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Since the summer of 2018 Greening Imperial has achieved the following:

• Removal of single-use plastic glasses from catering outlet water stations – saving up to 850,000 cups/year (from Oct 2018).
• Introduction of ‘bring your own container’ for hot, portioned takeaways from all Campus Services catering outlets (from Nov 2018).
• Introduction of a 15p levy for every hot drink served in disposable coffee cups (from Nov 2018). This charge is being introduced to reduce the 2,750 single-use disposable cups previously used across our campuses each day.
• Replacement of single-use plastic cutlery with FSC-certified reusable wooden cutlery from Dec 2018.
• A trial of Meat Free Monday in January 2019.
• Participation in the NUS Sustainable Development Goals Teach-In in February 2019 (Imperial came 5th in the UK in terms of engagement of the academic community).
• A week of activities for ICUs Greening Imperial week in March 2019.
• Pilot of the Laboratories Environmental Assessment Framework (LEAF) in four laboratories across College - Complex Porus Media Lab, Freemont Lab, Hallett Lab, London Institute of Medical Sciences.
• Introduction of new bicycle parking facilities at the Centre for Environmental Policy in May 2019.
• Worked alongside the Campus Services team to help bring about a 20% reduction in meat consumption in food outlets from 2017/18 to 2018/19 thanks to changes in customer choice, tweaks in menu options and an increase in vegetarian/vegan options (e.g. Plant-based café).
• Increased the coffee cup levy from 15p to 25p from 1st Sept 2019.
• Supported Grantham PhD students to investigate the university's aviation emissions and publish an Aviation report outlining the findings and areas for improvement.
• Shift to 100% of bought-in electricity on all campuses being from renewable sources from 1st October 2019.
• Secured the appointment of an Academic Leader for Sustainability, Professor Paul Lickiss, to oversee the College's Sustainability Strategy (Paul came into post in Nov 2019).
• Introduction of the international award-winning Student Switch Off campaign to halls of residence to encourage pro-environmental behaviour change amongst students. The 2019/20 Student Switch Off campaign report is Imperial Student Switch Off Campaign Report 2019-2020.
• Participation in the NUS Sustainable Development Goals Teach-In in February 2020 (Imperial came 6th in the UK in terms of engagement of the academic community).
• Monthly visits for students and staff to the Environment Society allotment (last Thursday of the month – join us by e-mailing us greening.imperial@imperial.ac.uk).

The following are being discussed as potential future changes:

• Increasing the amount of green space on our campuses.
• Increasing the number of water stations across our campuses.
• Connecting our academic community with the White City development to try and develop the campus into a zero carbon showcase of our engineering expertise.
• Investigating the Imperial carbon footprint from aviation and options for incentivising rail travel and offsetting.

 Please send any of your own suggestions for sustainability improvements to greening.imperial@imperial.ac.uk. To stay up-to-date with Greening Imperial activity, sign up to the monthly newsletter.