London Climate Action Week (LCAW) is one of Europe's biggest annual climate-focused events, bringing together thousands of leaders, researchers, policy-makers, scientists and experts from across the climate and sustainability sectors, with hundreds of events taking part across the city over the course of ten days in late June.
As part of this year’s LCAW, throughout June our local sustainability programme South Bank & Waterloo Sustains Us, which is funded by local partners including South Bank BID, co-hosted several events.
Highlights of Sustains Us LCAW 2026 activities included:
Celebrating Clean Air Day at Emma Cons Garden
On Thursday 18 June, Sustains Us joined forces with local environmental organisations and urban cycling groups to celebrate Clean Air Day with a garden party at Emma Cons Garden (opposite the Old Vic).
This was the first event of the weekly Reimagining Emma Cons Gardens summer series – a community-led programme of live performances, creative workshops and activities happening every Thursday until 17 September.
Recently, Sustains Us has been working with Design Science to better understand the neighbourhood’s air quality and how to improve it, and the event marked the launch of South Bank and Waterloo’s new air quality monitors.
You can now track daily air quality data in real-time from these new monitors on the Sustains Us website, where there is also a wealth of air quality advice for businesses.
Co-hosting the launch of the Cool Off in Culture campaign
The nationwide ‘Cool Off in Culture’ campaign launched at the BFI on Fri 26 June, signposting the public to cultural venues as places of refuge during extreme heatwaves.
As part of the campaign, the BFI and Sustains Us commissioned Shade the UK to create a practical Heat Adaptation Guide for Culture Venues.
You can access the cultural venues heat adaptation guide here and the operational measures checklist here, and check out Shade the UK’s Overheating Adaptation Guide for Offices here.
Demystifying heat pumps at the Infinite Shed
Sustains Us teamed up with London South Bank University (LSBU) to host a visit to LSBU’s innovative new ‘Infinite Shed’ on Thu 25 June to learn more about how these low-carbon technologies work in practice. Find out more about the Infinite Shed here.
Follow more of the work of South Bank & Waterloo Sustains Us across the neighbourhood at sbwsustainsus.org
