Blog by Dr Maggy Fostier, FBMH Associate Dean for Environmental Sustainability. 

Welcome to the 6th edition of the FBMH Environmental Sustainability (ES) Good Newsletter. It is packed full of inspiring news. 

The University is progressing well with its ES agenda, and we are coordinating efforts across Faculties and the central ES team to maximise outreach and efforts to engage everyone on campus and beyond.  

To make our research more sustainable, I am also working with external academic networks and industry partners to share good practices and develop common tools and strategies. 

At the University level, we have a lot to celebrate:  

• We will imminently switch ON our award-winning solar farm in Essex, anticipated to supply up to 60% of our electricity demand. This sector-leading action is an important proof of concept, including increasing the biodiversity of such sites. 

• In January 2025, the University has reaffirmed our commitment to continued action by signing the Concordat for the ES of Research and Innovation Practice, developed by the UK research and innovation (R&I) sector. This is linked to our target of having 100% of wet laboratories with a LEAF accreditation this summer. 

• Our sustainable travel plan strategy has been published with trial incentives to promote active commutes or using public transports. This followed extensive consultation with various staff networks and a thorough equality impact assessment (EIA). 

• Our efforts to reduce waste are ongoing: food waste bins should be available in all kitchen spaces, our Bee Cup pilot is generating promising results and Furniture4Reuse continues to thrive.  

• Our Sustainability Squad network comprising of University-wide ES champions (staff working with students) has almost completed its first calendar of monthly themed actions. We will take stock before embedding next September along with launching our new app designed to be a one-stop tour, replacing 50,000 actions. 
  • For students, our June campaign focuses on ‘Give It Don’t Bin it’. The amount of waste generated by students living their accommodation is enormous and creates fly tipping-like scenes in some of the alleys of Fallowfield. We are proactively working with local authorities and campaigning to avoid it this year.  
  • For staff, the campaign is ‘Think Twice, Buy right’. As we are approaching July, please identify now what would be a useful spend if you have any budget left.  
  • If you’d like to join our Sustainability Squad, contact ES@manchester.ac.uk. 

• Our ceremonies celebrating the Student Volunteers Awards and the Making a Difference Awards provided heart-warming accounts of some of our most impactful actions, highlighting and making us proud of what we are good for. While many of us do not volunteer for all sorts of personal reasons, the University is making it a bit easier through our new volunteering policy, which offers colleagues the opportunity to request up to three days a year paid leave to support a charitable cause of their choice. 

We also have room for improvement and a lot of work in progress. At the top of the list, we have: 

• Keeping ourselves in check and establishing clear feedback mechanisms to ensure we can and do apply our policies, such as those embedded in the ES code of practice for professional services (PS): including our policy for business travel and green catering and sustainable give-aways. 

• Tackling the rise of AI in education and the footprint of digital research. 

• Reviewing how we conduct and share our research to: reduce air travel, focus on quality and reproducibility, embrace open science where possible, including finding the best ways to share negative results, adopt greener procurement practices while avoiding green washing, and increase our recycling range. LEAF and the Concordat for sustainable research have all these aims in their remit.      

At the Faculty level, we are making good progress overall on our strategic goals, except air travel. 

a) The target to have 100% of our wet labs LEAF (Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework) certified is looming (end of July 2025).  

• 91% of our PIs have a LEAF champion and 67% of PIs have a LEAF award (spread as 35% Bronze, 35% Silver, 30% Gold – with big congratulations to CRUK and MCF to be the first to reach 100% Gold).  
  • Here is the sign-up form for LEAF champions. We need one per PI, but a LEAF champion can represent several PIs sharing a space. It should take 1-2 hrs a month. 
  • The LEAF002 training is running monthly. This 2.5 hr workshop covers LEAF bronze and silver levels.  
  • We have a LEAF Bronze induction for everyone in the lab – Dropbox folder with a poster and PPT slides, and are running monthly Bronze Q&A sessions. 

I urge PIs of wet laboratories with no champion or award to take immediate action – your next funding may depend on it, and it saves money as highlighted in our blog reviewing Reuse actions from the Dixon’s lab working on bacteria that digest plastics. Contact srbmh@manchester.ac.uk to find out more. 

To support the Concordat for sustainable research and innovation, I have joined the UK-EU Laboratory Efficiency Action Network (LEAN). We started mapping existing resources in the sector aiming to harmonise and speed adoption of sustainable practices and identifying where future actions and collaborations are needed. Compared to other Institutions, we are the first ones to have embedded training for LEAF which I have shared, and we are progressing well on our LEAF deployment, but we are behind on plastic recycling. We will soon hopefully hear from pilots and insights from other Institutions on this pressing matter. 

 b) Engaging staff and students with sustainable actions on campus to reach our University targets: 

• Many final year project students have produced campaigns for British Science week, and our campus. In particular, we promoted the merits of plant-based food and tips to conserve food and avoid food waste.   

Reduce energy consumption by 10% by 2025 against a 2018 baseline. 

• Our main plans aim at Ultra Low Temperature (ULTs) storage, which has the biggest impact after ventilation. Maintenance, minimizing opening times, reviewing the running temperature and ensuring the freezer is adequately alarmed are key. We are piloting new defrosting solutions and considering a Faculty racking amnesty as a first step to kit up a maximum of ULTs. We are also trying to determine the ideal ambient environment and to establish an SOP to switch to -70°C freezers with HTA content. We encourage users to check the battery of their alarm system weekly and optimize the organization of their freezers, clearing out unnecessary samples. 

Limit annual air travel emissions to 50% of our 2018/19 level.  

• Despite our air travel policy being aligned with the UKRI, our air travel emissions are creeping up. Compared to 2018-19, our Faculty emissions were 55% in 2022-23 (reduction 45%), 59% in 2023-24, and the projection is 55-60% for 2024-25.  
• I want to remind staff of the policies and resources supporting this target and encourage champions to reach out with innovative ideas. The travel decision tree, the top fund policy, our video conferences facilities, and two staff courses promote ways to publicise your work beyond conferences: Using Social Media for Impact workshop, and How to Communicate your Research. 

Recycle 45% of waste produced through our operations by 2025.  

• Congratulation to the FBMH LabGoods4Reuse initiative has received a highly commended Making A Difference Award 2025. Along with the Furniture4Reuse store, these are key initiatives to reduce our waste. We’ll soon report on a student project tasked with exploring ways to rehome cold packaging items, such as polystyrene boxes and ice packs. 

• A big thanks to staff and student ES champions for organising the Stopford stationary amnesty, liaising with Chariot to recycle/rehome unwanted items and running an engagement event in the Stopford foyer. Please ask around before buying any new stationary and ask local businesses, organisation, schools if they want box files, ring binder or lever arch files. 

• Note that our IT amnesty partner, StoneRefurb, offers a wide range of refurbished Window 11 hardware, in true circular style. 

c) Disseminating UoM research on climate change, climate solution and resilience.  

• Sustainable Futures at UoM disseminates ES research (see past seminars and news) and promotes cross discipline thinking and collaborations to increase our opportunities and deliver solutions (training and funding opportunities). Contact them if you have ideas/queries.  At our Faculty ES showcase in June, we will provide an overview of current work in FBMH and opportunities. 

• The Manchester Environmental Research Institute (MERI) is proposing a bid to establish the New and Emerging Organic Pollutant Analytics (NEOPA – that includes microplastics, PFAS) facility (a new Tomorrow Lab). More on this exciting item in the next Newsletter.  

• Colleagues from FSE and FBMH have secured big research contracts to reduce the environmental impact of healthcare, plastics and new emerging pollutants. We are also exploring how peatlands restoration and moss could capture carbon and methane, but the situation is urgent, as our record-breaking spring weather (dry and warm) has resulted in several wildfires on our local moorlands in Saddleworth and Marsden, some destroying 3 years of volunteers’ efforts planting trees. 

• Colleagues at the green Manchester NHS Foundation Trust across the road updates us in a blog with news. 

d) Supporting green spaces on campus (e.g., Smith quad) that promote biodiversity whilst offering enjoyment and opportunities for nature-based learning or well-being activities.  

• We are making slow but steady progress to uplift the Stopford building front quads. A big shout to Jenny Herbert for sheer perseverance. More in our next newsletter. 

• SBS UG student Freddy Crisp for his final year project has produced great insights for our aim to increase the presence of ponds on campus. He also led the Tree Musketeers volunteers action group which won a Volunteer of the Year award.  

• The Firs Environmental Research Station does excellent work with volunteer engagement and SBS UG student Athena Chi Lam had a productive summer internship there, mapping trees and creating a video-based tree trail (impressive work).   

 e) Embedding sustainability in our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. 

• In SBS, the introduction of a Y1 poster exploring the link between Biosciences and the SDG was a success (more in the next newsletter), and I am looking forward to reading the findings of our ES final year project students. 

• The Planetary Health Report Card student volunteers have handed back their review and recommendation. There is a lot to be done, and we are employing two medical student interns this summer to kick start our actions.  

• The School of Health Sciences has mapped the ES activities in their curriculum and exploring opportunities coming from their membership to the Planetary Health Alliance, a global organisation committed to address environmental changes and its health impact.  

 f) promoting sustainable actions in our wider community (schools, community, organisations, businesses – local or afar) with the help of trained students:  

• No news for this edition. Contact us if you have good news to share – srbmh@manchester.ac.uk.  

 g) educating and exciting those we can reach about existing and future solutions to tackle the climate crisis.   

• The FBMH ES Good Newsletter is our tool for this priority. We disseminate it externally via various social media platforms. Check out our list of future events. 

• A SBS final year student has produced a website to educate everyone on the environmental impact of artificial turf. Check it out before you make a decision on this topic and share widely. 

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