Submitted by Peter Lumb on Wed, 2019-10-30 09:42
General awareness of the challenges facing our environment continues to grow and research from earlier this year has shown that nationwide, 91% of students are fairly or very concerned about climate change. The Environment and Energy section are passionate about empowering any such students at the University of Cambridge to help make the changes they want to see at their institution.
As part of this aim, two training sessions were held for students at the start of the 2019/20 academic year: the first, “how to help your College win a Green Impact sustainability award” and the second, “how to get involved in sustainability projects at the University”.
Students from a wide variety of backgrounds and disciplines came together to share ideas on common concerns including what a sustainable University or College might look like, what would be needed for pro-environmental change to occur and what role students could play in this. Attendees were given guidance on how to reach out to their Colleges and peers, and Peter Lumb, Environmental Coordinator for the Environment and Energy section, shared examples of sustainability successes from across the University. Last year, 15 of the Colleges received Green Impact awards for their efforts, with four reaching the highest Platinum award; Churchill, Clare, Corpus Christi and Robinson. With the help of ambitious, driven students like those in our training sessions, we’re hoping to encourage large-scale change and see a record number of Colleges achieving sustainability awards next year! If you’re keen to get Green Impact up and running in your college, get in touch.
In a first for the University, “Green Challenge Project Assistant” training was also given to students who would prefer to take on a particular environmental project. Students were asked to contribute their ideas for small-scale sustainability projects, and to use their areas of interest and expertise to find ways to have a positive impact on the University’s sustainability. The Environment and Energy section are now working to link these students with an active Green Impact team or other relevant part of the University to get these projects off the ground. We’ll soon be sharing a list of the projects, as well as other available projects, so that other students can get involved too, so keep an eye out for this in future editions of Greenlines! In the meantime, there are many ways to get involved through the University’s Living Laboratory for Sustainability.
As always, we encourage you all to ask questions of your Colleges, departments and the University, if you can see areas for sustainability improvements then let someone know – often all it takes to get a great sustainability change in action is someone to ask the question! In the meantime, be sure to have a look around our resources page – we’ve got some great guidance including templates for giving new students inductions on sustainability issues, tips for engaging others, how to run environmental events and much, much more!
We’d like to end with a special thank you to all those who attended our training sessions, as Zoe who led the workshops says:
"It was great to have students share their enthusiasm, skills and ideas to make the University and Colleges more sustainable. We look forward to hearing what students, in collaboration with staff, achieve this year” – Zoe Arnold, Students Organising for Sustainability
Check out our student involvement page for many more ways you can get involved in sustainability at Cambridge!