Imperial goes green for a week of environmental awareness

There was a green theme on campus last week as Imperial students hosted a number of events to mark Go Green Week 2017.

The events, hosted by students from the Environmental Society, were held to engage staff and students on issues around climate change and the environment.

The week featured a number of themed days with activities focussed around ‘Meat Free Monday’, ‘Waste Not Wednesday’ and ‘Fossil Free Friday’ as well as a number of other environmentally focussed events throughout the week.

Highlights included a screening of the documentary Cowspiracy and an afternoon of community gardening in Imperial’s Secret Garden.

Gloria Rosetto, Chair, Environmental Society said: “Our aim was to run a week of activities to get people talking about and engaging with environmental issues. The week was a great success - we had lots of support from the College and collaborations with other student societies.

“I think that environmental issues are very important with the impact of climate change becoming more apparent. Now more than ever it is important to care for the environment.”

Dr Bike bike maintenance session

There were also a number of discussions and debates hosted by the Grantham Institute and the Centre for Environmental Policy on topics such as the challenges of decarbonising the built environment and the power of low carbon technologies.

Naomi Pratt, a PhD student at the Grantham Institute, part of the Science and Solutions for a Changing Planet Doctoral Training Partnership, and one of the lead organisers for Go Green Week, said:

 “There’s lots of research on environmental issues at Imperial and we wanted to use Go Green Week to increase visibility for student environmental campaigning activity and bring likeminded students together creating a dialogue on these issues.

“We also held a number of talks across the week with researchers that brought staff and students together to talk about the environment.”