Skip to navigation | Skip to main content | Skip to footer
Menu
Search the Staffnet siteSearch StaffNet

School of Environment, Education and Development

A message from Nicola Banks, SEED Director of Social Responsibility

25 Sep 2025

As autumn arrives, I’m pleased to welcome you to the start of a new academic year with some words on Social Responsibility: the many ways that our staff and students are Making a Difference across our teaching, research and everyday life in our School.

Headshot of Nicola Banks

We have some exciting new SR teaching investments to celebrate as we move into the new year. This term sees the launch of our first cross-SEED module, Fundamentals of Sustainability, with 75 students already enrolled! Please do let second-year undergraduate students on all degree courses know that they can enrol for this module - a short video message from the course leader Dr Heather Alberro about the module which can be shared with students is here and can be seen below. A huge thanks and congratulations to Dr Alberro and the Sustainability@SEED steering group for their work. More details, including on how to get involved in the steering group, can be found here. 

This month we appoint our first Associate Director for Social Responsibility, focusing on student engagement. This new role will strengthen and embed our SEED Change-makers programme, a student-led space for collaboration and making a difference across our five departments.  Please take some time to learn about the programme, encourage students to get involved, and get in touch if you’d like to be involved in supporting student activities – our two student leads are organising a Change-making Festival on Wed 19th November if you’d like to learn more! 

We hope to be circulating details of our Social Responsibility Funding for SEED staff and PGT students soon. Please bear with us as we wait to see whether the available budget will be influenced by our expected student numbers. We hope to continue supporting the thoughtful and creative ways that you bring SR to life through your partnerships, communities, our students, and our School. 

SEED’s One World Together won outstanding contribution to social and environmental impact through enterprise in 2025’s Making a Difference Awards. Backed by Brian Eno,  they’re building a giving movement that channels microdonations at scale to their (and SEED’s longstanding) community partners. Learn more and join The New 1% here. 

Finally, a reminder that the SEED StaffNet hosts our Sustainable Travel Policy (STAR) and details for booking the SEED e-vehicle for work-related trips. 

Wishing you all a successful 2025/26!