Submitted by Grainne Kennedy on Mon, 2016-06-27 13:32
In this month's Living Lab Lowdown, the Living Lab Coordinator reports back on a celebration event held on 9 June.
The Living Laboratory for Sustainability held a celebration event brining together staff and students who have been involved in the initiative throughout this academic year to meet, mingle and celebrate what has been achieved. There were drinks and a selection of delicious vegetarian and vegan canapés, so many great conversations and new collaborations, and a chance to hear about each other’s projects aiming to improve and inform the University’s environmental sustainability performance.
Here are a few of the serendipitous new connections made from the networking before and after the presentations – and below are just some of the ones I’ve been told about!
- Work on sustainable diets: an undergraduate student who worked on the topic this year has provided her data and contacts for a student about to start a PhD on the same topic and they are in touch for future work.
- Renewable installations: a Master's student is receiving advice from one of the attending academics regarding some design work which is part of his project.
- Positive Investment: a member of the group received input on some of their proposals from relevant staff who will inform future efforts.
- Energy dashboards: updates and insights related to the work on energy dashboards were shared between staff and students working on this topic.
- Supply chains: A new project investigating supply chains has been informed by some useful insights thanks to a conversation between the student and a staff member involved.
From the examples above and feedback below, it seems the event’s intentions to provide inspiration, new ideas and useful connections for future efforts to enhance the environmental sustainability of the University through research, projects and internships were fulfilled:
“Thank you for such a fantastic, inspirational, fun and delicious event: I can't imagine how it could have been improved. I met so many fantastic people”
“It’s these kinds of gatherings that make me actually think we can change the world for the better!”
A huge thank you to everyone involved, including those who couldn’t make the event, for your input, support and involvement, and particularly big thanks to Santander for providing the funding that enables it all to happen.
More photos can be found on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/CUenvironment/. Keep a look out for a highlights film at some point in the near future…