The Dean of green

by Kim Creus

The new Dean of Design at the London College of Communication (LCC), Lawrence Zeegen, first started his career freelancing for companies such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth before making the move into teaching.

After recently being announced as the Chairman of the Sustainability Committee at LCC in addition to his role of Dean of Design, we spoke to him about his plans for a greener LCC and how students can get directly involved with sustainable projects around the campus.

Before you were made Chairman of the Sustainability Committee did you lead a sustainable life?

Much of my work as a freelance designer back in the ‘80s was with companies such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth. In 1986 I designed Greenpeace’s best selling T-shirt of all time.

I was also responsible for designing publicity material for the Bike to the Future event which was a bike ride that generated huge amounts of interest, especially back when events like this were considered quite radical. So, as I was involved with sustainability professionally, it is hard for it not to become something you believe in personally.

Are you going to continue with the current strategy set by the committee? 

The last time the committee met was a year ago so I want to look at an overview of the previous meeting and what they achieved, but I want to take a more pro-active approach to the committee.

The next meeting has been set for November 10, but I have arranged with the Student’s Union to push back the meeting a couple of weeks until the students’ representatives have been voted in so that they can be more involved. I feel that it’s hugely important that students have a voice in the Sustainability Committee. It is important that the committee is a working committee across the whole of UAL, not just LCC.

A large amount of our students are real experts in sustainability, so I want to ensure we have voices from right across the board. After the first meeting there is a small window before we have to meet with the UAL committee, so we have a chance to go over what was discussed and put forward our goals and ideas to the University.

Whose decision was it to take the step to make the College more sustainable?

I think as a university we have a responsibility and that responsibility has been recognised for some years, but there is a difference between the recognition of responsibility and delivering on that responsibility. The policies emanated from UAL itself and the different colleges have a part to play in helping to form that strategy. 

What efforts are being made to make LCC a greener college?

A small problem that we have is that the college was built in the ‘60s, back when the environment was not on people’s minds, so we have to work within those confines, but we also have to be realistic and set goals that are achievable. What I do believe we need to do, which so far has not been a part of any of our courses, is not only to concentrate on the environment within the university, but also understand the responsibilities we have as design educators who educate the future generation of designers.

For far too long sustainability has been talked about in a committee meeting but nothing has been done about embedding it into the curriculum, even something as simple as a 10 point credit which is a part of the course. There are not enough sustainable design companies around – I want students to feel that sustainability is their second nature so when they go out into the world as graduates, they bring with them their knowledge and responsibility of sustainability. 

We have had several societies that have tried to promote the awareness of sustainability but they no longer exist. How can students become more involved?

I will definitely get the student representatives more involved and I’m very clear that in the first committee meeting students will be a big part of reaching our sustainability goals, starting with action groups, discussion forums and events. Many of the organisations that began before, even if they were strong organisations, died down when the students left, so it is a matter of making sure the ‘baton’ is handed over and carried on consistently. I want to make this committee more pro-active when it comes to student involvement.

I’m extremely lucky to have a number of connections in the design world, which would enable me to present guest speakers to the committee, and this of course helps to make the group more active and interesting to students.