Sustainability at the Staff Awards 2024

The historic St George’s Hall played host to this year’s Staff Awards 2024 ceremony on 12th June where staff were recognised for their outstanding dedication and achievements.

Around 350 staff attended the event with University of Liverpool alumna, Mairead Smyth, senior reporter and presenter for BBC North West Tonight and Politics North West, returning to host the evening’s awards.

Once again, there were a record number of nominations with a total of 752 received from individuals and teams, breaking last year’s record of 527. Staff were recognised across 20 categories, including two sustainability awards, reflecting the University’s commitment to this important area and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. These awards recognise achievements by colleagues both in research and through initiatives and projects on campus.

Sustainability on Campus

The Sustainability on Campus Award recognises individuals or teams who have made a significant impact on sustainability at the University.

Individual winner: Dr Jon Mercer, Materials Innovation Factory

Dr Jon Mercer has led the successful delivery of the Low Carbon Chemistry Lab of the Future at the Materials Innovation Factory. He was a key part of the team that put the initial proposal together, which attracted a UKRPIF grant of £1.33M to reduce CO2 equivalent emissions and carbon footprint of the MIF. Jon led the project team to deliver Phase 1 over an extremely tight 12 month period, on time and on budget. In doing so, he ensured installation of 300 solar panels, replacement of infrastructure to improve air flow and heat management, and the installation of 800 energy meters throughout the building. The forecast energy savings resulting from this work amounts to a 27% electrical carbon savings and 58% heat carbon savings predicted by 2024, easily exceeding the already stretching 25% target set out.

Jon said “It’s a genuine honour to receive this award, recognising the huge effort of a talented team of colleagues from across the institution. Despite the complexity of some of the engineering challenges, the drive to make this all work, within a relatively fierce timeline, demonstrated a real passion and commitment to the cause. The project provides an excellent foundation for more engagement, analysis and above all yet more carbon savings”

Commended individuals

Clare Kenny, Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences. Clare goes out of her way to ensure that sustainability is at the heart of all activities and events across Leahurst. She has been instrumental in food waste recycling at Leahurst, working with the cleaning teams to maximise its success, as well as the trial of the new internal mixed recycling bins across the campus. Clare looks to embed sustainability in all student events, building relationships with students to ensure that sustainability is always on their mind. Thanks to her hard work she ensures that waste at Leahurst is disposed of in the most sustainable manner possible.

Jenna Lowe, HLS Technology, Infrastructure and Environment Directorate. Jenna has worked on LEAF (lab sustainability framework) since it was piloted and moved into a full-time sustainability officer post in 2023. Jenna has worked hard to push the rollout of LEAF across the whole organisation, making huge progress in getting the Faculty of Science and Engineering on board. Her friendly manner means she is successful in promoting lab sustainability and producing best practice guides for managing lab waste, plastics, water and chemicals. Jenna is quickly becoming established as an expert in lab sustainability, speaking at national lab sustainability events.

Team winner: Environmental Sustainability, Facilities, Residential and Commercial Services

This team has been recognised for its exceptional role in relaunching the University’s accredited Environmental Management System (EMS) and successfully gaining recertification in 2023. Managing the EMS is a mammoth undertaking; their success demonstrates their substantial efforts and diligence in embedding this important area of work and is in direct support of the University's commitments to delivering an environmentally compliant and climate-resilient campus. Tom Weldon and Alex Preugschat have worked tirelessly to review the entire system and conduct audits in collaboration with FRCS and Faculty colleagues, providing invaluable support to improve practice and procedures, and taking the University through a successful recertification audit which happens every four years.

Alex Preugschat said “We feel very grateful to be awarded the Sustainability on Campus award, and even more grateful that the award was nominated by our colleague Rachael, it really means a lot to be recognised for the work we have done on the EMS over the last 18 months. However, we would like to also thank all of our wider colleagues’ hard work including those in maintenance, faculties, the energy team, Leahurst and Ness, without them, we wouldn’t have had the success we have had. We look forward to making further progress together.”

Commended teams

The Scrubs Sustainability Initiative, School of Dentistry. In previous years, the School utilised a company to dispose of old scrubs on their behalf. However, recognising the environmental impact associated with this practice, an alternative solution was developed. The scrubs were transferred to the School of Arts to support their workshop needs. This not only provided an additional use for the scrubs but resulted in a cost-saving for the School of Arts as they no longer needed to purchase as many cloths for their workshops. The development of the School of Dentistry Scrubs project has led to discussions with Liverpool Hope University School of Creative and Performing Arts with the development of a 'Sewing Bee' competition for the students. This innovative approach has not only helped the School to work in partnership with another institution but also engages Hope students in sustainable practices using their creativity.

Institute of Systems, Molecular and Integrative Biology Sustainability Team. This Institute is one of the largest institutes in the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, spanning nine buildings with a mixture of laboratories and administrative space. Labs are one of the highest burdens on electricity and plastics. In six months, the Institute of Systems, Molecular and Integrative Biology sustainability team has managed to reach the full silver award for the LEAF initiative, supporting the sustainability and efficiency of laboratories. This achievement in a small space of time will help the University reach sustainability targets by 2035 and reduce more than 50% of waste by 2025.

Sustainability in Research

The Sustainability in Research Award recognises individuals or teams whose research has made a significant contribution to the sustainability agenda with proven or potential worldwide impact. The award supports the key ambitions of the University’s Sustainability Strategy.

Individual Winner: Dr Luigi Di Sarno, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Luigi delivers high-quality, impactful research in the development, and use of the next generation of bio-inspired structural materials for sustainable infrastructure. This recognises the need to move away from traditional, high greenhouse gas-emitting materials and has garnered global attention. He was invited as an International Expert in Disaster Mitigation of Infrastructure in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s (FCDO) Climate Resilient Growth Programme in India. As leader of the RSI Research Group, he has led initiatives with SMEs and water consultancy to optimise an innovative modular flood-resilient adaptation system to safeguard properties in flood plains.

Luigi said, “I am honoured to have received this prestigious award which is a tangible evidence and recognition of impactful multi-disciplinary research addressing sustainability and resilience that I am delivering globally along with my Civil Infrastructure Research Cluster team. We are progressing along a journey during which we are fostering civic engagement with strategic local SMEs which operate in proactive asset management of distributed civil infrastructure.  We share with industrial partners the vision to provide engineering-based bio-inspired solutions for next generation of sustainable and resilient infrastructure based on design-by-testing approach. We have also been working with colleagues and using shared experimental facilities across the University to provide robust ground-breaking low-carbon solutions for extending residual capacity of existing ageing infrastructure exposed to multi-hazards.”

Commended

Dr Gareth Abrahams, Department of Geography and Planning. Gareth has driven a highly novel approach to sustainability research and Knowledge Exchange activity in the construction sector. He has set up the not-for-profit company Changing Streams CIC to engage directly with key stakeholders, secured commitments from industry leaders and translated this into funding research that is already transforming some of the largest schemes in the Liverpool City Region. Projects secured include a carbon zero design with plastic reduced specification and detailing, a Wirral Water regeneration scheme at Millars Quay and a first-ever plastic audit of a construction project. Gareth has now set up a research centre to position this new stream of research and KE activities, which is likely to expand considerably over the coming years.

Dr Barnabas Calder, School of Architecture. Barnabas’s best-selling book ‘Architecture: From Prehistory to Climate Emergency’, has been translated into Italian and Japanese, with translations into Turkish, Chinese and Greek. In the two years since its publication, it has led to worldwide invitations for Barnabas to speak, and advise on architectural education. Through his clear, engaging writing and speaking, and his energetic production of keynotes, visiting lectures, trade-press articles, talks, social media posts and engagements, Barnabas has reached an audience of hundreds of thousands globally. In the face of growing climate anxiety, his work is, in the words of Architects’ Journal, “an essential read: clarifying, alarming, but hopeful”.

Congratulations to all those recognised for their hard work and commitment towards the University.

The full shortlist and details of all the winners and commended colleagues on the Staff Awards intranet site.

Until next year!