
FBMH Environmental Sustainability Showcase 2025: Meet the Speakers
On Monday 30th June, we’ll be hosting our third annual Environmental Sustainability (ES) Showcase. A celebration of the ES work taking place across the University, we’ll hear from a range of fantastic speakers and activity leads.
We have a lot to celebrate this year, and will be focusing on a range of ES initiatives/themes from across the University, including;
- Raising awareness of AI, data storage and Compute carbon footprint and our current actions
- ES in the lab – LEAF and the recently signed Concordat – current progress and future actions
- ES research in FBMH: Stop tour of labs involved with Sustainable future and opportunities.
- Embedding ES in all FBMH curricula: taking stock of existing practices in various programs and opportunities from joining the Planetary Health Alliance – current progress and future actions
- Latest ES news at the University – including the PS code of practice, our award-winning UoM solar farm – key to our Zero Carbon plan for 2038, and our new one-stop ES app, JUMP, to be launched in September.
This event is intended for staff and students and aims to celebrate, inform and inspire.
Host: Dr Maggy Fostier, FBMH Associate Dean for Environmental Sustainability
Maggy leads the Faculty’s Environmental Sustainability agenda. She has led progress with LEAF accreditation in our laboratories, the Concordat for the ES of Research and Innovation Practice, and various other ES initiatives. In this presentation, she will provide an update on the latest developments across Environmental Sustainability at The University of Manchester.
Speakers:
John Vass-De-Zomba, IT Environmental Sustainability Manager
John has worked in IT for around 20 years and is responsible for reducing the environmental impacts of the University’s tech caused by the consumption of electricity, water and materials, and the production of heat, waste and eWaste. He is also a graduate of this Faculty, having a degree in Environmental Biology dating back to 1993!
AI and more specifically Machine Learning is emerging as a valuable tool for teaching, learning and research. You may have heard of the pitfalls of letting GenAI write for you, but the environmental impacts are less apparent even though they are equally problematic. In this talk, we’ll go over what those impacts are, where they’re heading, and what you can do to tackle them.
Steph Greenwood-Davies, Clinical Lecturer in Speech and Language Therapy
Steph is a member of the SHS Environmental Sustainability Champions Network and has a passion for all things sustainable. She is driven to embed planetary health and environmental sustainability into the curriculum, preparing our students for the health service of the future, with the skills and knowledge to navigate and create solutions to our planet’s biggest challenge.
Her presentation will focus on planetary health. It’s a rapidly developing area of ES in the School of Health Sciences, with staff and students involved in the Planetary Health Alliance and the Planetary Health Report Card.
Julia Dirkin, Head of Environmental Sustainability and Lucy Millard, Environmental Sustainability Manager
Julia leads a dedicated team on a mission to drive bold action tackling the urgent challenges posed by climate change and biodiversity loss. She oversees the development and implementation of the Environmental Sustainability Strategy and zero-carbon pathway across the University’s core goals and operations.
Lucy leads on calculating and reducing the University’s indirect carbon (Scope 3) emissions as well as managing sustainability engagement work across the University to enable our staff and students to take sustainable actions both on and off campus.
Yasmin Tyrrell, Planetary Health Report Card team
I am currently doing an MSc in Neuroimaging in between my 4th and final year of medicine. Alongside my studies, I’m undertaking a summer internship with the Faculty’s Environmental Sustainability Team, where I’ve been exploring how we can better embed sustainability and planetary health across the medical curriculum.
In my talk, I’ll be sharing findings from our most recent medical Planetary Health Report Card — a student-led initiative that assesses how well medical schools integrate sustainability into their teaching, research, and operations. I’ll highlight Manchester’s current performance and suggest practical steps we could take to strengthen sustainability education in medicine going forward.
Lucy Latham, External Engagement Officer (Sustainable Futures)
Lucy Latham joined the University of Manchester in January as a qualified sustainability professional with over 15 years’ experience leading international sustainability programs and delivering environmental consultancy services. Lucy is responsible for cultivating relationships, coordinating events, and driving objectives and outcomes linked to Sustainable Futures’ external and translational opportunities. She fosters a network of meaningful collaborations and plays a key role in advancing Sustainable Futures’ strategic goals.
Engaging stalls and activities
In addition to our speakers, the Showcase will feature engaging stalls and activities led by staff and students, with stall themes including:
- Promoting biodiversity on campus
- The benefits of plant-based milks and food
- Sustainable arts and crafts
- Exploring the environmental impact of artificial grass
- Focus on active travel and litter picking
Stall holder information:
Harriet Bickley and Sally Freeman: their stall will involve using a lego-type kit to make molecular shapes, play a tree matching game using wooden discs, making origami newspaper plant pots, possibly giving people seeds and soil, leaf rubbing with leaves and wax crayons, plus assorted paper-based handouts, and talking about eco-issues.
Freddy Crisp: nature on campus and ponds
Anna Thompson: artificial turf
Sara Shaqiri: eco craft display
Haojun Shuai: reducing food waste
Mimansa Deshkar: food preservation
Moe Gavin: banana game
Sarah Hewitt: a green NHS
Kylie, Stephanie and Nia: ES in education and PHA
Daria Dawson: ES in the lab (freezer vac)
Alexandra Breggs: sustainable futures
Athena Lam: plant based milk and food
The Showcase is free to attend and open to all staff and students across the University. Sign up to attend via our Eventbrite page.
0 Comments