About the project

LiveGreen : Keele

During Christmas 2010 four undergraduate BSc Environment and Sustainability students, James, Carl, Scott and Jack, had a great idea. They realised that there would be immense value for themselves if they were to immerse not only their heads but also their hands in the issues their degree course covers. They decided to ask their course tutors for some support in making this happen and were blown away by a really enthusiastic response!

A photo showing everyone who has helped the livegreen project The initiative was seen not only as a chance to expose students on the Environment and Sustainability course to the practical implementation of sustainability ideas, but also an opportunity to generate a forum for discussing and practicing sustainable living, inspiring and educating other Keele students about sustainable lifestyle choices, and also linking the initiative more generally to the idea of 'living, learning communities', with potential application to students across a wide range of courses and faculties. Thus this project would be a pilot, with potentially many more sustainable student houses to follow in the coming years...

The project, now in its fifth year, was opened up to all students at Keele, not only those studying Environment & Sustainability and has grown from strength to strength over the four years, with many different and exciting projects going on at any one time.

Keele University have given generous support, allowing the group to rent a bungalow with a large garden. Since then, the Keele 'Key Fund', sponsored by ex-Keele students (Keele Alumni) have offered assisted with a generous grant for purchasing garden tools, a polytunnel and other assets to make the project work. The project is also funded by the Higher Education Academy Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences subject centre.