School: School of Medicine
Program: MBChB Medicine (five-year undergraduate medical programme)
Units: Pre-clinical teaching (Years 1-2), Clinical teaching (Years 3-5), Student Choice Projects, Year 5 electives
How is sustainability included in these units? How did you decide what was appropriate?
Sustainability is integrated through a combination of lectures, targeted teaching resources, and applied learning opportunities. In the pre-clinical years, students receive teaching on planetary health topics such as air pollution, extreme heat, and their impacts on cardiovascular, respiratory, and reproductive health. Sustainability is also embedded into existing lectures, for example through discussions on over-prescribing and de-prescribing, highlighting both health and environmental co-benefits.
All first-year medical students undertake Carbon Literacy training, helping them understand emissions, healthcare’s carbon footprint, and practical actions they can take as individuals and future clinicians. In later years, sustainability is embedded into clinical teaching, including a bespoke video resource that trains students to discuss switching from high-carbon metered-dose inhalers to lower-carbon dry-powder alternatives during patient consultations.
Beyond the core curriculum, students can choose sustainability-focused Student Choice Projects on topics such as sustainable healthcare practices, migrant health, sustainable diets, and community education on planetary health. A Sustainable Elective Prize further encourages low-carbon or sustainability-focused clinical electives in Year 5.
Decisions about sustainability content are guided by curriculum constraints, professional requirements set by the General Medical Council, and relevance to clinical practice. Rather than adding large new blocks of teaching, sustainability content is integrated where it aligns with existing learning outcomes. The school also uses the Planetary Health Report Card framework to evaluate progress annually across curriculum, research, community engagement, student projects, and campus sustainability. This structured approach helps prioritise areas for development and measure impact over time.
If it uses any unusual/original pedagogy or assessment approaches to do this, what are these?
Several approaches move beyond traditional lecture-based teaching. Carbon Literacy training includes interactive elements such as group discussions and individual or collective pledges, helping students connect global challenges to personal and professional action. The use of applied teaching tools such as consultation-focused video resources supports real-world clinical communication skills. Student choice projects and community-based initiatives further allow students to engage with sustainability through experiential, problem-based learning.
What are the challenges you have faced in embedding sustainability practices within the curriculum?
Embedding sustainability within the medical curriculum is challenging due to the lack of available space in an already densely packed programme. In medicine, introducing new content typically requires removing existing material, which is particularly complex given strict regulatory requirements set by the General Medical Council. This makes curriculum change a time-intensive process.
Progress is also constrained by limited staff capacity and competing academic priorities, especially when sustainability work is undertaken alongside unpaid or voluntary roles. Without dedicated, funded time, sustainability initiatives can struggle to be prioritised or sustained over the long term.
What sustainability-relevant ‘takeaways’ would you expect students to gain?
Students are expected to understand the links between planetary health and human health, recognise how climate change and environmental degradation disproportionately affect vulnerable populations, and feel empowered to act within their future clinical roles. Graduates gain practical skills in sustainable clinical decision-making and an appreciation of their responsibility as doctors to contribute to a more sustainable and equitable healthcare system.
How can other schools learn from your school practices in embedding sustainability?
A key lesson for other schools is the importance of allocating paid roles and funded time to sustainability work. Employing staff and students in dedicated sustainability positions lends credibility to initiatives, increases engagement, and enables consistent progress. Integrating sustainability into existing teaching rather than treating it as an additional topic helps embed it more effectively within curricula. The use of structured evaluation tools, such as the Planetary Health Report Card, provides a clear framework for measuring impact and guiding continuous improvement. Finally, offering practical, action-focused learning opportunities like carbon literacy training empowers students to translate sustainability knowledge into meaningful individual and collective action.
Key Contact Person for Sustainability: Lakshmi Aggarwal
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