Staff and students from across King’s have secured £21,000 in funding in the 2023-24 round of our Sustainability Projects Fund.

The Fund is subsidised by a 20p levy on disposable coffee cups in King’s cafés and restaurants and managed by King’s Food and King’s Climate & Sustainability, and supports creative projects aimed at driving sustainability across King’s.

Seven applications were successful in achieving funding, ranging across 10 of the 14 areas of the newly-updated King’s Climate & Sustainability Action Plan.

The projects included:

• Blooming Balcony, a project from the Department of Twin Research seeking to develop a small communal garden that uses food waste from the Department to grow food and flowers suitable for pollinators.
  
  
• Implementation of a community fridge and larder by the Faculty of Arts & Humanities’ Student Experience Team that sources leftover food from events to minimise waste and aid with the cost of living for students.
  
  
• The IGUANA initiative, a project from the Department of Psychology aiming to provide financial support for staff members to enable them to use sustainable transport methods for conferences in Europe.
  
  
• Purchase of an iWash slide washer by the Innovation Hub, allowing them to reuse slides up to 50 times to reduce waste.
  
  
• Development of the King’s Community Garden Biodiversity project, including a range of measures to increase and monitor wildlife in the garden and the use of the space as a ‘living lab’ to develop education and research relating to biodiversity.
  
  
• The Future Travel Fund from the School of Cardiovascular & Metabolic Medicine & Sciences, which will subsidise business travel by rail where it is more expensive than flying.
  
  
• Sensors in the Saddle, a project by a postgraduate student on the MSc in Environmental Science for Sustainability, which aims to measure air quality in London by assembling low-cost mobile monitoring units and attaching them to bicycles.

Jone de Roode Jauregi, Senior Engagement Officer at King’s Climate & Sustainability, said:

A workshop will be organised for the successful applicants to provide guidance and set expectations. Recipients have 12 months to use allocated funds, providing regular progress reports.

The Sustainability Projects Fund seeks to advance sustainability at King's, covering environmental, social, and economic aspects and aligning with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The projects align with Climate & Sustainability Action Plan and address the Sustainable Development Goals, and take place on King’s campus or in our local communities.

Small projects under £500 are accepted on a rolling basis throughout the year and replies can be expected within 4 weeks (approved by KCS + King’s Food). Additional funding for larger projects will be available for the next two academic years, and will open for applicants in October 2024. The rules, guidelines, application form and evaluation criteria will be made available online.

Find out more about the Sustainability Projects Fund.