SEEDs of change take root at UEA!
The Go Green campaigners from UEA's SEED group have relaunched their campaign in style with a stunning Environment Week from 14th-18th November.
It was organised jointly by the Student Union Environment Officer Jenny Gellatly (SEED member) and Carbon Reduction Centre (CRed) to raise awareness about the serious climate threats facing our planet and what can be done to prevent it. SEED highlighted the importance of their own university taking action to reduce emissions, especially as UEA is renowned for its excellence in Environmental and Development teaching!
Art Soc create Go Green tree with SEED members
In the run-up to the event, the P&P group passed a Go Green motion through their SU council and held awareness-raising stalls in bright, green colours to get their amazing Go Green petition signed. Their ‘super-green petition’ not only lets people make the four Go Green demands to their Vice-Chancellor, but also gave students the option to make personal pledges to stop climate chaos. Due to the huge numbers of people signing and pledging, the group may be spending a little while working out just how many hundreds of tonnes of CO2 emissions they have saved! It was also excellent to see the number of people wearing Go Green ribbons to show their support grow throughout the week.
On Tuesday 15th November SEED held a colourful stall at the Big Green Bonanza along with organisations like Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT), Friends of the Earth, student-run eco-businesses, environment and development societies, local farmers and local wildlife trusts. The group managed to obtain 500 free energy-saving lightbulbs from CRed to give out to petitioners and had one of the busiest stalls right next to a groovy bicycle-powered fruit smoothie stand! A brilliant way to spice up your stalls is to involve some of the creative and cultural societies in your union like the art group, theatre group or samba band. SEED took this advice to heart and teamed up with UEA Art Soc to create a stunning Go Green tree out of 100% recycled materials from their student union bar. They got people to sign leaves made from cans with Go Green messages for the VC.
People & Planet intern, Hazy, was also there to deliver a workshop to a packed room full of students on ‘Planning Environmental Campaigns and Actions’. Throughout the week there was an exciting and varied programme of debates, films and discussions about ways we can reduce climate change and the huge consequences of doing nothing. Environment Week culminated with a big finale on Friday 18th November with Energy Action Day. UEA is working in partnership with CRed to try and reduce CO2 emissions in East Anglia by 60% by 2025 and taking action to reduce energy use is an important step everyone can take. On Friday CRed and the environmental societies joined together to ask both students and staff to take part in the Big Switch-Off of unused electrical appliances across the uni. The stunt highlighted and reminded everyone at UEA of the huge amount of energy that they can all save if they do their part!
Congratulations to all those who made UEA’s Environment Week such a success! The week’s overall message was a loud and clear call to action: protect the environment, recycle, buy local, save energy, campaign for change and go green!
Good luck with your own campaigning and do get in touch with Hazy if you’ve got any tips or updates about your own uni you want to share with others!