One aim of the Department’s Environmental Sustainability Action Plan is to maintain the premises in an environmentally sensitive way. Since November 2019 we have (led by Lynda Haines, now our Green Impact Coordinator) encouraged and built interest from staff and students in regular gardening and biodiversity activities. These activities sit within the University’s overarching aim 'to be a leading organisation within the sector in limiting negative and, where possible, having positive direct and indirect impacts on biodiversity and natural ecosystems so that the University’s practical performance in this area matches its aspirations to be a global leader in conservation'.
We began by developing our outside spaces to both encourage and sustain biodiversity, and to create attractive areas for staff and students to use. We started in the autumn by tidying up the bike shed area and planting 100s of bulbs in the borders.
During the Christmas break 2019, the courtyard area behind House 21 was fitted with recycled planters (made and donated by local landscaping company SJH Groundworks) ready for cultivating our own vegetables in the Spring. Tools and furniture were also been donated, and the Green Impact Team hopes to source more furniture so the courtyard can be used as an outdoor meeting room and as a place for staff and students to relax during the day.
Our first gardening session was held on 30 January 2020, when some of our staff and students helped plant herbs (lavender, rosemary and thyme) in the beds. Unfortunately, throughout the Covid-19 lock-down years the garden areas were somewhat neglected, but since the department reopened fully in 2022-23, new effort has been made to make the courtyard both a relaxing and enjoyable communal space with new planting in the raised beds and a picnic bench (with WIFI 😊) that we used for a Wellbeing Summer Party in 2023.
In addition to developing an accessible outdoor space, the Department encourages everyone to have at least one pot plant in their office. This has proved very popular, and some people have several different plants in their office. The Green Impact Team frequently receives requests for more plants! We ran a houseplant gardening session to split and repot some of the existing specimens and create more plants.
Seed planting has also been a focus with articles on growing herbs on a windowsill, and cultivating new vegetables from leftover kitchen scraps.
Each year we hold a popular “LE Grows…” challenge. The idea is simple, staff are encouraged to cultivate from seed a different vegetable variety each spring, and the winner is the one who at harvest time has the longest cucumber, tallest sunflower or biggest crop of potatoes. Take a look at our green-fingered successes from previous years.
LE Sustainability Champion & Green Impact Coordinator 25/03/24
Meet Vera our LE duck and her babies [taken in Spring 2023]
She has been nesting in the raised planters in our courtyard for the past few years.
In 2022 when her ducklings hatched, she unfortunately lost her way and ended up being rescued from the Sidgwick Site and taken to a bird sanctuary. We thought we wouldn’t see her again, but she came back last year and this time successfully (with a little help from some of our staff) marshalled her brood safely to the river. We’re waiting to see if she’ll return again this year.