York St John Student Union President for Education Jenny Marchant introduces the university’s Green Week – how it came about, and why the campaign has been an amazing experience to date.
Hi everyone, this is just a quick blog post during Green Week to celebrate the week and talk about how this week came about, and why we are running this amazing campaign!
Green Week started as a concept when I ran in the YSJSU elections last year. One of my Manifesto points I was elected on was ‘both the University and the Students’ Union need to recognise the footprint we leave on the environment. I want to work with the University to ensure we are doing all we can in the education sector to improve sustainability.’ After successfully winning the election and being mandated to fulfil my aims, that is when the group got started with the idea of Green Week.
It started with contacting the Environmental Projects Officers at York St John, and we built up a full week of events by getting staff and students involved to contribute. Luckily York St John already has some fantastic groups, such as the Ecological Justice Group, which enabled us to work together to create a week jam packed of events for staff and students to partake in. When we all put our ideas and concepts together, we had created a full timetable of activities. The week has a wide range of online events, from panels with local businesses, to alumni involved in sustainable careers, to social media takeovers by student eco-bloggers, to ecological theatre performances. I will include the full range of online events at the end of this post!
A small team of staff & students were inspired to run this event when we discussed the importance of allowing opportunities for the community to educate themselves on sustainability and climate justice, and ways to learn and develop our knowledge about the environment. Especially in the student movement, the future is ours and it is important we are doing what we can to actively learn and understand what action needs to be taken, and what we can do in our day to day lives. There is still a long way to go, but the institution and the SU want to do our part to enhance the current movement. It is also a very special moment to have a joint event between the staff community and the student body, with student volunteers shaping the week’s agenda, and staff supporting the creation of the activities.
We hope moving on from this exciting event, we can have further conversations and campaigns in the University community, and ensure this work is continued. I am pleased we were able to create such an exciting campaign based on student views.
Events during the Week:
15th March 12pm– How to Help Hedgehogs https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/green-week-how-to-help-hedgehogs-tickets-141031110849?aff=InternalComms
16th March 3:30pm Careers & Volunteering in Sustainability https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/green-week-volunteering-and-careers-in-sustainability-tickets-140851678161?aff=InternalComms
16th March 4:45pm Thimali Kodikara, Education and The Frontlines of Climate Justice https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/green-week-education-and-the-frontlines-of-social-justice-tickets-140863974941?aff=InternalComms
17th March 10pm-3pm Sustainability Challenge Day https://yorksj.jobteaser.com/en/events/99427-ysj-green-week-sustainability-challenge
18th March 6pm The Future’s Our Business https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/green-week-the-futures-our-business-tickets-141033421761?aff=InternalComms
19th March 12pm Ecological Justice Student Research https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/green-week-ecological-justice-student-research-tickets-143056446683?aff=InternalComms
19th March 5:30pm Mr Quercus https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/green-week-mr-quercus-tickets-141037712595?aff=InternalComms
