Our university declared a climate emergency in 2020 and as part of delivering our strategy towards net-zero, we have a Climate Advocate scheme running as a pilot in our Faculty of Engineering & Design. Dr Sandhya Moise is the Department Climate Action Advocate in chemical engineering. Here she tells us some of what the Department has been up to so far.
Climate fresks
We had two climate fresks for all staff and doctoral students. There were some fantastic discussions around the science, emotions and collective action on climate change that we hope to build on going forward.
Workshops
We had two workshops that were co-delivered by Nicki Schantz and Dr MariCarmen Gil Ortega (Department of Education) – thank you both! The first one was for academic staff looking at mapping our curriculum using the SDGs. We had some great student input from CESA chair Jake Keen and CESG president Adya Hegde for this session.
The final workshop was with postdoctoral research staff and doctoral students looking at how they can embed SDG into their research more explicitly, we discussed the LEAF initiative and possible sustainability-related case studies based on their research that can be used for teaching content. We hope to have some exciting outputs from these discussions.
Student challenges
Adya Hegde, our CESG president, has organised our chemical engineering energy savings challenge with support from Department academics, technical team and the CAF team. The students are looking into energy usage and material wastage within 9 West labs and other buildings.
One last thought...
Before I sign off, here is a great TED talk that I found empowering: How to find joy in climate action by Dr Ayana Elizabeth Johnson– if you do listen to it, let me know your thoughts!