Earth Day - April 22, 2023. This year's theme was 'invest in our planet'
Earth Day - April 22, 2023. This year's theme was 'invest in our planet'

Earth Day – Investing in our Planet

Intro

Saturday 22 April was Earth Day and the theme this year was ‘Investing in our Planet’. UWL is continually investing in increasing sustainability across our campus sites.

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UWL’s Pillars Restaurant were raising awareness of Earth Day on Thursday 20 and Friday 21 April when restaurant screens and menus highlighted the day and included a link for patrons to donate to Earth Day.

The London Geller College of Hospitality and Tourism is delighted to support Earth Day’s work for a more sustainable future by promoting it to our guests at Pillars Restaurant,”

says James Edmunds, Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean.

UWL has been given a 1st class award by the People & Planet student campaigning network in their University League 2022/2023 for environmental efforts including carbon reduction and food sustainability.

The team at UWL’s West London Food Innovation Centre are continually working on new formulations that incorporate ‘upcycled’ ingredients such as vegetable and fruit peels, coffee grinds, and eggshells into food products. 

One of UWL’s initiatives to become a net zero carbon institution by 2030 is to reduce food waste. The University has collaborated with its catering partner, Elior, to allow staff and students to purchase any surplus food at a discounted rate via the Too Good To Go app.

  • Explore the Pillars Earth Day lunch menu

    Starters

    • Marinated prawns with sorrel, cucumber, rye bread, lemon emulsion
    • Buffalo mozzarella with broad beans, mint dressing
    • English asparagus, crispy egg, red pepper houmous with rocket

    Main courses

    • Braised beef croquette, sage “salsa verde”, golden raisin puree, new potatoes and crispy pancetta
    • Cornish seafood pie with a parsley crumb topping
    • Pea and Quorn kofta, curry tomato gravy, coriander, coconut minted yogurt*

    Desserts

    • Passion fruit tart, lemon curd and hazelnut praline*
    • Irish cream chocolate mousse

    * Contains traces of nuts

A view of solar panels on top of the University of West London's Ealing site, surrounded by buildings and greenery.

At its main campus on St Mary’s Road, the University has added five extra electric vehicle charging points. Each charging station unit has a 7kW power rating and dual outlets, allowing two cars to charge at the same time, for a total charging capacity of ten vehicles at any given moment.

UWL has partnered with Perlego to provide students and staff with access to their online library of one million+ eBooks from leading higher education publishers, saving on printed paper. Staff and students can download up to 30 books to read offline on the mobile app.

In 2021, UWL secured £5.1m of government funding to implement large-scale renewable and clean energy technologies across its West London campus, including a solar photovoltaic thermal system, air source heat pump and ground source heat pump. Savings in the first year totalled 2,202,129 kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy and 437 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e).

In 2022, UWL secured a £285,000 government grant to install an air source heat pump, secondary glazing, building fabric insulation and a Building Energy Management System at Century House. The combined measures are expected to save 234,865 kWh of energy and 46 tCO2e of carbon each year.

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