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Get involved with climate action as a member of staff

At Bath, you're part of a community of change makers and as a member of staff there are many ways that you can get actively involved in taking climate action.

Take Action

Our University has committed to transformational change to tackle the climate crisis and, to achieve our ambitious goals, everyone needs to be part of driving change across all areas of our work and community.

Here we've shared lots of ways you can take meaningful action to create impact.

In your team or department

  • Embed into the DNA of your department (this could include a standing agenda item, policies or by supporting Climate Advocate roles, a Green Team or a LEAF team - see below for more details)
  • Help grow our community of change makers by being active and sharing best practice with us and others

As individuals

  • Take action: find out below how you can be supported in taking action in a lab or office, or through your teaching and research
  • Buy less and buy better: purchasing goods and services accounts for around 1/2 of our total carbon footprint
  • Travel less and travel better: travel represents about 2/5 of our total carbon footprint
  • Shake up your commute: find out how active travel is supported by the University, including providing cycle to work and EV salary sacrifice schemes
  • Volunteer as a Climate Ambassador and encourage students to as well

Learn more

Lab users

Join LEAF (Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework) to take impactful sustainability actions in your lab. Through LEAF, you will be supported with:

  • framework: online tool to guide users through sustainability actions, across a variety of categories
  • online calculators: to help measure financial and carbon impact, and to help track improvements
  • toolkit and resources: from guides to sustainable lab equipment, to induction and exit procedures
  • user engagement: we have a Teams site to share best-practice and discuss shared challenges

All staff and students working in labs across the University, including research or teaching facilities, can join LEAF.

Get involved with LEAF
Staff and students working in a lab

Green Teams

Join with motivated colleagues to take action in your work area, department or faculty. Actions vary such as implementing energy-efficient ways of working, reducing waste and recycling, ensuring sustainable procurement and tackling excess data storage.

Current groups are in:

  • Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences
  • Faculty of Engineering & Design
  • Institute for Sustainability
  • Research & Innovation Services
  • School of Management

Green Teams are open to all staff to join. To join an existing team or to talk to us about starting a new one, please email climateaction@bath.ac.uk.

Join Green Teams network
Staff members from HSS faculty partaking in a volunteer day

Academics

Education

  • Embed Climate Action and sustainability skills in your teaching
  • Encourage your students to get involved too through taking action or by undertaking climate-related projects and dissertations

Research

  • Could your research help the University in it's journey to Net Zero? Email us to discuss Living Lab opportunities and ideas.
  • Is your research related to climate change? Please send us updates and news to share.
  • Consider how you are conducting your research and whether it aligns with a 1.5°C future:
Contact us to discuss ideas and to share your news
Students learning as part of Climate Fresk session

Climate Advocates

Our network of Climate Advocates act as satellite members of the Climate Action Team to implement our whole-institution approach in each department.​

The network is currently running as a pilot in the Faculty of Engineering & Design and the Department of Life Sciences. Advocates work across our four work themes of education, research, footprint and partnerships​. It includes developing department action plans, reporting progress and leading department engagement and communications.

This pilot can be extended to other departments where supported by the head of that department or faculty. Please email climateaction@bath.ac.uk if you would like to discuss further.

Find out more about Climate Advocates
Group of staff Climate Advocates

Increase your impact

As well as being pioneers for change at work, you can take action at home and in your community. Here's some ideas and links to help you get started.

For anyone keen to build wider momentum for change, you might like to try Eco Together, a simple programme of activities designed to be run with friends, family, colleagues or in your community. You don't need to be an expert as everything is provided for you (and it's free).

Contact us

If you have questions about our climate action work or ideas of how you would like to get involved that aren't listed here, please get in touch.