The Department of Surgery is committed to reducing their environmental impact and helping the University of Cambridge achieve their sustainability targets. To help with this, we are involved in university initiatives such as Green Impact achieving Silver departmental award and Platinum-lab award for the year 2020-2021. Check out sustainability events run by the university here.

 

Meet the Team

 

Krishnaa Mahbubani.

A post-doc and Senior Study Manager for the Cambridge Biorepository for Translational Medicine (CBTM), where she looks at improving the reach of the gifts of transplantation. Outside of the lab, she’s been exploring growing all sorts of fruit and vegetables in an attempt to be more sustainable.

 

Rawiya Al Hosni.

A postdoc developing methods for repairing osteochondral defects of the knee joint. She has become a recent hoarder of house plants, bringing her love for the outdoors into her home and continues to seek every possible way of reducing the amount of waste she generates.

 

Serena MacMillan.

A 2^nd year PhD student who enjoys working on her allotment and is keen to reduce plastic waste and improve sustainability in the lab.

 

 

Tegwen Elliott.

A PhD student in transplant.  Outside of work she spends her time trying to keep her growing number of houseplants alive.

 

Our Initiatives

• Recycling used pens through the university counselling service raising money for Centre 33 who provide free counselling for young people around the Cambridge area.
• A dedicated batteries box to ensure batteries are disposed of through the correct waste stream and do not enter landfill sites.
• Removing plastic cups from the water cooler and asking everyone to use a mug or glass instead reducing our single use plastic.
• Recycling plastic packaging from labware, saving at least one bag of plastic each week going to incineration or landfill.
• Switch on to switching off. We use stickers to remind lab users to switch off equipment when not in use reducing our carbon footprint.
• We bulk buy and refill washing up liquid and hand wash to reduce our plastic waste.

 

Spotlight On Blog Posts

Let’s Talk Transport

From short car journey’s to flying across the world, we all know that travelling contributes to global warming. Our busy lifestyles mean we choose convenience without thinking about the consequences. Cars are a big part of that convenience for commuting, and even driving five minutes to the shop, we’re all guilty of it.

What damage is this causing to our environment? The combustion of fossil fuels used to power our engines releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. An increase in carbon dioxide molecules traps more heat within our atmosphere resulting in the Earth’s temperature rising. Previously, nature has been able to restore the balance by plants needing carbon dioxide for photosynthesis and the oceans absorbing vast quantities of the molecule. But we are releasing carbon dioxide at such an alarming rate that nature can no longer keep the balance. As of May 2020, our atmosphere has a carbon dioxide concentration of 416 parts per million, this is the highest on record.

Our Earth is heating up, ice is melting, our ecosystems are being destroyed. If we don’t act now, we may no longer have a home.

It’s not all doom and gloom. The UK has banned new fossil fuel cars by 2030, forcing car manufacturers to turn to electric vehicles. Companies such as Will’s Vegan Store offset all their carbon emissions by investing in renewable energy sources.

Here are some little things you can do to make a BIG difference

Other schemes to look out for

• • • Plant trees with the Treeapp – download on the android or apple app store.
    • Use ecosia as your search engine – every search contributes to planting trees.

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Single out single-use campaign

As July is rapidly approaching, environmentalists all over the world begin to prepare for Plastic Free July. A movement that started in Australia in 2011 with only 40 people, has now reached a global scale with 326 million people pledging to take part. This has got us thinking: how has a very useful material made a name for itself in the single-use world? Plastic is cheap, versatile, and flexible giving it endless applications and possibilities from packaging to healthcare. Despite its usefulness there are deep concerns with single-use plastic: it does not easily degrade and on degradation microplastics are left behind polluting our environment. It has been predicted that by 2050 there will be more plastic in our oceans than fish, unless we act now.

It’s not all doom and gloom. Some companies are responding to this crisis in a positive way. Mars Wrigley is working with Danimer Scientific to make plastic-free, compostable packaging for skittles as early as 2022. Saltwater Brewery invented edible six-pack rings to package their beer, providing food for sea life instead of plastic. Other companies are dedicated to removing plastic from our oceans and giving it a new life such as Adidas and 4ocean. If you know of any other companies doing their bit, get in touch, we’d love to hear from you.

Here are some little things you can do to make a BIG difference

 

Other schemes to look out for

• • • • • Take part in Plastic Free July – it’s just one month!
        • Recycle your single-use face masks at Wilkos – check participating stores before you travel
        • Learn what you can recycle at your kerbside from Cambridge City Council
        • Recycle difficult waste with TerraCycle, find out where your nearest drop off point is