Teaching and research

Research

Across our academic schools, there are many teams that produce research for sustainability from the School of Biological and Environmental Sciences and the School of Civil Engineering and Built Environment to the Liverpool School of Art and Creative Industries, School of Education and Liverpool Business School.

Keep an eye out in LJMU news for updates on research outputs, as we regularly highlight research relating to sustainability. Some examples from this year include:

Living Labs

We promote real world learning for sustainability on campus through a number of facilities and spaces. Examples of which include:

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Wildlife gardens

Test houses

Outdoor learning zone

LiRICS

In 2024/25, we launched the Liverpool Research Institute for Climate and Sustainability (LiRICS). Our aim is to accelerate interdisciplinary research on sustainability and climate action that has impactful solutions for economic, legal, educational, environmental, and infrastructural systems.

Read more about LiRICS.

LEAF

We are using the Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF) to embed sustainable practices within our teaching and research labs. LEAF is a continuous improvement approach encouraging resource efficiency, waste reduction and improved recycling, as well as reduced water and energy consumption. We’re making great progress towards our targets of having 100% teaching labs and 50% research labs certified to bronze by the end of 2025/26.

Education

In our Climate and Sustainability Plan, we set out our aims to incorporate the UN Sustainable Development Goals and carbon awareness into our educational activities. This will enable our students to have a deep understanding of global challenges and to equip them with the skills and experience required to pursue careers that support sustainable development.

In 2025/26 we held a Teaching Insight Seminar on embedding ESD into all disciplines, providing guidance and an open forum for staff to discuss this interactively. We’ve also updated our Curriculum Design Guide to include the core principle for all curricula to align with the goals of ESD and this is currently being approved. With this in place, we will increase the number of programmes which integrate relevant ESD principles each year and monitor progress towards this in our Climate and Sustainability Plan Annual Report.

Curriculum mapping

Several of our schools have or are currently undertaking ESD curriculum mapping, including the Business School and the School of Education.

In 2025/26, we also have a summer intern looking at identifying and mapping sustainability teaching within the curriculum. We’ve also used interns in previous years to help support ESD projects, examples of which are below.

Dedicated Sustainability-focussed degree programmes

In 2020, we launched the UK’s first undergraduate degree on Climate Change and Sustainability. Today we host a number of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees related to Climate and Sustainability, Conservation, and many of our courses include sustainability specific modules or pathways. We’re also piloting a pioneering new module for those studying sports, media, film and event-related fields, introducing them to sustainable practices for live events.

If you’re interested in studying a degree related to sustainability, search our courses to find the programme for you.

Carbon Literacy Training

We provide Carbon Literacy Training to staff and students on campus. This is a full day of in-person training. Contact the Sustainability Team to find out when the next session is being held.