Engagement
Where Plants and People Meet
In June 2024, Queen Mary worked with the South London Botanical Institute to deliver Where Plants and People Meet, a programme promoting more sustainable relationships with plants and the natural environment.
Running from 11-29 June 2024, the programme included seven free public events for different audiences, including lectures, creative workshops, a reading group and a roundtable. Topics included plant biodiversity, forests, natural history and different ways of understanding and caring for plant life. More than 130 people attended, and the programme contributed to a 60% increase in visitors to the Institute and attracted five new volunteers.
Queen Mary also organised other free public-facing environmental events in 2024. Its Earth Day programme included talks on biodiversity and landscape recovery, while Climate Action Week included gardening and plant-focused activities that encouraged participants to engage more directly with urban nature.
Plants, Pollinators and People
Through Plants, Pollinators and People, Queen Mary worked with local organisations to help communities understand pollinators and use urban spaces in ways that support biodiversity.
Twelve undergraduate students were trained in entomology, science communication and habitat creation before delivering three community workshops on pollinators and urban biodiversity. Participants learned how to identify insects, understand the habitats pollinators need and create practical features such as bee hotels that can be incorporated into gardens and other urban spaces.
More than 60 people took part, including primary school pupils, St John Ambulance cadets, older adults and local residents.
The project was delivered with Pollinating London Together, The Charterhouse, Friends of St John’s Garden and the Clerkenwell Pollinator Path. Its impact continued after the workshops, with six students going on to support further community pollinator activities and one becoming a pollinator adviser for the Clerkenwell Pollinator Path.
Learning to grow food on campus
Queen Mary’s Mile End garden and allotments provide opportunities for students, staff and the wider community, including local schools, to learn about food growing, biodiversity and the sustainable management of land.
Participants can develop practical skills in preparing growing spaces, planting, maintaining crops and harvesting produce, supported by Queen Mary’s grounds team. The allotments are used to grow a range of fruit and vegetables and demonstrate how relatively small areas of urban land can be managed productively while supporting ecological value.
In 2024, Queen Mary Students’ Union continued developing the allotment as a shared space for students, staff and the wider community, strengthening its role as a practical setting for learning, participation and sustainable food growing.
Produce grown on campus has also been supplied in small quantities to The Curve, helping connect practical food cultivation with campus catering and demonstrating the relationship between land management, food production and consumption.
Caring for shared green spaces with local communities
Queen Mary works with local communities to care for and improve shared green spaces across East London.
At Whitechapel Library, the garden is maintained by volunteers from the local community, creating a shared space where residents and the University contribute directly to maintaining an urban ecosystem. In December 2024, this work was recognised with the Tower Hamlets in Bloom Best Newcomer (Group) Award, which celebrated both the garden and the contribution of community volunteers.
Queen Mary also works with the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and local partners to support biodiversity beyond its campus boundaries. Through the Tower Hamlets biodiversity network, the University links directly with local biodiversity policy and action, strengthening collaboration between Queen Mary, the Council and other organisations working to improve local ecosystems.
Working together for a wilder Walthamstow
Through BlueGreenE17 - Paving the Way for a Wilder Walthamstow, Queen Mary researchers work with residents, community groups and local organisations to understand how Walthamstow’s green and blue spaces can better support people and wildlife.
The project maps parks, waterways, street trees, gardens and other green and blue spaces, examines how habitats are connected, and gathers residents’ views through surveys and stakeholder engagement. This collaborative approach brings together community knowledge and environmental research to inform how local ecosystems can be better connected, protected and enhanced.
BioCapture: discovering biodiversity in Tower Hamlets
BioCapture is a student-led public education initiative that helps local communities discover and understand the wildlife, habitats and green spaces around Queen Mary and Tower Hamlets. The project aims to improve awareness of local biodiversity and encourage people to observe, identify and document wildlife through activities including citizen science.
Students create freely accessible resources that help communities explore local ecosystems, including a guide to biodiversity hotspots across Tower Hamlets, self-guided nature walks and information about the plants and animals found in parks, canals, woodlands and other urban habitats.
The project also provides a species guide covering local fauna including birds, mammals, fish, reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates, alongside flora such as trees, shrubs and wildflowers, helping people identify and learn more about wildlife in their local environment.
BioCapture continued its community-facing educational work during 2024 and received the Queen Mary Students’ Union Education for Sustainable Development Award that year. Through this work, students develop practical experience in biodiversity, science communication and public engagement while helping local communities build greater awareness of urban ecosystems and the importance of conserving them.