Climate action student and staff representation
Leadership roles
Polly Mackenzie is our Chief Social Purpose Officer, leading our response to the climate emergency.
Rathna Ramanathan, Head of Central Saint Martins and Pro-Vice Chancellor UAL, is the Executive Board member with responsibility for embedding climate justice in the curriculum.
Professor Dilys Williams (Professor of Fashion Design for Sustainability and Director at the Centre for Sustainable Fashion) chairs the Social Purpose Advisory Group and Climate & Environment Action Group (CEAG) (PDF 252KB) which lead on strategic decision-making around climate and environmental justice.
Climate and Environment Action Group
Our Climate and Environment Action Group (CEAG) which was formed to catalyse climate and environmental action. CEAG members are representative of our communities and departments. Members include students, graduates, and staff from teaching, operations, research, libraries and workshops. The group represents all six UAL colleges and the wide range of the creative disciplines we teach. Read more about the group's remit and impact in our Terms of Reference (PDF 252KB) and the minutes from a recent meeting (PDF 150KB).
Staff and student representation
Our staff development related to climate action and sustainability, including our Carbon Literacy Training is delivered by a team of staff, recent graduates and current students. Teams and departments also have climate action and sustainability champions, such as our Library Services.
Read our list of names, roles and responsibilities of staff and students who contribute to climate justice (PDF 182KB). Find out how we're engaging staff and students through our Engagement Strategy (PDF 1.66MB).
Our Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) curriculum change is organised through our academic committees, each of which have student membership. The key committees for ESD are: College Academic Committees, Academic Board and the Deans Fora.
Climate Advocates
Climate Advocates are students led by climate advocate leads in each College. They promote environmental awareness and sustainability in teaching. All Climate Advocates are paid through Arts Temps, our social enterprise recruitment agency.
Governance and reporting on climate action
Our Executive Board recieve annual reports on our Climate Action Plan progress and impact. We report our institutional KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to the Court of Governors, our governing body, annually. In 2023, we reported on our Scope 1 and 2 emissions in March (PDF 104KB). A Student Governor sits on our Court of Governors, a number of committees report to the Court of Governors including Estates, Finance and Audit committees as well as Academic Board. This means there is student representation in key decision-making on climate and environmental action at UAL.
ArtSU, our student union, are members of committees and working groups across many aspects of the university. We work with them on climate and environmental action through the Climate Emergency Network and by inviting a representative to become a member of CEAG as well as through individual projects and campaigns, such as Green Roof Society.