Category Archives: Research & Education

SpudFest 2024: Celebrating Potatoes, Innovation and Community Impact

On Thursday 28^th November, the School of Natural and Environmental Sciences (SNES) hosted SpudFest. With over 1000 visitors, many have labelled it the “best event of the year.” From mini games to research stalls, the Boiler House was transformed into a potato haven. Read on to learn more about the event, its successes and its partners!

NU Farms

As part of their ground-breaking research, SNES has collaborated with NU Farms to drive innovation in plant and crop science. Every year, University farms – Cockle Park Farm and Nafferton Farm – grow tonnes of potatoes for research. When ready for harvest instead of contributing to food waste, SNES generously share their excess potatoes with the university community at SpudFest every year. This year over two tonnes of potatoes were given away!

Image: SpudFest attendees gather around tables, collecting NU Farm potatoes.

Eat@Newcastle

One of the highlights of the day were the complimentary food samples, courtesy of Eat@Newcastle. The spiced wedges and the creamy potato soup were fan favourites, attracting long lines of students and colleagues. In total, 200kg of NU Farm potatoes were used in the catering!

Verti-Tech Innovation Hub for Vertical Farming

At SpudFest, you may have noticed the vertical potato growing in display cases. These are a contribution of the Verti-Tech Innovation Hub, the newest partnership between Newcastle University and Fyto Engineering. Verti-Tech is a scheme that supports sustainable agricultural research and innovation in the heart of Newcastle. Aimed at both the commercial and academic sector, Verti-Tech facilitates growth trials, nutrient testing, LED lighting research, and more!

Image: The Verti-Tech stand, embellished with glass cases of sprouting potatoes.

Newcastle West End Foodbank

The Newcastle West End Foodbank also participated in the event, successfully raising awareness of their cause:

“Thank you for inviting Newcastle Foodbank along to your event last week. We received a generous number of both financial and physical donations, but it was also a wonderful opportunity to meet people and raise awareness of our work.”

All remaining potatoes from the farms were distributed to families in need with the help of Newcastle Food Bank.

Food Waste Awareness

Lastly, the Sustainability Team and Biffa made an impact at SpudFest, raising awareness on food waste issues. The Sustainability Team was especially proud to unveil new food waste caddies – coming soon to a university accommodation kitchen near you. Annita Clark from Biffa shared shocking food waste stats, including the fact that 4.4 million fresh potatoes are thrown away by UK homes every day!

Other highlights of the event included potato caricatures courtesy of Damon, the potato prints station, the presentation on historic potato cultivation, and the potato costumes worn by the enthusiastic SNES team. SpudFest was even featured in an interview on Spice FM, solidifying its status as the trendiest event of the year! We’re already counting down the days till the next SpudFest – long live the humble potato!

Image: (From left to right) The SpudFest celebrations included historic potato presentations, the potato painting station, and fun potato costumes.

I’d like to give a big thank you to the SNES team for organising such a well-thought out and enjoyable event. I would also like to thank Katy Sawyer, for not only leading the SpudFest plans, but for providing me with the statistics and photos for this post. If you want to find out more about the research SNES do, click here.

Thank you for reading!

Green Impact Launch and LEAF update!

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At Newcastle University, we recognise that the climate crisis must be addressed communally, and we cannot meet the sustainability targets set out in our Climate Action Plan without the efforts of all our colleagues and students.

Green Impact and LEAF are two amazing programmes available for our colleagues at the university, with the opportunity for participants to win bronze, silver, and gold awards for sustainability. Earlier this month, the Environment Awards recognised and celebrated the achievements of our colleagues and students over the past year, with 11 teams receiving Green Impact awards and 10 teams receiving LEAF awards. A massive congratulations to those teams!

So, read on to find out how you can get involved in the next programme of Green Impact or LEAF, and play your part in increasing environmental sustainability on campus!

Green Impact

Green Impact is a United Nations award-winning programme which promotes environmentally and socially sustainable behaviour across organisations. At Newcastle University, colleagues can sign up to Green Impact and create teams within their work area, with actions assigned to complete in the online toolkit. The toolkit is aligned with the UN Sustainability Goals, with themes such as energy, water, waste, travel, biodiversity, communication, and wellbeing.

This is a great opportunity to improve your knowledge on environmental issues and contribute to meaningful sustainable change in your workplace, whilst collecting some awards to display!

How to get involved:

Sign up to Green Impact online from the 11^th of November.
Chat to your colleagues in your work area about Green Impact teams and either join one that’s already been created or create a new team.
Email sustainable-campus@newcastle.ac.uk to join the Green Impact Teams channel, and chat to other teams!
Work through your assigned actions. Each action grants a certain number of points which then add up to the bronze, silver, and gold awards.
Our friendly student auditors will come round to check your progress later in the year.
The Environmental Awards will be held in June, with engraved recycled slates for teams that made it to Bronze, Silver, or Gold.

LEAF

Our laboratories are essential in enabling the groundbreaking research conducted at Newcastle University, and scientific research is vital in mitigating the climate crisis. However, traditional laboratory practices can come with unintended environmental impact (Freese et al, 2024).

LEAF, or the Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework, is an online platform for laboratory users designed by UCL to improve the sustainability and efficiency of laboratories. Similar to Green Impact, lab teams work through sustainability actions to reduce waste, water, and energy along with improving the efficiency of other resources. There is an upcoming refresh of the LEAF actions and criteria, so sign up now to be a part of this updated programme.

Image: Diversity of Life Lab Session (Biology & Zoology). Photo Credit: Chris Bishop.

How to get involved?

Sign up on the LEAF login portal
Register with your institutional email, then login and either join an existing lab, or request a new lab (if your lab is not already listed).
After your account is verified, work with your team through the bronze, silver, and gold criteria. Members of the Sustainability Team will assess your progress along the way, and certificates will be awarded at the Environmental Awards!
Every year, progress to a higher certificate, or re-audit to keep your accreditation.

Key dates:

Relaunch of Green Impact on Monday the 11^thof November
Criteria Update of LEAF on Monday the 11^th of November.
Green Impact Launch Webinar on Thursday the 14^th of November, Sign up here.
LEAF teams channels launch on Friday the 1^st of November.
Celebrating Success Environmental Awards: June (date to be announced later).

Thank you for reading, and we look forward to welcoming some new teams to Green Impact and LEAF this year!

References

Freese, T., Elzinga, N., Heinemann, M., Lerch, M.M. and Feringa, B.L., 2024. The relevance of sustainable laboratory practices. Rsc Sustainability, 2(5), pp.1300-1336.

COP 29: Apply to be a Virtual Delegate!

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The 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as the 29th Conference of the Parties, or COP 29, is set to take place in Baku, Azerbaijan from the 11^t^h – 22^nd of November. Conference discussions are expected to centre on themes of climate finance, carbon markets and new Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC’s) – the national targets to support climate change commitments that countries must submit in 2025.

This year, we have the opportunity for 10 University representatives to attend the conference virtually. Keep on reading to find out more about being a virtual delegate, and how you can apply!

Image: The venue for this year’s conference- Baku Olympic Stadium in Azerbaijan. Credit: AZTV.

What is an observer?

Newcastle University gained “observer organisation” status with the UNFCCC in 2021 and a delegation of academics, professional services colleagues and student representatives were able to attend COP 26 in Glasgow as a result. Observer organisations can select representatives to attend the annual COP’s both in-person and virtually. This year, for COP 29, all observer organisations have been allocated 10 virtual delegate places – though in-person quotas have been limited.

Observers are chosen from a variety of groups, all expressing unique perspectives on climate change. They fall into one of three groups: United Nations organisations, intergovernmental organisations (IGOs) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

NGOs can include:

Youth groups

Trade unions

Farmers

Indigenous communities

Environmental charities

Research organisations including universities.

Gender-equality initiatives

Virtual delegates can access many meetings and events being held at the COP 29 conference, though often this is limited to being able to observe proceedings via a one-way live stream. As well as the main negotiations between Parties to the Convention, COP conferences host hundreds of related side-events, exhibits and meetings every year. Observer organisations can apply to host side-events at the conference and many of this year’s events should be available to view by virtual delegates. Some events may even interact with the online community, allowing you to network with peers and have your say!

More information about observer organisations is available here on the UNFCCC website, and a list of this year’s formal side-events is available here. The list will most likely be updated as the conference nears, so keep checking for new events!

Image: This year’s timetable of themes. Keep this safe when deciding which talks to attend! Credit: UNFCCC.

How can I apply?

This year, we are encouraging both students and colleagues to apply to be a virtual delegate. We will select delegates on a first come, first serve basis. We will also try to ensure a balance of undergraduate students, postgraduate taught students, postgraduate research students, academic colleagues, and colleagues from professional services.

To apply, simply fill out the form below telling us your availability and why you would like to attend. Please note, it is not expected that virtual delegates will commit the whole of their time to the COP – we would encourage our virtual delegates to attend as many events as their commitments will allow.

By filling out the form, you will also consent to helping the Sustainability Team with a follow-up blog or knowledge-sharing activity, describing your experience at COP 29. You will also agree to abide by the UNFCCC Code of Conduct found here.

COP 29 Virtual Delegate Application: https://forms.office.com/e/N0ZgHLwmgY

Good luck!

Sustainable Drainage Systems: The Future of Flood and Water Management

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Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) are key to building sustainable cities and countering the influence of urbanisation. These eco-friendly solutions maintain habitats, support natural cycles, and protect human communities. Since 2023, it is now a legal requirement for all new major developments to include SuDS in their planning.

Newcastle University has great research infrastructure in this area, including the UKCRIC National Green Infrastructure Facility (“the living laboratory”) and the Newcastle Urban Observatory. This blog will explore how SuDS work and their importance, using a current student’s project as a steering guide. Enjoy!

What are SuDS and why are they important?

The main purpose of SuDS is to mimic the natural processes that urbanisation has impeded, i.e. the infiltration of water into the ground. Smaller projects use methods like installing green roofs or rain gardens while large-scale projects use basins and swales (flood ditches).

Check out this helpful video for an in-depth explanation of SuDS, linking their function to the University’s Green Infrastructure Facility:

So, what are the actual benefits of SuDS over traditional drain systems? SuDS are known to:

Decrease risk from flooding
Reduce flood damage costs
Improve water quality
Act as a carbon store
Support biodiverse habitats and animals

Image: Snapshot of a hidden drainage grate among greenery and purple flowers. Demonstrates the contrast between manmade installations and natural stores. Credit: John Donoghue.

“Domestic SuDS Planter: Design, Construction and Evaluation”

During her study, Madeleine Tate found herself drawn to water and flood management, which inspired her MEng dissertation project. Madeleine chose to install and test a sustainable planter box at Kensington Terrace accommodation. The research aim was to combat the issue of increased storm water affecting the residential sector. Kensington Terrace proved to be a perfect location:

“Everyday I go into university I walk past and check on it. It’s quite easy to collect data from.”

Image: Close up photograph of the SuDS planter, showing the pipe diversion, the overlaying gravel, and the blooming plants. Credit: Madeleine Tate.

Madeleine’s planter collects rainwater from the roof and interrupts its flow by slowing it down. The water flow is filtered a variety of soil layers within the planter (see image below for a layer breakdown). After the water has moved through the layers, it passes through a geotextile, finally exiting the planter via an outlet. This outlet deposits water back into the drain system. Thus, the mechanism slows down the journey from roof to drain, giving the traditional system more time to cope. Crucially, this reduces flood and Combined Sewer Overflow risk.

Interestingly, the planter itself was made from a reused intermediate bulk container, which was cut down and repainted. How innovative!

Image: Diagram showing how the planter in Kensington Terrace works. Shows soil layers and step-by-step route of rainwater through the system. Credit: Madeleine Tate.

Project Success

Madeleine’s planter is still in the process of collecting data but has so far proven to be a success! Here we can see a graph comparing inflow levels to outflow levels for rainfall events in May and June 2024. The orange outflow dataset is consistently lower than the blue inflow dataset, by up to 75%. This mirrors the slow pace of the flow travelling through the soil layers.

Image: A graph tracking water inflow and outflow in the planter for events from May 1^st – June 19^th. Credit: Madeleine Tate.

The Future of Planters and SuDS

Due to its success, the planter installation will remain at Kensington Terrace and will continue to produce meaningful data. Madeleine is now in the process of starting her PhD, looking at how these planters can be scaled up. She is collaborating with Newcastle City Council to project datasets, visualising a city where these planters are installed in all houses and drainpipes. In what Madeleine deems the “snowballing effect,” this initial planter innovation will open the door for more similar schemes:

“The future should bring more research; more use and more awareness”

As the threat of climate change becomes more imminent, SuDS and modelling wide-scale integration will prove to be an important tool for risk prevention. If no action is taken, water systems are bound to collapse due to heavier rainfall.

I would like to thank Madeleine Tate for her extensive help and her informative graphics. She ensured that my first post on the sustainability blog was both inspiring and educational! For more information about the UKCRIC National Green Infrastructure Facility, click here. If you are interested in learning what Sustainable Campus are doing for water management, click here.

Thank you for reading!

Sustainable innovations: designing the homes of the future in the _OME

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Completed in June 2021, the _OME is the flagship research and showcasing facility of the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment (HBBE), an innovative research partnership set up between Newcastle and Northumbria Universities. With funding from Research England, the HBBE combines expertise in biosciences, design, architecture, and engineering to advance cutting edge research on biotechnology. As part of this, the team, now made up of nearly seventy researchers and support staff (HBBE, 2022), are constantly testing ways to improve the health and sustainability of our homes by researching everything from controlling the spread of pathogens to innovating on sustainable technologies. This diverse and hugely beneficial work is centred on the state of the art _OME facility, so how exactly are these exciting projects designing the living spaces of the future?

Image: a front elevation showing the interior spaces of the _OME and their uses, including the experimental apartment, biotechnology laboratory, and testing/showcasing spaces for new technologies. Credit: Armand Agraviador.

Located on Devonshire walk, next to the Great North Museum: Hancock and the Devonshire and Drummond buildings, the _OME houses an in-house experimental apartment, accompanying laboratory, and display space for innovative materials and technologies. The HBBE’s research is organised into four key themes and utilises concepts including the genome, biomes, and home, hence the name: _OME. The four research themes being undertaken in the facility touch on a variety of repurposed, improved, and novel technologies and practices to lower carbon footprints and keep us healthy by design. So what do they all involve?

Theme 1: Building Metabolism

The first theme focusses on building-wide methods to achieve a higher degree of sustainable self-sufficiency by creating an artificial ‘metabolism’ in the structure and systems of the house itself. Practical examples of how this metabolism works include generating renewable electricity on site via solar panels on the building’s roof and utilising greywater to lower water use by, for example, reusing water from sinks or the shower to flush the toilet. Additionally, other technologies being woven into this metabolism include rainwater harvesting from the roof gutters and developing waste handling systems within homes that can deal with waste on site and even generate heat and other useful resources from it! When combined, these technologies could work to maintain a living space with a fraction of the energy and water requirements of a standard home, helping to save on both carbon and bills!

Theme 2: Living Construction

The construction sector is a major emitter of carbon globally and commonly used materials including steel and concrete require an awful lot of energy to produce (Wang and Ramakrishnan, 2021), leading to homes with high embodied emissions. Thankfully, lower carbon materials, including cross-laminated timber, are becoming more commonly used (Ahmed et al., 2024), but researchers at the HBBE are looking to advance construction even further by developing intelligent materials. The focus of this research sits squarely on bio-materials, including biominerals, biopolymers, and hygromorphs, which promise not only to lower embodied emission further, but also to offer other advantages. One exciting potential feature of these biomaterials would be to respond to certain stimuli and regrow their structures when damaged – creating self-repairing buildings! These innovations would further add to the construction sector’s arsenal of sustainable building techniques, giving architects more tools to create buildings that are good for both people and planet.

Image: a view of the side and main façade of the _OME laboratory, exhibition space, and experimental apartment. The apartment is located in the central upper floor section, behind the large opening for natural light. Credit: Professor Ben Bridgens.

Theme 3: Microbial Environments

The third theme touches on the _OME’s creation mid-way through the Covid 19 pandemic. Here, research teams are designing homes to better support healthy microbiomes and passively reduce the spread of illnesses, including pandemics. Proposed technologies for achieving this include smart ventilation, antimicrobial materials, and advanced microbiome monitoring systems to better understand what’s going on in the home. Not only will these innovations improve people’s health, but they could also reduce the environmental costs of dealing with illnesses and epidemics (see our sustainable medicine blog here) by creating environments that are far better at handling these issues by design.

Theme 4: Responsible Interactions

As seen previously, the HBBE is working on a variety of innovative technologies, but implementation of these isn’t always smooth sailing. To help ease biotechnologies’ transition from research to widespread use, therefore, researchers are investigating a variety of potential potholes, from accessibility concerns to unintended environmental effects. Additionally, ensuring these new technologies can seamlessly integrate with existing practices and standards, and making sure that people are culturally on board to accept innovations such as biomaterials, remains an important challenge. The _OME is major part of the solution here, as novel technologies can be tested out in the living laboratory and new materials can be shown off to unsure potential adopters, helping to tackle challenges before they become significant issues.

Thank you to the amazing HBBE team for their innovative work and their dedication to improving the sustainability of our built environment. Upon its completion in 2021, the _OME joined a series of Living Labs associated with Newcastle University across campus and elsewhere. These facilities look to continually generate high quality research and data as part of their site’s design (often while being used for a variety of other useful purposes) and you can learn more about them here. Additionally, further information on the HBBE’s activities, including its publications and additional research groups, can be found here. If you’d like to find out more about sustainability at Newcastle University, you can explore our website and other pieces in this blog, and sign up to our newsletter here.

References

Ahmed, S., Dharmapalan, V., and Jin, Z. (2024) ‘A Subject Review on the Use of Mass Timber in the US Construction Industry’, Construction Research Congress 2024: Sustainability, Resilience, Infrastructure Systems, and Materials Design in Construction. pp. 287-295.

Dixon, T., Connaughton, J., Green, S., (eds) (2018) Sustainable Futures in the Built Environment to 2050: A Foresight Approach to Construction and Development. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell.

Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment (HBBE) (2022) Annual Report 2022. URL: http://bbe.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/HBBE_2022_Annual-Report.pdf (accessed 29.08.24).

Wang, X., and Ramakrishnan, S. (2021) Environmental Sustainability in Building Design and Construction. Cham: Springer International Publishing.

International Sustainability: how our university’s global operations are responding to global challenges

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We in the Sustainability Team do a lot of work alongside colleagues across the University to maintain and improve the sustainability of both our beautiful Newcastle city centre campus and our additional, specialist facilities across the North East. Another vital aspect of our university’s operations, however, are our many international connections. These ties include not only our thousands of wonderful international students, but also our overseas research and teaching communities: Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia, and Newcastle University in Singapore.

These connections and facilities generate a wealth of ideas and relationships, helping our university to achieve its aims of pioneering research and cutting-edge education. Maintaining these links and facilities also presents unique challenges in the field of sustainability, though, and so, in this blog, we’ll look at the projects, programmes, and innovations being implemented to maintain our global network sustainably.

Image: A member of the International Welcome Team greets new international students arriving at Newcastle Airport. Credit: Chris Bishop.

CABie

The Climate Action Barometer for international education (CABie) is a large scale, continually rolling study being run by the International Education Sustainability Group (IESG). The study has a variety of aims and foci, but its key objectives include:

Gathering data on higher education institutions’ approaches to climate action in their international operations,
Contextualising and contrasting different policy approaches and practices, and
Sharing insights, creating resources, and tracking results to help inform and drive decision-making in a community of higher education providers with international portfolios.

These objectives cover a range of operations and aspects of higher education, from student and staff engagement to assessing the emissions of international programmes and how these can be reduced through methods such as incentives and careful planning of teaching.

To learn from this collaborative exercise and contribute our own insights and work, Newcastle University have signed up to be part of the Founders’ Group for CABie in the UK. As part of this so far, we in the Sustainability Team have attended meetings to help shape the study and we have provided interviews, survey responses, and University data to add more depth to the research. The Autumn will bring the first fruits of this work, as IESG convene the group again to present the research’s findings so far and create a space for ourselves and our fellow founding universities to discuss ideas and action plans based on the data. This exciting work should provide a useful foundation of considered, data-driven proposals for reducing the environmental impacts of our international operations and we look forward to contributing to it further in future.

Singapore

The University’s operations in Singapore centre on Naval, Electrical, Chemical, and Mechanical Engineering, and our colleagues in the country have developed an impressive hub of research and teaching expertise with their work. Based across two campuses and a research institute, Newcastle University in Singapore offers a range of undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in partnership with the Singapore Institute of Technology. Additionally, our strong industrial connections in the region help to apply the research and teaching we carry out to provide practical insights across a variety of sectors.

As part of the work that’s being done in Singapore, our colleagues have maintained a strong focus on the environment in a variety of ways. Initially, specific foci on renewable infrastructure and environmental design in the Electrical and Chemical Engineering departments respectively help to catalyse progress in these areas. Meanwhile, for colleagues working in Marine technology and engineering, climate change, alternative fuels, and offshore renewable energy structures all constitute important research themes in their work. Finally, events focused on sustainability are regularly run across the departments on topics including data, entrepreneurship, and sustainability, and water security and sustainable development. These events and research themes are contributing substantially to environmental research across a variety of engineering sectors and are helping establish Newcastle University in Singapore as a leader in sustainability expertise in the region.

Image: Members of the NUMed community in discussion in front of the arches of the Bell Building. Credit: Choi Chee Seng.

Malaysia

Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia (NUMed Malaysia) is a purpose-built medical school in southern Johor State. The campus offers a range of high quality undergraduate and masters programmes in medicine and biomedical sciences and has expanded and developed over more than a decade to become one of Malaysia’s leading medical education providers. As this development has taken place, NUMed Malaysia has also been working on enhancing the sustainability of its operations.

Here, the school’s Environment and Sustainability Campus Committee works hard to implement and maintain environmental projects across their beautiful, green campus and this work is supported by a range of other sustainability commitments. For instance, NUMed Malaysia was one of the first organisations to sign up to both the Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education and the British Malaysian Chamber of Commerce Climate Pledge. Additionally, the school has built on these memberships to put climate awareness at the very centre of their campus with their Eco Lounge project. The opening of the lounge was accompanied by talks given by senior colleagues on the importance of sustainability in medicine (a topic also discussed in this blog) and the space now offers students an important hub in which to relax and learn more about the climate and its impacts on Malaysia. These different projects and commitments are combining in NUMed Malaysia to help equip a new generation of doctors and nurses not only with expert medical knowledge, but also a wider awareness of medicine’s unneglectable relationship with our changing climate.

This wide variety of sustainability work being undertaken by teams across all three countries highlights our shared dedication to sustainability as part of the wider Newcastle University community. A huge thank you to the brilliant teams and interested colleagues in both Malaysia and Singapore for helping to drive this work in their own operations. If you want to find out more about how the University manages its environmental impacts here in Newcastle, you can explore our website here, or sign up to our Sustainability Network newsletter by emailing us in the team.

The Seeds of Change: Innovating for Sustainable Agriculture

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Agriculture is a vast and vital industry that provides livelihoods for hundreds of millions and food for billions across our planet. Similar to other sectors, however, agriculture’s expansion and industrialisation have increased its impact on the environment to unsustainable levels (Alam and Rukhsana, 2023), especially regarding greenhouse gas emissions and the biodiversity crisis. As a result, work is now crucially needed to adopt new technologies and alternative practices to ensure that the world’s five billion hectares of farmland can store carbon and provide quality habitats as well as feeding us. To get an idea of the challenges facing sustainable agriculture and how they might be overcome, I’ve spoken to researchers from Newcastle University’s own School of Natural and Environmental Sciences.

Hay bales at Newcastle University’s Cockle Park Farm. Credit: Matt Horne.

Sustainability challenges

Implementing sustainable practices into farming is a complicated and difficult process for a variety of reasons. Postgraduate researcher Sophia Long points to cost, and a lack of resources, technology, education, and training as key concerns that are affecting different farms in different ways and slowing down agriculture’s progress towards sustainable practice. Additionally, she notes that many sustainable innovations, including novel machinery and new chemistry and crop varieties, require an adjustment period to be implemented, further delaying change.

Despite these challenges, however, there is optimism in the sector and Dr David George, a reader in Precision Agronomy here at the University, referred to the recent updates to the Sustainable Farming Incentive as a key element of this positivity. On top of this, the development of carbon and biodiversity markets, inclusion of sustainable best practice as a feature of trade shows and magazines, and recognition of the importance of sustainable management by farmers themselves are all good signs of an improving outlook for sustainable agriculture.

Research and innovations

Newcastle University has a variety of innovative facilities focused on agricultural production, teaching, and research and this infrastructure is being used to develop the skills, technologies, and practices needed to support agriculture’s transition towards sustainability. These specialist facilities include Newcastle University Farms (NU Farms), which hold around 800 hectares of land spread over three sites (Nafferton, Ouston, and Cockle Park), and a series of vertical farm units, growth room facilities, and a food and consumer research facility on central campus. Some of the sustainable innovations, highlighted by Sophia and David, that are currently being developed at these sites include:

The development of automated systems and disease sensors in the Vertical Farm units to reduce the need for fertiliser, transport, and water when producing crops whilst improving their quality.
Research on the soil microbiome to improve the sustainability of disease management through the development of novel cultural and chemical control plans.
Trials of different tillage practices at NU Farms, including ploughing, minimum-tillage, and direct-drilling, to gather data on crop performance and carbon release (from the soil) for each of these practices.
Spore sampling technology, which is being explored at NU Farms in conjunction with biopesticides and biostimulants to reduce the use of conventional synthetic chemistry and thereby improve crop health and slow the build-up of pesticide resistance.
Scattering silicate rock dust over crop fields for their ability to enhance carbon and nutrient capture in the soil, both sequestering greenhouse gases and improving crop growth (Skov et al. 2024).
Remote imaging and sensing for pest/disease detection and environmental monitoring to help boost soil, crop, and animal health. This technology could be used in conjunction with the increasingly precise and automated application of crop inputs, which is also being researched at our university.
Methods to engage farmers in overcoming barriers to ‘Regenerative Agriculture‘ in the north of England through machinery solutions.

A tree-lined field with sheep at Newcastle University’s Cockle Park Farm. Credit: Matt Horne.

The future of farming

Sustainability is increasingly becoming the focus of agriculture’s future (Onuabuchi Munonye and Chinelo Eze, 2022) and a range of new technologies are lining up to support this. Across the Agriculture department, NU Farms, and the researchers I spoke to, however, it was stressed that co-benefits must be at the heart of change to ensure that the future of agriculture is truly sustainable. Specifically, change in the agricultural sector must support farmers’ incomes and resilience as well as the natural environment. Here, four key areas are central to a holistically sustainable future for farming:

Technology: Drones and sensors for data, automated and precision machinery, new crop inputs, land use practices, and further technologies are all improving the efficiency and reducing the environmental impacts of crop and livestock rearing for each unique farm.
Biodiversity: Research, education, and stewardship schemes are helping farmers to support and improve the agroecological systems on their land, yielding enhanced natural pest control and soil fertility and combatting pesticide and fertiliser use.
Adaptation: Changes in pest, disease, and extreme/unseasonal weather stresses will force farmers to adapt their crop rotations and water, disease, and pest management practices. Here, plant breeding, education, and community engagement will all be vital tools to pre-emptively future-proof agricultural production against the impacts of climate change.
Income: Many farms here in the UK are under intense financial pressure and even being forced out of business, harming livelihoods, rural culture and knowledge, and impacting the UK’s food security and resilience. Produce prices must reflect the tenuous financial situation for farmers and more transparency from distributors (such as supermarkets) would help consumers to gain a more well-rounded view of the food system they rely upon.

Overall, Dr George summarises the features of a sustainable future for farming as a “good balance of environmental, animal welfare and food production outputs that co-delivers for natural capital gain / net zero and food security, supported by simple yet flexible policy and clear, connected, consolidated and collaborative knowledge sharing”.

A huge thank you to Sophia, David, and everyone else who offered their time and expertise for this piece. If you want to find out more about sustainable agriculture then have a look at the links and references below and you can learn about biodiversity on campus here. Finally, if you’re looking for updates about sustainability at our university, you can sign up to the Sustainability Network.

Links and references

NU Farms research webpage

Regenerative agriculture initiative funded by Newcastle University

NU Farms Impact Statement

Press Office article on enhanced rock weathering

Alam, A., and Rukhsana (2023) ‘Climate Change Impact, Agriculture, and Society: An Overview’. Alam. A., and Rukhsana (eds) Climate Change, Agriculture and Society: Approaches Toward Sustainability. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-28251-5

Onuabuchi Munonye, J., and Chinelo Eze, G. (2022) ‘The Concept of Sustainable Agriculture’. Filho, W. L., Kovaleva, M., and Popkova, E. (eds) Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-98617-9

Skov, K., Wardman, J., Healey, M., McBride, A., Bierowiec, T., Cooper, J., Edeh, I., George, D., Kelland, M. E., Mann, J., Manning, D., Murphy, M. J., Pape, R., Teh, Y. A., Turner, W., Wade, P., and Liu, X. (2024). Initial agronomic benefits of enhanced weathering using basalt: A study of spring oat in a temperate climate. PLOS ONE, 19 (3). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0295031

Sustainable Medicine: keeping our planet and ourselves healthy

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As seen in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, sustainability is a major concern across all aspects of society due both to the far-reaching challenges of climate change and the impacts that modern life has on environment. Having said this, our attention can sometimes focus on certain aspects of society (such as the fossil fuel industry) more than others and one area where sustainability can be missed at times is healthcare (Sherman et al. 2020). So, to gain a better idea of the challenges and opportunities sustainability can bring to this critical service, I’ve spoken to a range of current students, societies, and academics involved with medicine at Newcastle University.

Image: The main entrance to the University’s Faculty of Medical Sciences. Credit: Chris Bishop.

Why is sustainability important in medicine?

As Nuala Murray from the University’s Sustainable Medics Society points out, sustainability and medicine are very relevant to one another for a variety of reasons. Initially, the changing climate is creating a range of novel and dangerous challenges for healthcare practitioners globally, from spreading zones of regional diseases to dealing with the fallout of worsening extreme weather events (Abbasi et al., 2023). On the other hand, the provision of healthcare itself is a resource intensive process, with the NHS making up around 4% of the UK’s total emissions profile alone (NHS, 2020). This makes healthcare a centre of both adaptation and mitigation in the fight against climate change, underlining the importance of sustainability in healthcare provision. Positively, examples are appearing of key bodies in the sector recognising this reality. For instance, Newcastle NHS Trust were the first NHS trust to issue a Climate Emergency statement (in collaboration with Newcastle University), our NU Med Malaysian Campus has invested in a permanent Eco Lounge, and our own Medical School has a dedicated Sustainable Medicine Lead.

Challenges and opportunities

The medical training, practice, and research provided by our University is vital, but it needs a variety of specific resources to function properly and this can make improving medical sustainability a challenge. I spoke to Oak Taylor, one of our medical students, to get a better idea of how this looks in practice. She pointed out, for instance, that many items, including protective equipment and syringes, are single use by necessity to ensure quality standards and avoid spreading infection. Additionally, she noted that many of the anaesthetic gases that are critical for operations are also very polluting. Despite these challenges, however, there are still lots of opportunities to improve sustainability in medicine. So, while ambulances can’t be electric due to the need to refuel quickly, medicine delivery vans can be electrified, and while front-line protective equipment will need changing regularly, equipment used during training can often be reused. Additionally, many of these steps come with other, additional benefits, such as improvements to air quality from using electric vehicles or boosting patient satisfaction by greening hospital grounds.

Here at Newcastle University’s medical, dental, and research facilities, a variety of projects are being carried out to implement more environmentally sound practice. For instance, our previously mentioned Sustainable Medicine Lead, Hugh Alberti, has been working throughout the School of Medicine to introduce sustainable healthcare teaching to the curriculum. This has led to a range of impressive initiatives, including all final year students completing sustainable quality improvement projects as part of their final GP placements – that’s 370 tailored sustainability projects being written for GP surgeries throughout Newcastle every year! Meanwhile, our Sustainable Medics Society run regular conferences on sustainable medicine and are currently working on a project to make lab sessions for clinical skills modules more sustainable by reducing plastic waste. Finally, lots of medical labs, including core labs used by a variety of different teams, have received Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF) accreditation – with several operating at ‘Gold’, the highest level of the standard currently available!

Image: a student operating medical equipment. Credit: John Donoghue.

What next?

This range of initiatives is having a tangible effect by both directly improving environmental outcomes and ensuring that sustainability is established as an important consideration in the minds of current and future medical practitioners. Our medical students, teachers, and researchers aren’t done yet, though! Ambitions for the future include further improving the University’s already impressive Planetary Health Report score, and further reducing the use of single use items in medical teaching.

Many thanks again to Nuala, Hugh, Oak, and everyone else who generously contributed their time for this piece. If you want even more information on sustainability in healthcare, have a look at the references and resources below. Additionally, if you’re looking for steps you can take yourself, get started by having a look at our recent Sustainability Newsletter for advice on how to sustainably dispose of medications!

References and further reading

Abbasi, K., Ali, P., Barbour, V., Benfield, T., Bibbins-Domingo, K., Hancocks, S., Horton, R., Laybourn-Langton, L., Mash, R., and Sahni, P., et al. (2023) ‘Time to treat the climate and nature crisis as on indivisible global health emergency’, British Medical Journal. 383. p. 2355.

Andrews, E., Pearson, D., Kelly, C., Stroud, L., and Rivas Perez, M. (2013) ‘Carbon footprint of patient journeys through primary care’, British Journal of General Practice. September.

Gillam, S., and Barna, S. (2011) ‘Sustainable general practice: another challenge for trainers’, Education for Primary Care. 22 (1). 7-10.

NHS England and NHS Improvement (2020) Delivering a ‘Net Zero’ National Health Service – July 2022 Update. Skipton House, London.

Pencheon, D., and Wight, J. (2020) ‘Making healthcare and health systems net zero’, British Medical Journal. 368.

Sherman, J. D., Thiel, C., MacNeill, A., Eckelman, M. J., Dubrow, R., Hopf, H., Lagasse, R., Bialowitz, J., Costello, A., Forbes, M., et al. (2020) ‘The Green Print: Advancement of Environmental Sustainability in Healthcare’, Resources, Conservation and Recycling. Volume 161.

Catching the Tailwinds: Wind power and the green energy transition at Newcastle University

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What is Wind Power?

Wind power is a renewable source of energy that harnesses the kinetic force of natural air flows. To do this, turbine blades are angled so that the passing winds push against them and transfer their energy into rotational movement. This movement then drives a generator that transforms the kinetic energy into electrical power. Similar processes, minus the last step, have been utilised for millennia for purposes including milling grain, pumping water, and, in their simplest form, navigating oceans. Since the 1970s, however, the technology’s potential to generate electricity at scale has led to a gradual modern resurgence of wind power as a useful tool in the global transition towards cleaner and greener energy (Chiras, 2010). To understand how Newcastle University is responding and contributing to this transition, I’ve drawn on the expertise of Professor of Offshore Engineering, Zhiqiang Hu, to explore some of the exciting projects in progress across our organisation.

Image: Turbines at the Port of Blyth. Credit: Graeme Peacock.

The University’s wind research and collaborations

Our University has a range of talented researchers working across a variety of wind power technologies and among of the most promising of these is offshore wind generation. Placing wind turbines offshore (sometimes a long way out at sea!) allows them to be far larger than their land-based siblings which boosts generation capacity while avoiding taking up precious space on land. As a result, the offshore wind industry is developing quickly as an important way to meet the global demand for decarbonisation. This is creating a wealth of challenges and opportunities for those working in the sector and Newcastle University has a strong position within this dynamic landscape thanks to two key factors.

Firstly, the University has attracted attention from a variety of leading energy and engineering companies thanks to both our wealth of specialist knowledge and the forward-looking approach to sustainability that we take throughout our institution. Our researchers are working on a variety of cutting-edge themes, specialising particularly in the strength and integrity of wind turbines, their operation and maintenance, and developing ways to store their excess generation as hydrogen! Meanwhile, to help power this research, the University has entered a long-term deal to acquire wind power from Statkraft – a major European wind power supplier.

Secondly, the North-East is also a busy place for offshore wind power industrially, due both to the region’s existing maritime infrastructure and the vast wind farm being developed at nearby Dogger Bank in the North Sea. This wind farm, projected to be the largest in the world, has created a strong local offshore wind power supply chain, further attracting investment and collaboration with leading companies eager to work with local centres of expertise such as our University. These factors have led to a variety of exciting projects collaborating with industry including:

Professor Hu’s work to collaborate with colleagues and companies, including ORE Catapult, Hywind Scotland, and Equinor, to develop technologies (including using AI (Chen et al., 2021)) that will help maintain floating wind turbines at sea.
The University’s Hydrodynamics Laboratories in the Armstrong Building have been working with Balmoral to develop their HexDefence technology to avoid scouring issues at the base of offshore turbines (read more about scouring here (Zhang et al., 2023)).
Newcastle University’s Marine Zero PhD Centre has been supporting TechnipFMC on a project to develop dynamic cable monitoring technology to ensure that power gets back to land safely from the turbines out at sea.

Image: Turbines in the Black Forest above Freiburg. Credit: author.

Impact beyond the University

The varied partnerships and research projects underway at our University are creating opportunities and positive change within our organisation, but the work that’s being done here is having impacts far beyond the streets of our campus. Here, the University’s work contributes to positively impacting the emissions profile of the entire North East, proving the possibilities of decarbonising UK higher education, and providing vital knowledge that will contribute to the global green energy transition!

Enormous thanks to Professor Hu for the expert insight he provided for this article, you can see more of his work here. Finally, to stay fully up to date on sustainability news across our University, keep checking our regular blogs and contact us at the Sustainability Team to be added to our monthly newsletter!

References

Chen, P., Jia, C., Ng, C., and Hu, Z. (2021) ‘Application of SADA method on full-scale measurement data for dynamic responses prediction of Hywind floating wind turbines’, Ocean Engineering. Volume 239.

Chiras, D. (2010) Wind power basics: a green energy guide. New York: New Society Publishers.

Zhang, F., Chen, X., Yan, J., and Gao, X. (2023) ‘Countermeasures for local scour around offshore wind turbine monopile foundations: A review’, Applied Ocean Research. Volume 141.

PGRs explore how sustainability relates to research and professional development

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SustainaWHAT?! is a multi-disciplinary, cross-faculty and now cross-institutional collaborative project which encourages PGRs to explore the relationship between the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and their research, with a focus on their professional and personal development.

Building on the success of the 2021 event, in Spring 2023, PGRs from three institutions (Newcastle, Bournemouth and Cardiff) worked with academic leads to create SustainaWHAT?! 2023 – a series of four events which aimed to:

provide an opportunity to bring a sustainability lens (via the UNSDGs) to their prospective research with a view to informing the rationale and potential impact of their current and future research;
develop a range of competencies applicable to their contexts;
develop a network of PGRs (+PGTs and ECRs) interested in sustainability within and across the three institutions.

‘The Gathering’ (March) was an introductory workshop which saw over 60 students (predominantly PGRs, with some ECR, PGT and UG students) exploring the UNSDGs in relation to their own lives and research through a range of activities.

At Newcastle, this event gave 26 postgraduate students from HaSS, FMS, and SAgE faculties a vital opportunity to collaborate across schools and research interests. This hybrid, part in-person, part over zoom, event between Newcastle University, Bournemouth University, and Cardiff University provided a space for whole university thinking on how research can be related to the UNSDGs.

A powerful keynote speech was given by sustainable development expert and Insights North East Fellow Jecel Censoro, and discussion panel members Dr Elisa Lopez-Capel (SAgE), Dr Jenny Davidson (HaSS/ School X) and Mx Jan Deckers (FMS) answered attendee questions on sustainability.

This opportunity to work across schools was deem important by attendees, with one Newcastle PGR stating after the event, ‘The climate crisis requires interdisciplinary solutions and collaboration’. Of the 52 survey responses (from all three institutions), 95% of students reported that they are rarely or never given the opportunity to work across disciplines on sustainability projects, so we believe this Sustaina-WHAT?! work fills a vital niche.

SustainaWHAT?!’s work draws on UNESCO’s Learning Competencies for Education for Sustainable Development, including overarching ways of thinking (e.g. critical thinking), of practicing (e.g. collaboration), and of being (e.g. reflection), when planning events. As demonstrated by attendee responses below, our work continues to be successful in developing attendee ESD competencies which prepare and support student work not only in their research projects but also their ongoing professional development.

Critical Thinking: Through the individual and group activities during the March event the percentage of students who stated they were able to link the SDGs to their research increased from 43% before the event to 76% after the event.

Collaboration: Cooperation between students with disparate research interests during a group activity led attendees to make clearer links between each other’s work through the SDGs, with students commenting that ‘SDGs are interconnected’ and ‘I became more aware of SDGs in my domain of research’.

Reflection: After being invited to review their existing awareness of sustainability during the March event, 84% of students leaving the event reported they intended to explore sustainability as part of their future career, and 82% stating that they planned to adopt sustainable actions in their daily lives.

What did the students across the three institutions learn? When asked what their biggest take away from the March event was, the students commented:

‘More exposure on SDGs and their relation to communities, societies, and countries.’ (Bournemouth)
‘Connection and motivation.’ (Cardiff)
‘Develop potential connections between sustainable development and my research.’ (Newcastle)

In ‘The Challenge’ (April), three multi-disciplinary and cross-institutional PGR teams worked closely online and under time constraints over two events to explore and respond to country-based briefs, drawing on the UNSDGs. Each team (supported by a PGR facilitator) produced a proposal which was judged by a panel of academics from 3 institutions and an external NGO. In addition to prizes being awarded for 1^st-3^rd place, teams received individualised feedback on their proposal strengths and developmental suggestions. First prize was awarded for a proposal on “Improving Sustainability Through UK Manufacturing Law”, which was developed and presented by Callum Thompson (PGR in Engineering, Cardiff) and Tushar Somkumar (PGR in Law, Newcastle). Their work illustrated the value of creating opportunities for students to come together from different disciplines and institutions to work effectively to respond to global challenges.

Finally, there was an online event, ‘The Celebration’ (May) to announce ‘The Challenge’ winners, and to celebrate the achievements of all involved – the project team and student attendees.

The initial findings from the project’s evaluation work were also shared. Understanding the student attendee experience of the project and the impact on people’s learning and views on sustainability have been a core element of the work undertaken by a dedicated evaluation team. We’ve not only been interested in attendee experiences, but the team have been keen to observe and explore the cross-disciplinary and institutional project team (some self-reflection was required too) in terms of what working practices are needed for successful collaborative working across disciplines and institutions. The team are now working on finalising an evaluation report to share across our institution.

Moving forward – get involved! Colleagues from Bournemouth, Newcastle and Cardiff are scoping out a student-led sector-wide sustainability network which brings together Early Career Researchers (ECRs) and Postgraduate Research Students (PGRs) who are working on bringing sustainability into their research. The network seeks to connect its members across institutions and facilitate cross-disciplinary interactions and collaborations. To find out more/ get involved contact: rosalind.beaumont@newcastle.ac.uk.

Co-authored by Charlie Osborne (PGR, SNES) and Rosalind Beaumont (Senior Lecturer, School X)