School: School of Biological Sciences
Program: Undergraduate and Postgraduate programmes across Biology, Zoology, Plant Sciences, and the MSc Science Communication
Units: Biology (1st year), Ecology and Conservation (2nd year), Research Projects (BSc and MSci), Green Planet and Blue Planet
How is sustainability included in these units? How did you decide what was appropriate?
Sustainability within the School of Biological Sciences is deliberately embedded through the curriculum through various activities targeting both sustainability and biological science interests of the students. In the first year, students take part in a residential field trip early in the academic year that includes a large-scale beach clean. This activity combines ecological learning with direct environmental action and community building, helping students connect sustainability to their discipline. Sustainability is also reinforced throughout first year via recurring UN Sustainable Development Goals slides embedded within lectures. These reflective materials invite students to consider how biological concepts relate to global sustainability challenges, ensuring that sustainability is revisited rather than treated as a one-off topic. Later in the first year, students undertake a sustainable enterprise practical, where they work to develop creative solutions to environmental challenges such as plastic pollution, fast fashion, and food waste. This approach responds directly to student feedback calling for stronger enterprise and innovation skills, while also embedding sustainability thinking.
In the second year, sustainability is connected to ecological practice. The Ecology and Conservation unit incorporates the Climate Fresk workshop, biodiversity net gain fieldwork at a local rewilding site, and discussions around food production, conservation, and wellbeing. Decisions about sustainability content are guided by relevance and topics are included where they support learning outcomes.
Across later years, sustainability is deeply embedded within research-led teaching. Most undergraduate and master’s research projects align with sustainability themes such as climate change, food security, rewilding, drought resilience, and biodiversity. Optional units such as Green Planet and Blue Planet further explore environmental challenges facing terrestrial and aquatic systems. Even decisions about fieldwork logistics reflect sustainability values. Overseas trips that previously required flights have been replaced or redesigned to prioritise UK locations or rail-based travel, with these choices openly discussed with students as part of their learning.
If it uses any unusual/original pedagogy or assessment approaches to do this, what are these?
The school emphasizes active, participatory learning rather than passive instruction. The Climate Fresk is a standout example. MSc students first take part in the workshop, then train as facilitators and co-deliver the experience to second-year undergraduates. This creates a powerful peer-learning dynamic while building facilitation, communication, and enhancing climate knowledge among students. Those same students then take their learning beyond the University by delivering a junior Climate Fresk in local secondary schools. Similarly, the sustainable enterprise practical uses collaborative, challenge-based learning rather than traditional assessment. Students engage in creative ideas and solutions to real environmental problems, gaining transferable skills alongside sustainability literacy. Field-based learning is also central. Beach cleans, biodiversity surveys, and rewilding field trips allow students to engage physically with sustainability issues, reinforcing the idea that action and experience shape understanding more effectively than lectures alone.
What are the challenges you have faced in embedding sustainability practices within the curriculum?
Time is the most significant ongoing challenge. Developing meaningful sustainability initiatives requires staff capacity to design, refine, and integrate activities, while already navigating full teaching and administrative workloads. There is also the practical challenge of curriculum space, and therefore introducing new sustainability content often means difficult decisions about what existing material to remove.
What sustainability-relevant ‘takeaways’ would you expect students to gain?
An understanding of how biological sciences intersects with climate change and global sustainability needs. The ability to map scientific knowledge to global sustainability frameworks such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Practical experience of environmental action, from conservation fieldwork to climate education. An appreciation from students that individual and collective actions can drive meaningful change.
Student feedback also reflects the impact of this approach. In National Student Survey responses, 96% of students in the School of Biological Sciences agreed that their course encouraged them to think about environmental sustainability, compared with a university average of 56%. Overall, the School’s approach demonstrates that when sustainability is embedded, reinforced consistently, and taught through action, it becomes a shared value with students, preparing them not just to understand global challenges, but to help address them.
How can other schools learn from your school practices in embedding sustainability?
The School of Biological Sciences found that active and experiential approaches are the most effective and transferable on students. Initiatives such as field-based activities, the Climate Fresk, and collaborative enterprise projects show that sustainability is best embedded when students are actively involved rather than passively taught. The school hopes other departments can learn from this by identifying opportunities within their own subject areas to embed sustainability through action, collaboration, and shared staff-student ownership, rather than treating it as an additional topic to be delivered in isolation.
Key Contact Person for Sustainability: Andy Wakefield
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