RCE London is celebrating the 10th year since it was endorsed and admitted to the global RCE network (Regional Centre of Expertise for Education for Sustainable Development ) by the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS).

RCE London is marking this milestone year with a webinar series entitled ‘Sustainability and Beyond’ with the emphasis on an eclectic mix of themes around the Sustainable Development Goals.

Each webinar will be presented virtually by a member(s) of RCE London and there will be time for discussion & questions. The series Chair is Ros Wade, Emeritus Professor, LSBU and Chair of RCE London. The series is hosted by London South Bank University (LSBU) and have been curated in co-operation with the LSBU Sustainability Research Group. You will receive the joining instructions 3 days before each webinar takes place.

Biodiversity

Contributors will present examples of projects where citizen science and community involvement have been deployed in the protection and monitoring of biodiversity. This will include local projects and ones with national and international reach, some utilising digital solutions. A facilitated panel discussion will then consider the key issues in developing such approaches in future projects.

Speaker biographies

Neil Herrington, having previously worked as a science teacher and in middle leadership roles in secondary schools for fifteen years, recently retired from the School of Education and Communities at the University of East London. He taught on initial teacher education programmes, and supervised students at Masters and doctoral level. His research interests include sustainability education, place-based learning and learning in informal contexts. He was a member of Natural England’s Strategic Research Group on Learning in the Natural Environment and is a management board member of the London Regional Centre for Expertise in Education for Sustainable Development (part of the UNU network).

Dr Paula Vandergert is a director of the social enterprise EM|Path. Paula’s 30+ years’ experience continually explores what is required to embed environmental and social justice in practice, and what this means in terms of fostering new, sustainable ways of working. She looks at this from a range of broad adaptive governance-related themes, including meaningful inclusion of local people and nature; and the knowledge, skills and collaboration needs required for just urban transformations.

Paula has led action research projects internationally through her work with environment, development and human rights NGOs; at University of East London (UEL) she worked for 10 years with partners across Europe on research and innovation programmes promoting urban nature-based solutions; Paula managed CABE’s (the former UK government advisor on architecture, urban design and public space) Sustainable Cities programme; and she has also worked on DEFRA and NHS England-funded projects and with community groups in East London. She regularly publishes articles and chapters in academic and non-academic publications.