to share my experiences and reflect on working with the King’s Sustainability team.

After graduating from my MA Cities at King’s I started here as a STEP intern. I have always been very interested in sustainability and with a group of friends at King’s I established a sustainability committee called ‘sustainitects’. This role seemed like a great opportunity to get involved with sustainability projects at King’s so I applied straight away!

The role is varied and you get a chance to work closely with students and staff cross the College, which I find really inspiring. My favourite project has been my research on education for sustainable development. It was very interesting to have conversations about sustainable development with so many people at the College.

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Tytus on the rejuvenated Environment Society

June 23, 2014 /

My name is Tytus Murphy, I am a second year PhD student at the Institute of Psychiatry where I am investigating the effects of ageing on stem cells in the brain. I like our planet very much, am also concerned about climate change and am one of the founding members of Fossil Free KCL. I am very keen to bring all the green groups together at King’s, as together we are stronger. I am also quite competitive when it comes to growing vegetables.  

On Monday 9th June the inaugural meeting of the recently rejuvenated Environment Society (henceforth and affectionately known as “EcoSoc”) took place at the Strand Campus.

This open and well-attended meeting attracted a diverse range of effusive students, ranging from undergrads in English and Economics through to PhD students with projects in war-region conservation and neuroscience. The vision for EcoSoc is a beautiful merger of eclectic green-minded groups at KCL (Fossil Free, Urban Gardens Project, The Sustainability Forum and any other group/individual with a passion for the environment!), with the aim of enshrining an ecologically sensitive consciousness for many years the come.

In particular, many green groups have been and gone in the College’s recent history and we plan to stop this by creating a collaborative, diverse and enthusiastic group that will stand the test of time.

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Learning for change: education for sustainable development

May 19, 2014 /

Hi everyone,

Over the past few months my colleague Kiran and I have been doing research on education for sustainable development (ESD) for Karen O’Brien, our Vice-Principal of Education. The goal of this research is to get a better understanding of how sustainability is currently understood and taught across the College. It’s been a very interesting journey so far and we have discussed sustainability with many departments at King’s. Here I would like to share some my initial findings with you.

So… what is ESD?

There are different approaches to education for sustainable development. Traditionally ESD has focused largely on environmental problems. In this philosophy environmental sustainability can be explained through science, and solutions need to come from human action and technological innovation. This idea doesn’t cover the more social, cultural or economic aspects of sustainability. A more common view in ESD nowadays is that our present knowledge may be inadequate to cope with future uncer

ESD seeks to balance human and economic well-being with cultural traditions and respect for the earth’s natural resources. (UNESCO)

“ESD seeks to balance human and economic well-being with cultural traditions and respect for the earth’s natural resources.” (UNESCO)

tainties and risks. I like the broad definition by the Higher Education Agency (HEA): “Education that prepares people to cope with, manage and shape social, economic and ecological conditions characterised by change, uncertainty, risk and complexity.” (Fu​​ture Fit Framework)

According to Vare and Scott, this means that learning needs to be more ‘open-ended’. If we understand ESD in this way, this means we no longer look for a specific desired end-state of learning. This way we can realise what they call ‘social learning’ and be more reflective on how we might live in the future. I find this approach sustainable in that it uses out-of-the-box ways of thinking to deal with this unknown future.

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Denmark Hill residences: sustainable and considerate construction (Infographic)

April 9, 2014 /

King’s College Hall at Denmark Hill is being redeveloped to improve the quality of the accommodation and the attractiveness of the complex. To achieve a high environmental standard for this project we aim for a BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ qualification. The new residence will be called Champion Hill and is expected to open in September 2014.

We recently received a report on our construction processes from the Considerate Construction Scheme. The CSS monitor construction sites against a code of practice, which includes appearance, respect for the community, protecting the environment, safety and valuing the workforce.

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How did you spend World Water Day this year?

April 3, 2014 /

The 22nd of March was World Water Day. A day set aside to specifically remember and celebrate what we often take for granted. There is something magical about water. We’ve all experienced the powerful presence of water at some point in our lives. Perhaps through a beach vacation beside turquoise waters or a quick dip in the pool, a relaxing time by a serene lake, watching raindrops on roses or perhaps when we were kids splashing around in a paddling pool or a river. Water can evoke so many emotions. Can you think of what is your favourite memory of water?

Water is intrinsically connected to everything we do whether we are aware of it or not. From our cuppa in the morning to a long soak in a hot bath on weary days, from the things we choose to put on our plates to the objects we use everyday, a LOOOOOOOOOT of water goes into making all of that possible. The term used for the water that is embedded in all these things is called ‘Virtual Water’. You’d be proud to know (in case you didn’t already know) that the concept of virtual water was discovered by our very own Professor Tony Allan. Virtual water has taken the world by storm. Building on this concept is the notion of water footprints. Scientists have now discovered how much water goes into growing our food or making things. Take a look at the chart below. There is also a cool iPhone app by the Virtual Water Project that you can download from iTunes if you’d like to grow more conscious about how much water our everyday food and beverages really consume.

water-footprint

Source: http://virtualwater.eu

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Recap panel discussion: a sustainable future – mission possible?

March 3, 2014 /

Green Week 2014 was an action packed week. There were events scheduled at every campus in order to reach out to as many people as possible. One of the concluding events of the Green Week was the panel discussion at Strand. The topic was ‘A GGW_logo_web.imdex12443sustainable future – mission possible?’ The distinguished panel comprised of both internal and external speakers – Aaron Re’em,  Senior Account Director from TRUCOST, Dr. Nate Matthews from the Department of Geography and Prof. Mischa Dohler from the Department of Informatics at King’s. The panel tackled a wide range of questions ranging from the the need for a new definition for sustainability to the role of the private sector and governments. They shared examples of the need for critical change in several areas but it was most heartening to hear the positive examples they shared as well.  Here are three positive examples shared by the speakers

1. A compelling business case may be the missing link to a sustainable future

The Carbon War Room analysed several technologies which had the potential to advance the low-carbon economy on a big scale. They looked for specific reasons why such technology hadn’t been adopted yet in the most polluting sectors and found that in many cases, it was simply a matter of poor communication and the need to create a compelling business case. For instance, the shipping industry is known to be a very big polluter. The industry uses raw diesel and cities with ports are usually extraordinarily polluted.

Although the technology exists to reduce this problem, the missing link lay in lack of market information. The company has recently launched operation shipping efficiency which aims to reduce carbon emissions by bridging gaps in market information related to environmental efficiency, encouraging key stakeholders to embed efficiency into decision making, and unlocking capital flow for technology retrofits.  They found that through this there was potential for the shipping industry to save $70 Billion per year on fuel and reduce carbon and other pollutants by 30 percent.

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Try these delicious seasonal recipes for Green Week!

February 7, 2014 /

[GUEST BLOG] Selina is Departmental Administrator and Equality Representative for the Department of Pharmacy and the Department of Forensic & Analytical Science. She loves cooking and is working on her own cookbook. Try out her Green Week recipes below!

You may already have heard of Meatless Monday, the campaign to try to get all us of to reduce our reliance on meat by encouraging consumption of at least one vegetable based meal each week. In addition there is also the Love Food Hate Waste campaign to try to get us to think more sensibly about the food we buy to reduce the amount we needlessly throw away. Why not celebrate Green Week at King’s with a 5 day menu of cheap and nutritional meals based on seasonal vegetables, love your leftovers and do your bit to reduce food waste and help the environment?

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