April 22, 2022 10.13 am This story is over 23 months old

Rebecca Forster: Celebrating Four Years of Climate Action

Leading the way for climate action in Lincoln
Rebecca Forster is the Sustainability Manager at the University of Lincoln.

This Earth Day, the Lincoln Climate Commission will celebrate four years of making a positive difference to carbon reduction in the city.

As one of the founding partners of Lincoln Climate Commission, the University of Lincoln, UK, declared a climate emergency in 2019 alongside City of Lincoln Council.

Since then, we’ve been leading the way for climate action in the city, and have been working to improve its environmental impact, making positive changes to become more sustainable.

The university has achieved the EcoCampus Platinum Accreditation for environmental management, as well as the Hedgehog-Friendly Campus Gold Award for the creation of wildlife friendly spaces across our campuses. It has also been instrumental in developing a zero-carbon roadmap for the city.

The university is always improving the energy efficiency of its buildings. For example, the Ross Lucas Medical School is the most sustainable building on our estate and is designed to be thermally efficient and to generate up to 20% of the energy it uses. The building recently won two regional ‘sustainable building of the year’ awards.

As an institution with over 14,000 students, we know one of the biggest impacts we can have is to equip our graduates with the knowledge and skills to embed sustainability and climate action into their future careers.

That’s why we’re embedding sustainability as part of teaching and learning and we’re currently developing a student-led climate action research project pilot, which will offer businesses the opportunity to receive support from students on their climate action journey.

The university recognises that partnerships are key to being able to address the climate and ecological crisis, and is working with partners across the city and county to develop partnerships to enhance sustainability.

By working together with students, staff and our local community, we are looking to make a valuable contribution to climate action and engagement, via improvements of its estate, the creation of knowledge and research to support climate action, and by supporting our students to make their own contribution to Sustainability.

The university’s role within the Lincoln Climate Commission has grown since 2019, with many of the Commission’s members, who work at the university, making valuable contributions to climate governance in the city.

Exciting times ahead for Lincoln Climate Commission, with the university – its staff and students – playing a key role in its current evolution.