The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine has signed up to the Wellcome Trust’s Concordat for the Environmental Sustainability of Research and Innovation Practice.
The voluntary agreement represents the UK research and innovation sector’s shared ambition to continue delivering cutting-edge research, but in a more environmentally responsible and sustainable way. Signatories agree to work individually and collectively to ensure the future design and practice of UK research and innovation is environmentally sustainable.
As signatory, LSHTM aims to lead on environmental sustainability at all levels, and ensure our research is carried out in an environmentally sustainable way. This includes establishing new ways of working, making use of low-carbon or net-zero infrastructure, supporting more environmentally friendly purchasing and promoting a shift to greater use of reusable products.
Agreeing to the concordat supports LSHTM’s ambition to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2030.
Letter of commitment to the priorities of the Concordat for the Environmental Sustainability of Research and Innovation Practice
I, Liam Smeeth, LSHTM Director, on behalf of London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), confirm our commitment to the priority areas outlined in the Concordat for the Environmental Sustainability of Research and Innovation Practice.
LSHTM fully supports the priority areas outlined in the concordat. We will deliver against all the priorities in practice and recognise our responsibilities as a signatory, as set out in the concordat.
By signing this concordat we recognise the need to change how we conduct research and innovation as well as promote wider solutions. We also agree to take shared action now and into the future to reduce and eliminate our own environmental impacts and emissions and achieve the transition to sustainable practices.
LSHTM’s vision is to create a healthy, sustainable and equitable world for everyone through its leadership in global public health. The Concordat for the Environmental Sustainability of Research and Innovation Practice provides a clear framework for turning this ambition into action, helping to ensure that our research is conducted in a way that is environmentally responsible.
It also reflects a shared commitment across funders and partners, reinforcing and supporting LSHTM’s mission to deliver impactful research while reducing its environmental footprint.
Yours sincerely,
LSHTM Director
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
12/11/2024
2026 progress update
- Leadership and system change
- LSHTM’s Net Zero 2030 target is laid out in our Energy and Carbon Management Plan (ECMP).
- The commitment to sustainability in research and innovation is reinforced by the recent addition of the Research sub-group to LSHTM’s Sustainability Action Committee (SAC), who have a yearly workplan to further integrate sustainable practices. The Concordat is included within our Environmental Sustainability Policy.
- Sustainable infrastructure
- We work to minimise the environmental impact of LSHTM’s buildings through our ECMP, Estates Masterplan and Heat Decarbonisation plan.
- The Sustainability team alongside IT colleagues and other key stakeholders are developing policy and guidance to minimise the environmental impact of LSHTM’s digital infrastructure.
- All of LSHTM’s laboratories in London have achieved Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF) Silver certification and will be looking towards LEAF Gold over the next few years.
- Sustainable procurement
- Sustainability is a key element of LSHTM’s procurement policy, with sustainability considerations having a10-15% decision weighting when awarding major contracts. This ensures that emissions are considered throughout the life-cycle of The School’s estates.
- LSHTM’s Procurement and Sustainability teams regularly engage with engaging with groups like the London Universities Purchasing Consortium (LUPC) to look for ways to reduce emissions in our supply chain.
- Emissions from business and academic travel
- Since 2024, we have set up a Sustainable Air Travel Community of Practice for academics and professional services staff which recognizes the necessity of travel in delivering LSHTM’s global health mission, but seeks to identify ways to make more sustainable travel decisions, track emissions and reduce travel where possible. This community helps LSHTM work towards achieving our mission in the most sustainable way possible.
- We have encouraged sustainable thinking amongst our staff when booking work-related travel through our travel policy which clearly lays out LSHTM’s priorities for safe and sustainable travel. Furthermore, we have an ongoing “Thoughtful Travel” behaviour change campaign to encourage staff to incorporate environmental sustainability into their planning, booking and travel decisions. This approach has already seen encouraging progress through examples like The Plus Project, where thoughtful travel decisions resulted in a 24% reduction in emissions compared to business-as-usual modelling.
- Collaborations and partnerships
- LSHTM seeks to advocate for embedding sustainability in all arenas from its teaching offering and engagement in university sector forums to its involvement in local environmental initiatives:
- Through our MSc in Climate Change and Planetary Health, we aim to integrate sustainability thinking into our world class teaching. We were also one of the partner institutions at the 2026 London Student Sustainability Conference (LSSC). LSHTM staff engage in cross-institutional sector discussions and initiatives thanks to our membership to the Environmental Association of Universities and Colleges (EAUC).
- LSHTM coordinates the Bloomsbury Colleges ISO 14001 Environmental Management System certification alongside SOAS and Birkbeck universities
- We are working to improve our local environment in London through our founding signature to the Camden Breathing Better initiative.
- LSHTM seeks to advocate for embedding sustainability in all arenas from its teaching offering and engagement in university sector forums to its involvement in local environmental initiatives:
- Environmental impact and reporting data
- We regularly report our environmental impact:
- LSHTM’s headline environmental figures are reported within our annual financial statement. Further environmental data is reported annually to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).
- Through LSHTM’s spin-off Sustainable Climate Impact Fund (SCIF) initiative, we generate carbon offsets through targeted health and wellbeing-related projects based in low to middle-income communities. Every SCIF project undergoes independent validation and verification by Gold Standard. The Wellcome Trust, the authors of the Concordat, is among the organisations which partner with SCIF to offset emissions.
- We regularly report our environmental impact:
- Delivery and priorities for the year ahead
- Our commitment to the Concordat has been signed off by LSHTM’s director, Liam Smeeth, with ongoing updates approved by LSHTM’s Chief Operating Officer Andrew Dyer.
- The Concordat is captured within the Energy and Carbon Management Plan, the delivery of which is carried out by the Sustainability Action Committee (SAC). The SAC is chaired by the COO and reports to the Executive committee.
- Our priority actions for the year ahead are to better understand and mitigate the environmental impact of our digital infrastructure. This has been integrated into the workplan for the Estates and Labs sub-group of SAC.