School of Psychology

School Sustainability Information

Composting kitchen waste

In the Psychology staff kitchen, we have a compost caddy to divert biodegradable kitchen waste (e.g. tea bags, coffee grounds, vegetable & fruit peelings) from landfill or incineration. An aerobic digester on campus processes this food waste to produce energy and compost used in the grounds around the campus.

Plant-based diets and sustainable catering

It is increasingly recognised that meat-based diets have a substantial environmental impact, and that a global shift to flexitarian and plant-based diets is needed.

See our sustainable catering policy for what we are doing to tackle this issue in Psychology: our policy mandates that we will provide exclusively plant-based (vegetarian & vegan) food at internal School events, with a minimum of 30% being vegan.

For further information on why a plant-based diet is important, see the green tip post on the School blog, in which we surveyed the “appetite” in the School for a switch to 100% plant-based catering, and announced the new policy.

In case your department is thinking of making such a switch, you might find our survey questions and data useful.

Printing

We encourage members of the School to avoid printing where possible, and when it is necessary, to print double-sided, and to reduce ink usage. In autumn 2019, we decided to no longer print posters to advertise the School Colloquia talks, and send reminders via email instead.

Reducing, reusing and recycling in the School of Psychology

Before recycling, we should first reduce our consumption, then reuse any materials, before we recycle it at the end of any useful life (‘reduce, reuse, recycle’).

In Psychology, we advertise any objects that could be re-used by others on campus via the WARP-IT scheme. For commonly recycled items (e.g. paper, cardboard, plastic bottles, aluminium cans, glass) there are bins stationed throughout the School corridors in Pevensey 1 and 2. For other items, this SEF webpage lists your options for recycling on campus, and this map shows the locations of points to recycle specialist items such as crisp packets, tetrapaks, and batteries. 

A student-run recycling society, ‘Leave No Trace’, can collect hard-to-recycle items such as contact lens packaging and pens.

For further information, see our blog post on recycling.

Running a climate-aware research team

Faculty Green Officer Charlotte Rae has a section on her lab webpage outlining how she is minimising the climate impact of her research activities.

Single-use items

We encourage members of the School to avoid single-use catering items, such as disposable coffee cups, take-away cartons, and cutlery, and instead bring their own reusable coffee mug, tupperware lunchbox, and cutlery to Sussex Food outlets and catered School events.

Travel to the School of Psychology

Coming soon