Change is human work: sustainability at LSE

Change is human work: sustainability at LSE is an exhibition exploring how sustainability is lived, practised and remembered across the School. Bringing together portraits, campaigns and archival materials, the exhibition reveals sustainability not as an abstract principle, but as a collective, ongoing effort shaped by people.

At its heart are members of the LSE community, from academics to professional services staff and students, whose daily work sustains the institution. Their portraits celebrate the often-unseen labour behind research and teaching, procurement and governance, energy management and waste reduction, food systems and the care of shared spaces. Together, they show that sustainability is not a distant ambition or a policy on paper. It is enacted in everyday decisions and maintained through human commitment.

Alongside these portraits, the exhibition features LSE’s current sustainability behavioural change campaign. It translates strategy into practice, inviting us to reflect on how we recycle, what we consume, how we use resources and how we relate to one another and to our environment. These public messages transform values into shared culture, demonstrating how individual actions become collective impact.

The exhibition also draws on archival climate action and sustainability posters from LSE and beyond. These materials situate today’s work within a longer history of environmental awareness and activism. They remind us that the language, priorities and strategies of sustainability evolve over time and that each generation inherits both the achievements and the unfinished work of those who came before.

Both a celebration and a record, Change is human work: sustainability at LSE invites visitors to see sustainability as lived practice, public commitment and historical continuity. Above all, it affirms a simple but powerful truth: meaningful institutional change is always human work.

About the organiser and curator

Beatrice Clementel is the Sustainability Communications & Engagement Officer at LSE. She leads on strategic events and communications planning, develops engagement initiatives, and manages various communication channels to raise awareness of sustainability across the School. In collaboration with the design team, she developed the current sustainability campaign to encourage everyday behavioural change within the LSE community. Beatrice also served on the steering group for the LSE Festival, helping to shape the programme into a dynamic and inspiring week of events.

From time to time there are changes to event details so we strongly recommend that if you plan to attend this exhibition you check back on this listing before visiting.

LSE holds a wide range of events, covering many of the most controversial issues of the day, and speakers at our events may express views that cause offence. The views expressed by speakers at LSE events do not reflect the position or views of the London School of Economics and Political Science.