The SWG is a student-led group created after the 1st MRC Centre for Environment and Health's Sustainability Workshop. Its members are students and staff from MRC Centre for Environment and Health at Imperial College London with an amazing drive for change and a profound passion for sustainability. We want to be a friendly and energetic space for discussion around green opportunities for the MRC Centre and the college.

Members: Aina Roca Barcelo (PhD), Annalisa Sheehan (PhD), Rhiannon Thompson (PhD), Carl Desouza (Post Doc), Richard Belcher (PhD), Joseph Levermore (PhD), Allison Gaines (PhD), Ed Selerio (Scientific Manager), Fred Piel (Lecturer).

The MRC Centre Sustainability Working Group is glad to present the first MRC Centre Sustainability Week, from Monday 15th – Friday 19th February.

We are bringing lots of fantastic events, challenges and tips for you. Each day of the week will be dedicated to a different sector which we believe is important to look at if we are to improve our sustainability.

Have a glance to our exciting agenda below and in the attached poster. Make sure to register to the events (see links below) you want to take part, it is a first come first served policy!

Oh and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter (@MRC_ReSoc) as most of our action will be through there.

The first action taken by the MRC-CEH-SWG was to generate a comprehensive and thorough report analysing the barriers and opportunities for sustainable changes within the MRC Centre and more broadly Imperial College and to make informed recommendations. More specifically, the report aims to: (i) better understand current practises; (ii) identify barriers and challenges to sustainable alternatives, (iii) identify opportunities, and (iv) make clear and diverse recommendations of both feasible and effective alternatives.

This report has been approved by the heads of Departments Prof. Paul Elliot and Prof. Frank Kelly.

On the 29^th of January 2020, a group of students and staff members from Imperial College London gathered with one objective: to identify the barriers to a more sustainable workspace. This was part of the first MRC Centre for Environment and Health’s Sustainability Workshop, organised by the MRC Researchers Society’s co-chair Aina Roca Barceló (1^st year President PhD Scholar), supported by the MRC Centre for Environment and Health, within the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Department (EBS), represented by Drs Fred Piel and Eduardo Seleiro. This was kindly funded by the Research Community Fund at Imperial College London.  

To kick-off the event, we were guided by  Prof. Paul Lickiss, the new Academic Leader in Sustainability for Imperial College London, through the past, present and future initiatives happening at Imperial College. Right after, Dr Nicola Hogan from the Sustainability Team at King’s College London shared with us some tips and recommendations from their prize-winning sustainability programme.

This was followed by a delicious vegetarian and vegan lunch to fuel our brains and get ready for the exciting afternoon ahead of us. For more than 2 hours, we discussed, played and brainstormed together, trying to decipher the intricacies of making our departments more sustainable and finding those weak points to shift the balance.

Overall, the workshop was well-received by both the participants and the keynote speakers, who engaged in part of the co-creation workshop. Based on the feedback, the workshop helped to create a great space to discuss with peers’ and institutional representatives’ views, concerns and ideas to keep pushing our university forward and set the seed for a sustainability network.