Green Impact
Social Policy Green Team
The Green Team is a student-led group that works closely with staff and faculty to support Green Impact, LSE’s School-wide sustainability accreditation scheme. Green Impact provides a structured framework for departments to make meaningful environmental improvements through collaborative projects, campaigns, and initiatives.
The Department also supports the LSE's Sustainability Strategic Plan. Some of the ways that we are supporting this is to offer only vegetarian catering options at our events. We also give our students reuseable water bottles and tote bags.
Archive of Sustainability Focused Activities
Sustainability focused activities in 2022/23 academic year
Thank you to everyone who attended and supported the Social Policy Sustainability Week Events.
We started the week off on Monday (13.02.2023) with a stall covering the issues of food waste and period sustainability. It was great to see so many people attempt our quizzes and engage in important conversations about how we can make a difference. (Special congratulations to all the winners of our period sustainability quiz, who were gifted their choice of reusable sanitary products!).
The stalls were followed by a talk by Rhiannon Bydawell, highlighting the environmental threat posed by the rapid growth rate of the fast fashion industry and policy approaches to counteract this.
We concluded the Social Policy Sustainability Week with a small clothes swap in the common room. It was great to see that many clothes found a new, loving home! A big thank you to everyone who contributed their clothes to this and stopped by to pick something up!
This week of events wouldn’t have been possible without the work of the individual Green Team groups, the support by the department office and the engagement of all social policy students, thank you!
Write up by Jakob Abekhon, Green team student rep 2022-23
The Social Policy Green team members of the 2021/22 cohort came from diverse and interdisciplinary backgrounds with various experiences in environmental and sustainability work and advocacy.
Initiatives
Speaker Series
They organised a fantastic and insightful speaker series to educate and debate issues!
- A Climate of Crisis: Human Rights and The Renewable Energy Transition, brought together panellists from academia, activist organisations, and think tanks for an important conversation that focused on the intersections of renewable energy, environmental justice and human rights in order to provide an interdisciplinary understanding of the human rights impacts of current transition pathways to renewable energy and a low-carbon economy. This event was in collaboration with The Beacon Journal. Watch the video here.
- Climate Displacement and Migration: Challenges, Politics and Solutions, hosted by The Department of Social Policy's Green Impact Team and Earth Refuge was uniquely structured to provide a more holistic and solutions-focused understanding of the problem of climate-driven migration and displacement. The webinar provided a nuanced introductory understanding of the issue of hand by drawing upon the expertise of 3 specialists working across various sectors who explored the policy landscape, surrounding debates, the legal aspect of climate-driven migration, colonial legacies, and just transitions. In addition, a similarly cross-sectoral panel of experts discussed potential solutions, frameworks, and case studies. Watch the video here.
- Harnessing Renewable Wind Energy: COP26 Commitments and the Energy Crisis, brought together a panel that explored the potential and socio-economic benefits of wind energy amidst the rising energy crisis, with speakers MP Alan Brown and Professor Ian Gough. Watch the video here.
Community Events
The team championed sustainability in the Department and at LSE through community-building sustainability projects. To setting up a ‘Green Shelf’ in the Department, so that books on relatable subjects can be borrowed and books can be added on a donation basis to highlight relevant reading material.
They also worked collaboratively to organise a clothes swap following a successful clothes donation drive to promote sustainable action amongst students and promoting the reusing of materials.
Course Proposal
They highlighted the importance of having an Environment themed course/focus within the department to tackle the intersection of climate change, environmental issues and social policy, and worked on a draft course proposal, which will feed into the potential course planning within the Department for future student groups.
LSE Celebration of Sustainabilty
Their work met many of the LSE Sustainability Strategic Plan themes from Education, Engagement, to Collaboration, and they were recognised for their work in the Celebration of Sustainability annual event, winning a Green Impact Sustainability Heroes Award for all of the amazing work that they have done this year to bring about positive environmental impact!
” They have been champions in raising awareness of sustainability issues throughout the year, from organising events and think-tanks on climate change themes and promoting sustainable action amongst fellow students.”
The Department of Social Policy has been involved in Green Impact since 2012. Green Impact is LSE's sustainability engagement programme where staff and students work to reduce the School's environmental impact, receiving awards for their work and impact.
Over the years, the Department has won various awards and during the 2019-20 academic year, the Department was awarded the 'Leading the Way' award for all of the work carried out which was based around the theme #SustainableLSEConsultation.
We are very grateful to all of our Green Impact student reps for their contributions over the years.
If you have any comments and/or suggestions, please contact the team.