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Bristol Med School goes green with new sustainability roles

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A medical researcher inside a University of Bristol lab

Press release issued: 9 March 2022

Bristol Medical School has added three new sustainability roles to its staff roster, as it helps realise the University’s plans to become net-zero carbon by 2030.

Bristol was the first University to declare a climate emergency and the first to work towards Climate Action Plans (CAP) for all its Schools.

CAPs differ, with some of the 26 Schools consisting of lecture halls and the occasional field trip, and some requiring powerful machines for their important research.

Now Bristol Medical School – which is the biggest School at the University with 1,800 students, 400 postgraduate researchers and 1,020 staff - has announced the latest step in its CAP.

It has recruited full-time sustainability technician Lucy Westover and two part-time academic co-leads, Professors Kate Tilling and Trevor Thompson.

With CAP co-ordinator Paul Savage, and a volunteer group of staff and students, they will focus on the four pillars of the med school’s current CAP: travel and conferences; labs and energy; office and work from home; green spaces and advocacy.

The School is currently working towards the 2022 The Freezer Challenge, which promotes the energy-efficient use of cold storage units in labs.

Meanwhile, Bristol recently became the first university in the world to achieve institutional Green Labs Certification, with all 990 of its laboratories getting the credential.

Lucy said: “Trying to improve sustainability within schools is a challenging and time-consuming task. By employing someone to focus entirely on sustainability, it lessens the pressure on other members of staff trying to make improvements on top of their usual work.

“My role means more attention is put on achieving our sustainability targets – which is vital to reach our 2030 carbon neutrality goal.”

The University announced in January 2020 that it would ask all its Schools to complete CAPs.

Martin Wiles, Head of Sustainability at the University of Bristol, said: “We have an eight-point plan to reduce our carbon, but this requires action at every level.

“Every School and department is different, there’s no one size fits all.

"As a Russell Group University, labs account for 40% of our energy and waste consumption so the actions needed to reduce carbon in labs are different to what’s needed by, say, the Arts schools.”

Departmental action isn’t new to the University of Bristol. In 2010, it helped develop and pilot the United Nations’ award-winning programme ‘Green Impact’, which helps organisations become more sustainable.

Further information

For more information on the University's sustainability plans, visit our website.

Bristol Medical School has existed in some form since 1833. It is currently home to 1,380 undergraduate students, 400 postgraduate students and 310 postgraduate researchers.

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