Today we declare a Climate Emergency
Sustainability Week has concluded with amazing response and engagement from our students! We instigated discussion regarding sustainability on campus and highlighted important issues that affect us and the world around us. The activities we hosted ranged from re-usable period pad workshops, talks on slow fashion and a sustainability fair inviting multiple local groups from the community such as Friends of the Earth, Extinction Rebellion and many more.
Alongside this, we successfully worked with the University to run a trial of Ecosia (the search engine that plants trees) on campus PCs for the week. Data on how many trees the university has funded for during this week will be announced shortly.
Highlighting the student voice and our student leaders was something we felt imperative to how we move forward with the Climate Crisis. Hosting an inspiring Action Group and engaging with students across campus stimulated conversations around campaigns for change.
As a result of the success of Sustainability Week and the positive and welcoming interaction with this issue from students we have decided to, as a Students’ Union, declare Climate Emergency. This is an official statement showing that the JMSU recognises that we are in a Climate Crisis and pledge ways that we as an institution can do to counter this. From student feedback regarding what we should do to be more sustainable, we have made pledges which include:
- To work with halls on recycling and eco-friendly practices
- To work with staff and students to reduce single use waste in take-away lunches
- To work with LJMU to achieve improved recycling facilities across campus
- To reduce our office carbon footprint by 50% in the next 2 years, including energy and paper waste
- To have designated accessible donation points for clothing and textile recycling, as well as hold regular clothes swaps
It is everybody’s responsibility to recognise and address key issues, taking steps towards reducing our impact on the planet. We are also delighted to announce that alongside your Students’ Union, Liverpool John Moores University are too announcing a Climate Emergency today. Vice-Chancellor, Ian Campbell, made the announcement saying:
“The university wishes to build upon the work it has done in recent years, including ensuring that all of our electricity supply comes from renewable sources, setting ambitious carbon management targets, introducing electric vehicles into the university and helping our local communities and charities such as the Whitechapel Centre with food and IT equipment recycling. We have also just launched the UK’s only degree in climate change studies.
The step we take today demonstrates how seriously we see the issues facing our planet and the key role that institutions like ours can play in helping addressing them. This is a time for leadership and to stand up and be counted.
We know how important this issue is to our students, staff and our communities. We are deeply committed to playing our part at this critical time.
Over the coming months, we will be publish our detailed plans that follow today’s announcement, working alongside our student body, through JMSU.
The university is proud of the work that JMSU is doing to raise issues of sustainability and climate change and the leadership that so many of our students are showing in this important area of public debate and policy. We are proud to be working with JMSU on a number of initiatives, including piloting the use of Ecosia as an environmentally-friendly search engine this week.”
Now Sustainability Week is over, we must continue to talk about working towards finding new and better ways to take care of ourselves, our planet and the species we share it with! If you have any thoughts on how to get involved or felt inspired during Sustainability Week, come down to the SU and turn those ideas into actions!
