King's commits to sustainable research and innovation agreement

07 May 2025

King's commits to sustainable research and innovation agreement

King’s has signed up to a voluntary environmental sustainability initiative co-developed by the UK research and innovation sector.

Chemistry students in a lab, smiling and talking

Image credit: Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Natural, Mathematical & Engineering Sciences

The Concordat for the Environmental Sustainability of Research and Innovation Practice, a pledge to ensure that the UK delivers research and innovation in a more environmentally sustainable way, has been signed on behalf of King’s by the Vice-Chancellor & President, Professor Shitij Kapur.

The aims of the concordat include having visible and credible leadership for environmental sustainability, ensuring research and innovation is carried out in an environmentally sustainable way, and promoting shifts to climate conscious ways of working.

Coinciding with the launch of the concordat, funders announced policies requiring researchers to address the environmental impact of their work, including Wellcome and Cancer Research UK.

Professor Shitij Kapur, Vice-Chancellor & President of King’s College London, said:

King’s is proud to be a signatory of the concordat and to work with the sector to reduce the negative environmental impacts of research and innovation practice. While much remains to be done, we have made great progress on our ambitions to invest in education and research for a just transition to net zero, and to build sustainability into all our actions. We welcome the further impetus the concordat will provide to drive the step change needed.
Professor Shitij Kapur, Vice-Chancellor & President of King’s College London

As a signatory to the concordat, we have committed to taking action at a whole institutional level and collectively across the sector in six priority areas: leadership and system change; sustainable infrastructure; sustainable procurement; emissions from business and academic travel; collaborations and partnerships; and environmental impact and reporting data.

Many of the requirements of the concordat align with the impact areas in the King’s Climate & Sustainability Action Plan, and King’s will continue to take action now and into the future to improve our sustainability performance, publishing an annual sustainability report on progress each summer.

Innovations in sustainable research are taking place across our community – from reducing single-use plastic to improving use of cold storage, and our Sustainability Champions programme supports staff to make King’s activities more sustainable.

For more information, visit King’s Climate & Sustainability.