School Newsletter-June 2025
To all at Easter Bush,
Welcome to the latest newsletter from the Social Responsibility and Sustainability Committee.
This week we are sharing a few photos from our Easter Bush Campus. We are fortunate to have a lovely campus where lots of staff put a significant amount of effort in to look after it and work to help restore habitats on site. Brian Mather from our Digital Education Unit here at Easter Bush has taken a few pictures of wildlife spotted in the spring this year. Here we feature a newt on campus and a toad taken near the SuDs attenuation pond on campus near the Large Animal Research and Imaging Facility (LARIF):
Newt and Toad near LARIF
Please do feel free to share your own stories and photos to EBSustainability@ed.ac.uk. The committee are aware of the complex nature of the SuDs pond and sometimes times where the SuDS pond does not look as pretty or as healthy. As with lots on our campus, it’s a work in progress.
University Day to Make a Difference
We would like to highlight that all on campus can take advantage of the University’s Day to Make a Difference, use one day of volunteering a year to support a variety of initiatives and causes. Please talk about this further with your line manager. Our Committee member Sharon Boyd, shares some insights into how you could take advantage of the time, particularly where working schedules might not make this easy.
Where there’s a willow, there’s a day
While I appreciate the reminders about the University’s Day to Make a Difference, I have found it difficult to set aside a whole day with other commitments. The solution? Split the day in two.
I spent my first lovely half-day in the walled garden at Gilmerton House in December, helping to cut back the willow. This was followed by a weaving session, using the trimmings from around the garden to craft Yuletide wreaths to take home. Growing Matters at Gilmerton Walled Garden is part of the Social Farms and Gardens group, supporting the local community to create growing spaces to improve mental health.
(Here is Sharon working with the willow and embracing the winter weather! 🙂)
My second half-day was in January, attending the launch of the East Lothian Climate Action Network Biodiversity Collective. This included presentations from a range of groups discussing projects that were planned or underway. It culminated in a walk up to Twa Burns Wood, a community-led project that will be seeking volunteers later in the year to help with hedge-planting and -laying.
These were both half-days well spent, connecting with lovely people and planning for the future. At some point this spring, I realised I had another half-day in my pocket, as the annual leave calendar runs from January to December. I’m keeping it in reserve for another wild winter outing!
‘Wild Easter Bush’ signs
We are grateful for both Easter Bush and the Department for Social Responsibility and Sustainability for making this happen. Over the coming months, signs will go up across campus highlighting biodiversity on site and the efforts of those on campus. The signs will highlight the restoration work that is taking place to help improve habitats for a variety of wildlife on site or for wildlife passing through. We will update you again, ahead of launch day.
Planter
Have you seen these on campus?
The University’s Landscape Services Manager, Jonathan Long has provided us with these planters. This came from a discussion about improving the concrete area near equine and having more plants. The planters are in a slightly different area but we hope that they will provide a great addition to campus. The next stage is to plant and continually maintain these. Thanks to all those who raised the interest in these and are keen to plant and maintain. Leah Muirhead and Jess Wood are working on these plans and if you are interested in supporting this work, please email: EBSustainability@ed.ac.uk.
Community Champions
The Easter Bush Social Responsibility Committee are now in receipt of funding to support students develop sustainability initiatives within the community here at Easter Bush. More will be shared on this during the upcoming launch.
University of Edinburgh Changemaker Award
We are very happy to announce that the Easter Bush Social Responsibility and Sustainability Committee was awarded a Changemaker Award at the recent Changemaker Awards run by the Department of Social Responsibility and Sustainability. You can find further details about the range of award holders on the University Sustainability pages here
Sincere thanks to all those on the committee, past and present who have helped contribute and paved the way for this award. A big thank you to Glen Cousquer who was able to represent the committee at the ceremony.
University Events
24th of June: Teaching Climate Through Connection Conference: Further details: https://sustainability.ed.ac.uk/teaching-climate-through-connection-conference-2025-event
We hope you all have a good week ahead.
The Easter Bush Social Responsibility and Sustainability Committee
