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Liz Thomas

Liz Thomas is the Communications Manager for the University’s Centre for Business Relationships, Accountability, Sustainability and Society (BRASS). With 12 months as an Eco Champion under her belt, Liz reflects on what has been achieved and what still needs to be done.

Liz Thomas, Eco Champion for the Centre for Business Relationships, Accountability, Sustainability and Society (BRASS)

Working in the sustainability research field for the past five years, I feel very passionately about the environmental agenda as a whole so I felt it was quite a natural step for me to take on this role.  

At BRASS we constantly communicate the sustainability agenda to many audiences in a variety of ways. Being an Eco Champion has allowed me to feed the initiatives taking place within the University back into BRASS, and it has proved a good forum for our sustainability focused research to feed back into the University.

The Eco Champion network scheme has been very much a welcome addition for the University. It has allowed various departments to come together and make a difference to the mind-set of staff and students, hopefully enabling a very positive future for all who work and study here.

It’s very satisfying to see decisions made within the Network already making a difference across the campus.  I believe the key to success will be the University working together more an institution, and the Eco Champion network is beginning to allow this to happen. We are building momentum all the time and we need to make sure this continues.

Cardiff is a large institution and change overnight will not be realistic.  It is however, encouraging to know that issues around sustainability are high on the University’s agenda.  We will need to work hard to communicate to staff and students that the University takes things like recycling, eco-choices and energy use very seriously, and that everyone has a role to play in supporting the agenda.  

I would love to see the University become one of the world-leading institutions in terms of its sustainability initiatives and choices.  For example, investing in motion sensors in every building, purchasing more locally grown, organic food for sale through the catering facilities, ordering recycled paper as standard, and chemical free paints used throughout the university. 

It will be a team effort to ensure all of us, staff and students alike, work towards the same goal, but the University is most certainly going in the right direction.