Nature Positive Universities 2026 Webinars
Webinar: Managing campus green spaces for biodiversity
Delivered in French 🇫🇷 with live interpretation into English 🇬🇧 and Spanish 🇪🇸
Thursday 11th June
7am PDT |10am EDT | 3pm BST | 5pm EEST | 5pm EAT | 7:30pm IST
In this 1-hour webinar, Julien-Pierre Lacombe, Director of the Sustainable Development Office, École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS), Canada and Marie-Claude Carignan, Biodiversity Officer, Université McGill, Canada will be sharing how their institutions are managing campus green spaces for biodiversity.
Please note: this webinar was recorded and is available to watch on our YouTube channel. This webinar was delivered in French with live simultaneous translation into English and Spanish.
Webinar: Nature Positive Universities verification service
Delivered in English 🇬🇧 with live interpretation into French 🇫🇷 and Spanish 🇪🇸
Wednesday 3rd June
10am BST | 12pm EEST | 12pm EAT | 2.30pm IST | 5pm CST | 6pm JST | 7pm AEST
In this 1-hour webinar, we will be exploring the process and benefits of our newly launched verification service. We will also be hearing from two institutions in the NPU network, the University of Oxford and the University of Jyväskylä, who are looking to apply for verification and will be sharing where their institutions is on its nature-positive journey and why they have decided to apply for verification. We will also hear from our partners at United Nations Environment Programme sharing their perspective on institutional commitments for nature.
Our speakers for this workshop are:
- Tom Heel, Associate Director of Sustainability, University of Oxford, UK
- Ulla Helimo, Sustainability and Responsibility Specialist, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
- Sam Barratt, Chief of Youth, Education and Advocacy, United Nations Environment Programme
Please note: This webinar was delivered in English with live simultaneous translation into French and Spanish. The French and Spanish audio is now available to listen to on the YouTube recording. To access the French or Spanish audio, click the ‘settings’ option on the YouTube video, then 'audio track' and then select the language you would like.
Nature Positive Universities 2024 Webinar Series
The 2024 Nature Positive Universities (NPU) webinar series was a series of six webinars for members of the NPU network to learn more about the work member universities have been undertaking in several key areas of biodiversity action, and take inspiration from their work. The series covers action for biodiversity on our campuses, and in our supply chains, and focus on approaches in cities, food on campus, and how to set up biodiversity strategies. We will announce any future webinars here.
Webinar 1: Biodiversity Action Plans & Baselines
In this webinar, we will be learning from two NPU member universities about how they set up their own biodiversity action plans and have gone about recording biodiversity baselines. Our speakers are Professor Jane Stout, Vice President for Biodiversity and Climate Action at Trinity College Dublin, and Rachael Miller, Sustainability Officer at The University of Melbourne. This webinar will give us the opportunity to take inspiration from what Trinity College and Melbourne have been doing, learn lessons about the process of setting up a strategy and action plan, and see how universities can undertake a biodiversity baseline survey.
Webinar 2: Recording and monitoring campus biodiversity
In this webinar, we will be learning from two NPU member institutions about how to record and monitor biodiversity on a campus setting, using both citizen science and ecological techniques. Our speakers are Dr Thalita S. Dalbelo, Urban Architect and UNICAMP Sustainability Coordinator, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Brazil and Katherine Collin, Sustainability Major Coordinator and Project Lead, Campus Biodiversity Network, Vanier College, Canada.
Webinar 3: Actions for biodiversity on campus
In this webinar, we will be learning from two NPU member institutions about actions for biodiversity on campus. Our speakers are Professor Shyam Sunder Jyani, Associate Professor of Sociology, Government Dungar College, Bikaner, India who will share his Familial Forestry approach for habitat restoration pioneered at his institution and across Rajasthan, and Prof. Dr. Mark van Kleunen, Professor of Ecology, University of Konstanz, Germany who will share a range of biodiversity uplift projects such as the botanical garden, green roofs, native planting and habitat creation for birds, bats and insects at University of Konstanz.
Webinar 4: Procurement and suppliers
In this webinar, we will be learning from two NPU member institutions about procurement and suppliers. Our speakers are Sami El Geneidy, Doctoral Researcher and Biodiversity Footprint Team Lead, University of Jyväskylä, Finland who will present the work done at the University of Jyväskylä regarding the biodiversity footprint of their procurement activities and, Stéphanie H. Leclerc, Program Manager, Sustainable Procurement, McGill University, Canada who will talk about their supplier code of conduct and how McGill University and other regional universities and colleges have been working with suppliers to address their environmental impacts.
Webinar 5: University food consumption
In this webinar, we will be learning from two NPU member institutions about university food consumption. Our speakers are Lizzie Biggs, Researcher at The Biodiversity Consultancy who worked on research quantifying the biodiversity impacts of food at Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford. Our second speaker is Bart Ashton, Domestic Bursar, Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford, UK who will discuss how from a management side institutions can use research to plan interventions and reduce the impacts of their catering. Our final speaker is Professor Poonam Kumria, Principal at Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi, who will discuss sustainable food research and interventions across University of Delhi.
Webinar 6: Nature Positive Universities Q&A Forum
Coinciding with the European Congress on Conservation Biology (ECCB) in Bologna, the final webinar in our series will be a Q&A forum, with chance to ask questions to a panel of speakers from different parts of the NPU network. Join to explore how universities can be leaders for nature! We’ll be answering questions like what does nature positive mean? How can making a pledge contribute towards a global nature positive goal? Where should my university start mitigating their biodiversity impacts? How can I get involved in the Nature Positive Universities network?
YouTube Channel
All of the recordings from the NPU Webinar Series can be found as a playlist on our YouTube Channel, alongside other video resources such as an introductory video about NPU and our Biodiversity Baselines Film (available in English and Spanish).
Resources
Alongside our webinars, we are developing tools and guidance for each stage of the Nature Positive Pledge. We will provide links to all reports and documentation here as we develop them. We encourage you to make the Pledge and join the other Founding universities who are starting this journey. We would love to hear how you have approached each aspect of the Pledge so we can share it with our wider network and inspire change.
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