Westminster celebrates Sustainability Fund’s successful 2024-25 projects

Thanks to support from Westminster alumnus and Founder of Photobox Graham Hobson, the University’s Sustainability Team and Centre for Education and Teaching Innovation (CETI) were able to continue the annual Sustainability Fund for a fourth year. Launched with the support of the Quintin Hogg Trust in 2021, the Sustainability Fund invites students and colleagues to develop a short-term project founded on the principles of sustainable development and equal partnership. To celebrate the initiatives made possible by the Fund, the University hosted an event for students to showcase their projects.

The 2024–25 Sustainability Fund projects responded to a variety of sustainability issues. Two projects titled Slowing Down Fast Fashion and the Eco-Brick Project directly responded to fashion waste and lack of biodiversity in the built environment. The Slowing Down Fast Fashion team consisted of MArch RIBA Part II students Anna Long and Tugce Yigit alongside Westminster Senior Lecturer in Architecture Maria Kramer. Together they investigated how to turn fabric waste into materials used to make furniture and buildings, such as for cladding, insulation and soft materials. Grouped by three distinctions – denim, natural fibres and synthetic fibres – they shredded clothes to mould into the shape of bricks with mixes of cement, glycerin, baking soda or epoxy resin.

After stress testing the bricks at the Fabrication Laboratory Westminster, the team successfully showed the emerging developments of how textile waste can be recycled instead of discarded, preserving its existing carbon footprint and giving the material a second life.

The Eco-Brick Project is now in its second year thanks to the Sustainability Fund and continues its partnership with heritage brickmakers Bulmer Brick and Tile to design and produce an ecological brick which will enhance ecologies by being planted with lichen and other native vegetation. These bricks could further be applied in the built urban environment to reduce air pollution and absorb nitrates. The team designed and fabricated three prototypes of bricks with crevices for plants and will test these with a station at Westminster's Marylebone campus.

The project team consisted of students and academics from the School of Architecture + Cities, including Dilay Bakici, Helena Westphalen Cavicchioli, Lottie Greenwood, Parampreet Kaur and Clevy Bento, as well as colleagues Dr Corinna Dean, Francois Girardin and Carine Berger.

Another two projects titled Communal Campuses and the Natural, Low Carbon Construction Materials Library sought to examine sustainability in the everyday lives of the Westminster community and to introduce more sustainable materials into the studies of Architecture + Cities students.

The Communal Campuses project started with the idea of creating a walking tour connecting Westminster’s Marylebone and Cavendish campuses, guided by sustainable development both within and outside the University. During their investigations, the team found that the main way community members connect with each other is through acts of consumption, specifically coffee. With this in mind, they chose to explore the extractive process of coffee production and became examined coffee’s historical, environmental, social and economic impact in the area. This research was then presented to the public through an interactive map and walking tour.

The interdisciplinary team was made up of students from across Westminster’s colleges and schools, including Ayush Shah, Zainab (Ayesha) Raheel, Dilay Bakici, Antoni Canyelles, Rachel Poddar, Muhammad Faisal (Saad) and Julia Pandolfi Da Silveira alongside colleagues Dr Amy MacLatchy and Shukri Sultan.

Communal Campuses map of sustainable coffee shops from Marylebone to Cavendish campuses

The Natural, Low Carbon Construction Materials Library project curated a trolley of sustainable construction materials for Architecture + Cities students to reference during their studies. Students on the project catalogued existing materials relevant to low-carbon and natural construction, identified and requested new materials from suppliers and workshopped new materials of their own through the exploration of reclaimed objects in collaboration with the Fabrication Lab and community garden charity Global Generation.

Architecture BA Honours students Sofiia Bernovska, Victoria Cangialosi, Ya You, Renata Tabanova, Ayub Abdulkadir and Ravisan Shanthakumar worked with colleagues Camilla Wilkinson and Dr William McLean on the Library project. While the Sustainability Fund kickstarted their work, the Library will continue to expand and become accessible to more Architecture + Cities students as a mobile trolley on campus.

The fifth and final 2024–25 Sustainability Fund project, titled the AI-Powered Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Analyzer, built an artificial intelligence (AI) tool to help aspiring entrepreneurs assess the sustainability and viability of their business idea. Identifying the lack of a trusted tool for market opportunities, coupled with sustainable development concepts as a barrier for aspiring students wishing to be the next sustainability-focused entrepreneurs, the Analyzer leverages real-time global data for identifying market opportunities and designing sustainable business solutions.

Students Alisa Menekse, Mohammad Izadi, and Elina Boshnjaku alongside Lecturer in Computer Science Dr Nalaka Dissanayake and Westminster Business School (WBS) colleagues Dr Roshan Panditharathna and Dr Enis Elezi worked together to design the innovative AI tool.

Project teams presented their inspiring conclusions to each other, the Sustainability Team, CETI, the University’s Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Peter Bonfield and donor Graham Hobson at the showcase event on 20 June in Portland Hall.

About this year’s Sustainability Fund projects Morgan Lirette, Sustainable Development Advisor at the University of Westminster, said: “One might think that being extracurricular and short-term the Sustainability Fund would only allow for a superficial exploration of sustainability issues, but that couldn't be further from the case. Now having completed its fourth year, the Sustainability Fund continues to attract exceptional students and colleagues as well as produce exceptional projects and collaborations. We couldn't be prouder of this year's teams - they tackled some huge questions in sustainable development comprehensively, innovatively and in clear collaboration. Well done again to our students and colleagues and thank you for your dedication to sustainability.”

The Sustainability Fund directly contributes to several of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) including 4: Quality Education, 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure and 17: Partnerships for the Goals. Since 2019, the University of Westminster has used the SDGs holistically to frame strategic decisions to help students and colleagues fulfil their potential and contribute to a more sustainable, equitable and healthier society.

Learn more about the Sustainability Fund at the University of Westminster.

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