King's College London

A team of Sustainability Champions from the Department of Geography won a Gold award for the sixth consecutive year at the King’s Climate & Sustainability Awards 2023.

The King’s Sustainability Champions scheme aims to improve the sustainability of departments and offices across the university and make positive changes in its environment.

This year, the judges were impressed by the department’s work on improving biodiversity on King’s campuses.

Geography sustainability champions worked with King’s Climate & Sustainability from several angles including engaging with relevant researchers in the department to identify potential funding sources and potential research projects linked to biodiversity.

Specialists from the department joined Nicola Hogan from the King’s Estates team to offer advice on enhancing biodiversity in planting plans across Strand, Guys and Denmark Hill campuses, and to provide advice on biodiversity value.

Besides promoting biodiversity at King’s, the Geography Sustainability Champions also worked with external organisations to feed into wider London plans for biodiversity, alongside the hope of developing more education and research links to the Biodiversity Action Plan at King’s.

During King’s Climate & Sustainability month, the team organised a ‘Make your own seed bombs’ workshop for staff and students. Students and staff learned about the importance of wildflowers as a resource for insects and participated in making seed bombs using clay and wildflower seeds to grow nature-friendly spaces.

If you are interested in getting involved with the department's Sustainability Champions, contact Dr Mary Langsdale (mary.langsdale@kcl.ac.uk).