Green Festival 2025

Time: All week
Location: Online
Description: Get involved with Green Festival from anywhere in the world by sharing your favourite nature photos with us. Send in your best nature and wildlife snaps this week to studentcomms@reading.ac.uk or DM on Instagram. At the end of the week, we’ll be sharing a selection of our favourites to celebrate Green Festival!

Time: 11 - 30 November
Location: Online
Attendance: Find out more and enter the competition from the 11th
Description: Our Dining Services team is calling on culinary colleagues to enter its Repurposing Food competition by submitting a recipe that makes use of food that is typically wasted! The winning colleague will receive a meal for four at Park Eat, Park House or The Dairy. 

Time: All week
Location: The Dairy & Park House
Description: For Green Festival there will be a discount on the Show Your Stripes lager, a product that mirrors the university's values of sustainability, community, and innovation!

Time: 10:30
Location: Little Learners Nursery
Description: The children will be taking part in a nature trail, they will explore the nearby lake and campus, collecting natural items as well as clearing up any litter they may find along the way.

Time: 10:30 - 13:30
Location: Library Foyer
Description: Young Climate Warriors are running an interactive climate pledge activity centred around everyone doing their bit to help the planet!

Time: 12:00 - 13:00
Location: Chancellor's G07
Description: Join 'green' professionals who will share how they make a difference through their work. It's an excellent opportunity to understand what their work involves, routes into the profession and receive advice tailored to soon-to-be-graduates and students applying for internships and placements. 

Time: 12:00 - 13:30
Location: Outside Up! coffee shop
Attendance: Book free tickets here
Description: Join us in cleaning up the community! We’ll be heading off campus to the key student areas litter picking and tidying the streets; all the equipment is provided, just bring yourselves.

Time: 13:30 - 15:30
Location: Library Foyer
Description: This stall is lead by PhD student Hasnain Younis, exploring an emerging concept and experience known as Climate Change Anxiety and the emotions that accompany it.

Time: 16:00 - 18:00
Location: Lounge Room 2, Reading Students Union
Attendance: Book free tickets here
Description: Green Week takeover - have a go at upcycling your clothes, or make a fabric patch!

Time: 10:30
Location: Little Learners Nursery
Description: The children will be looking into how they have an impact on the world. They will be learning about how we need to look after the planet to look after all the animals and plants that we share the Earth with.

Time: 11:00 - 11:45
Location: Online via MS Teams
Attendance: Sign up here
Description: Join us to hear from waste specialist Paul Taylor who will provide an update on the latest waste initiatives and stats, provide more detail about the new food waste collections roll out and what this means, and will open the floor to your questions.

Time: 11:00 - 14:00
Location: Library foyer
Description: Find out how we can help you save money through our new energy advice service set up to help students save energy. Talk to us to learn about the ways we can support you.

Time: 11:00 - 12:00 UK time
Location: Online via MS Teams
Find out more: Find out more & sign up
Description: Our Online Cafes are a relaxed space where you can take a break, meet other students, and talk all things environmental. We already have lots of students signed-up to take part from Reading, our Reading-NUIST Academy in Nanjing China, from our campus in Malaysia, and even students from Peru and Guyana! The online café allows you to join from any location as long as you have a device with internet, mic, and some earphones.

Time: 12:00 - 14:00
Location: Palmer Quad
Description: Whether you’re a keen cyclist or just thinking about getting started, come along and make the most of free bike checks, repairs and security marking, great deals on recycled bikes and bike locks, and expert advice!

Time: 12:00 - 14:00 (11:30 - 12:00 quiet time)
Location: 3Sixty, Reading Students Union
Find out more: Employers offering sustainability roles or focus
Description: This is your chance to meet employers in the Built Environment sector, discover top graduate opportunities, work placements and internships in the Built Environment sector!

Time: 12:00 - 16:00
Location: Palmer Quad Foyer
Description: Join Envision Racing for an inspiring afternoon on climate innovation and careers in green technology. Meet the Envision Racing Formula E team, see a real Formula E race car up close, try to set the fastest lap in the Envision Racing play seat simulator and win prizes for participating in quizzes and games throughout the afternoon!

Time: 13:00 - 15:00
Location: Palmer G10 Lecture Hall
Attendance: Book free tickets here
Description: Join us for a fireside chat with Professor Ed Hawkins and Sylvain Filippi, Team Principal of Envision Racing. The two experts meet to discuss their career journeys and their joint mission of engaging as many people as possible on climate action!

Time: 13:00 - 14:30
Location: Outside Up! coffee shop
Attendance: Book free tickets here
Description: Join us in cleaning up the community! We’ll be heading off campus to the key student areas litter picking and tidying the streets; all the equipment is provided, just bring yourselves.

Time: 14:00
Location: Little Learners Nursery
Description: Using what they collected on Tuesday the children will then be crafting and making banners ready for their march around campus tomorrow.

Time: 10:30
Location: Little Learners Nursery
Description: The children will be using their banners and wearing Green to raise awareness for looking after the planet!

Time: 10:00 - 10:45
Location: Online via MS Teams
Attendance: Sign up here
Description: Join us to learn all about the University’s Nature Park from Kirsty Shakespeare, the project lead, with an opportunity to put your questions to Kirsty at the end of the session.

Time: 10:00 - 14:00
Location: Library Foyer
Description: Visit our Fairtrade Awareness Stall and learn how your everyday choices can empower communities and protect the planet. Discover the stories behind Fairtrade products, what we do support Fairtrade at University of Reading and find out how you can support ethical trade through simple actions.

Time: 12:30 - 13:30
Location: Agriculture 1L06 and via MS Teams
Attendance: Book free tickets here
Description: This session will feature reflections from PhD students involved in climate action, a showcase of the COP Climate Action Studio, and a live link to COP30 in Brazil where our university delegate, Professor Emmanuel Essah, Head of the School of the Built Environment, will share updates directly from the negotiations.

Time: 14:00 - 17:30
Location: 208 Brixton Seminar Room, Henley Business School, and via MS Teams here 
Description: An afternoon of discussion with academics from Classics and History in Reading and elsewhere, exploring the relationship between empire and the natural environment from the ancient world to the nineteenth century, and examining both material culture and social history.

Time: 18:00 - 20:00
Location: Van Emden Lecture Theatre, Edith Morley Building
Attendance: Find out more and book free tickets here
Description: The Department of History’s annual public lecture, delivered by Prof. Sujit Sivasundaram, Professor of World History at the University of Cambridge and author of Waves Across the South: A New History of Revolution and Empire.