Climate action staff and governance
Leadership roles
Polly Mackenzie is our Chief Social Purpose Officer, leading our response to the climate emergency.
Professor Roni Brown, our Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), is the Executive Board member with accountability for embedding climate, racial and social justice in the curriculum.
Professor Dilys Williams (Professor of Fashion Design for Sustainability and Director at the Centre for Sustainable Fashion) chairs the Social Purpose Advisory Group which advises on the University’s social purpose ambitions, including climate action.
Sustainability staff
All UAL staff are expected to embed climate action into their work. Our staff development related to climate action and sustainability, including our Carbon Literacy Training is delivered by a team of staff, recent graduates and current students. Teams and departments also have climate action and sustainability champions, such as our Library Services.
We also have a team of specialist staff working on net zero, sustainability and climate justice. Read our list of names, roles and responsibilities of staff and students who contribute to climate justice (PDF 233KB).
Find out how we're engaging staff and students through our Engagement Strategy (PDF 1.66MB).
Climate Advocates
Climate Advocates are students led by climate advocate leads in each College. They promote environmental awareness and sustainability in teaching. All Climate Advocates are paid through Arts Temps, our social enterprise recruitment agency.
Governance and reporting on climate action
The Net Zero Committee spearhead the university's ambitious transition towards carbon neutrality by 2040. The Committee is tasked with developing comprehensive strategies, setting interim targets, and overseeing the implementation of initiatives to achieve net zero. The Committee membership includes student representation from Arts SU, and has a position for a Trade Union representative. Read the full Terms of Reference and membership.
The Academic Discourse and Action Learning (ADAL) is constituted as a formal Committee in university governance. ADAL is delivering on changing the way we teach and leads our work on embedding Education for Sustainable Development. ADAL is committed to 3 key aims (PDF 79KB) by 2026. ADAL has staff and student representatives. To find out more about the ADAL Working Group’s commitments, email Nina Stevenson, Co-Chair of the working group n.stevenson@fashion.arts.ac.uk.
Our Executive Board receive annual reports on our Climate Action Plan progress and impact. We report our institutional KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to the Court of Governors, our governing body, annually. A Student Governor sits on our Court of Governors, a number of committees report to the Court of Governors including Estates, Finance and Audit committees as well as Academic Board. This means there is student representation in key decision-making on climate and environmental action at UAL.
Arts SU, our student union, are members of committees and working groups across many aspects of the University. We work with them on climate and environmental action through the Climate Emergency Network and by inviting a representative to become a member of the Social Purpose Advisory Group as well as through individual projects and campaigns, such as Green Roof Society.