About the Centre for Sustainable Solutions
The climate emergency is the most urgent, complex, and life-threatening issue of our time.
The Centre for Sustainable Solutions launched in April 2020. We enable individuals, communities and organisations to act towards a sustainable future through education, research and partnership. We support interdisciplinary, cross-campus and cross-sectoral solutions to climate change.
Monthly Sustainability Spotlight: Every month we're shining a Sustainability Spotlight on significant activities happening here at the university. Get in touch if you would like to be featured or you would like to recommend someone else's work. Keep scrolling down to see this month's Spotlight!
Contact us
We invite members of the UofG community and those outside the University who are interested in engaging with our broad vision to get in contact.
Email: sustainable-solutions@glasgow.ac.uk
Campus-wide sustainability: Information on sustainability for UofG's activities, campus and community.
UofG Sustainability on Twitter: Follow @UofGSustain for updates from across the campus and beyond.
Staff Sustainability Chat: Staff at UofG in all job categories can communicate and collaborate via the internal 'Sustainability at University of Glasgow' Yammer channel.
Sustainability Spotlight, October 2020 - The Power of Sweat
Many of us benefit from the growing range of innovative digital devices we use, carry or wear. However, it's clearly evidenced how environmentally unfriendly convential batteries for these items are, not to mention the contribution using and re-charging them makes to our carbon footprints.
Prof Ravinder Dahiya, Leader of UofG's Bendable Electronics and Sensing Tech (BEST) Group and Director of the Electronic Systems Design Centre (ESDC), has been working on one aspect of this problem with colleagues: "Sweat to Power Wearables". Yes, that is how it sounds: your sweat could power your wearable devices.
On October 14th 2020, Prof Joseph Wang, Director of the UCSD Centre of Wearable Sensors is giving the ESDC Annual Lecture 2020. Sign up on Eventbrite!
From the description of the YouTube video below: "In the new type of flexible supercapacitor (SC) shown here, the toxic electrolytes found in conventional batteries is replaced with sweat. The SC can be fully charged with as little as 20 microlitres of fluid and is robust enough to survive 4,000 cycles of bends, which [it] might encounter in real-world use."
Sustainability Audit
We're currently bringing together what's happening across the University of Glasgow related to environmental sustainability, climate change, and the UN Strategic Development Goals.
Ultimately the full results of this audit will be made available to search and browse, so you can find potential collaborators, supervisors, courses, or activities to join in with.
Scroll down to find some tasters of exciting research and other activities we've discovered already, and get in touch if we've missed something you are doing.
Sustainability in the College of Arts
The College of Arts community is contributing to environmental sustainability in many creative ways! Check out the links below:
College of Arts Sustainability Highlights
Photograph courtesy of Xabier Cid, under Creative Commons CC BY-SA.
Sustainability in the College of Science & Engineering
The College of Science and Engineering investigates the history, causes and effects of environmental degradation, discovers practical solutions for sustainability, and works with the University to apply solutions across our campus and beyond. Here are a few tasters of what's happening:
College of Science & Engineering Sustainability Highlights
Student success: Future World Changer Yalinu Poya - feeding the world sustainably.
UN Sustainable Development Goals at Glasgow
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a global blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. They address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice.
Sustainability in the College of Social Sciences
The contribution that the College of Social Sciences makes toward environmetal sustainability and justice covers a fascinating range of research areas, from sustainable consumption, through lifelong learning to empower citizens, to understanding the legal requirements for mitigating climate change, to understanding and using the wealth of complex data available for planning our collective future. Here are some tasters:
College of Social Sciences Sustainability Highlights
College of Social Sciences Sustainability Research Theme
Sustainability in the College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences
The College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences (MVLS) brings a wealth of research expertise to bear on how climate change and environmental degradation affect the human, animal and broader natural world, and how these problems can be solved. Some tasters:
MVLS Sustainability Highlights
Sustainability in Student Life
Student groups:
GUEST students: Glasgow University Environmental Sustainability Team.
Glasgow Students Against Climate Change.
Extinction Rebellion Glasgow University.
Student successes:
College of Science and Engineering: Future World Changer Yalinu Poya, feeding the world sustainably.
School of Law: Finance and Social Justice Project 2019/20 - Climate Change.
Sustainability on Campus
The University is working hard across all areas of activity to promote our own contribution to environmental sustainability as an organisation, from top-level strategic policy, planning and partnerships, through important day-to-day activities like travel, food, energy supply, student life, and more. See what's happening here.