Heriot-Watt University

Earth Day 2017

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Earthrise

Earth Day will be celebrated worldwide on 22 April 2017. The Earth Day Network's mission is to diversify, educate and activate the environmental movement worldwide and know that the impact of research will educate and change the way we live, for a better world.

This year's theme is Environment & Climate Literacy, with an emphasis on education being the foundation for progress.  Over 200 million people in 141 countries are raising environmental issues onto the world stage.

Environment and climate advocacy at Heriot-Watt

Heriot-Watt boasts inspiring global research and teaching in multiple areas, here are just a few of our outstanding themes.

Energy, Renewables and Sustainable Development

The world-renowned International Centre for Island Technology spearheads internationally recognised research focused on the wave and tidal marine renewable energy sector and sustainable development.

Centre for Marine Biodiversity and Biotechnology

Research by the Centre for Marine Biodiversity and Biotechnology (CMBB) has evolved to examine how marine life may adapt to the rapidly changing ocean environment. CMBB expertise regularly informs conservation policy development in Scotland and further afield, through the creation of Marine Protected Areas. They also give further specialist advice to international bodies including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Systems, Sustainability and Society

The success of systems level solutions developed by the Institute for Infrastructure and Environment (IIE) include the delivery of sustainable urban environments, developing policy for carbon accounting in the energy and water industries and the impact of automation on the lives of vulnerable sections of society such as the elderly.

Eco-housing

Heriot-Watt's Ecohouse team are developing approaches to house design that will create homes that run well with low energy bills, produce minimal life cycle and carbon emissions and are pleasing places to inhabit. The Ecohouse team uses world-class research facilities with the ambition to create buildings that tread lightly on the earth.

Urban Design and Planning

The recently established Urban Institute promotes interdisciplinary approaches to sustainable planning; exploring social inclusion and competitiveness in the governance of spatial planning and the design and management of public space.