Sustainability Seminar Series

In January 2017, the University offered staff and students the opportunity to attend the Sustainability Seminar Series. The seminars covered various topics and were led by numerous academics, PSS staff and colleagues external from the University.

The Series explored topics such as:

  • Energy
  • Cities, our urban environment
  • Air quality
  • Commuter and business travel
  • Health and wellbeing
  • Influencing and persuading skills for sustainability
  • Natural resource use and new materials

Overall, around 190 staff and students attended the seminar series. As the series has been such a success the Environmental Sustainability Team have decided to run another series, which will start in the new academic year. The upcoming seminars will include a wider variety of topics and will once again be open to all staff and students.

Video recordings for each seminar were also taken and have now been uploaded to the 10,000 Actions YouTube channel. You can catch-up on previous seminars by clicking here.

Staff and students who wish to receive notifications of seminars can register on the sustainability seminar series listserv.

Sustainability Seminar Series

On Tuesday 10 September 2016, the first Sustainability Seminar Series began with a talk from Professor Ian Cotton and Sian Nord about how the University uses energy.

This was the first seminar of nine from the Sustainability Series which is taking place every other week until May 2017. Each seminar will explore a topic surrounding environmental sustainability at the University of Manchester. All seminars will have a short presentation from academics, researchers, professional support staff or colleagues from across Manchester, with an opportunity for attendees to discuss the topic and showcase any of their work through a poster.

One of the goals from each seminar is to list the challenges that we could offer to our undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as our researchers to use as part of their taught course/research. The first seminar set a list of challenges and explored how students and staff can get more involved with energy at the University, from researching non-standard energy production to active energy related behavioural change.

All of the seminars in the Sustainability Series are open to University staff and students. They last one hour with time afterwards for informal discussion and engagement.

Forthcoming seminars:

Wednesday 1 February – G.207, Alan Turing

Cities, Our Urban Environment: Is city living a positive in sustainability terms?
Presenters, Prof. James Evans and Jonny Sadler

Tuesday 14 February – 3.204, University Place

Air quality: Changing air quality and the impact on health.
Presenters, Prof. Gordon Mcfiggans and Dr. Sheena Cruickshank

Tuesday 28 February – 3.204, University Place (TBC)

Wednesday 15 March – G.205, Alan Turing (TBC)

Thursday 30 March – 2.218, University Place

Commuter and Business Travel: The impact of the Oxford Road corridor travel changes.
Presenters, David Budd and Julia Durkan
Tuesday 11 April – G.209, Alan Turing (TBC)

Wednesday 26 April – G.205, Alan Turing

Health and Wellbeing: How do our buildings and greenspace contribute to our wellbeing?
Presenters, Dr Jeremy Carter and Kelly Watson

Wednesday 10 May – 4.205, University Place

Influencing and Persuading Skills for Sustainability: Seminar for all, with focus on current individual and team work through designated sustainability champions and Green Impact.
Presenters, Dr. Sherilyn MacGregor and Dr. Emma Gardner