UTAS Sustainability Bulletin Issue 14 2020

Congratulations to the SIPS students from semester 1 2020!

Sustainability Integration Program for Students

On Monday June 1, staff and students were invited to join project presentations by SIPS students. Thank you to Kawinwit Kittipalawattanapol (Ink), Eloise Bennett, Rani Greig, Tim Boyle, Ellen-Rose Sorensen, Zi Long Chow, Mahalia White-McColl, Mary (Jess) Jeyasingham, Sharifah Syed-Rohan, Jess Flint and Kenneth Wu for their presentations. Student have adapted their projects to working from home this semester, and we are impressed by their commitment to continue their work during these challenges and to acknowledge the barriers to working from home. In this issue we hear from two of the SIPS interns about how they have done this. How are we working towards sustainability goals at the University? My main project goals were to assess the energy use of the Launceston Clinical School and assess areas for improvement, as part of a social and moral responsibility for future medical practitioners…I really like that I manage to do this project because with the readings I understand the role of buildings in energy consumption, how they contribute to greenhouse gasses and climate change and also to prepare questions for the building manager. My project is awaiting data and the lifting of restrictions before I can do more. I am looking to identify unnecessary energy consumption and reduce it, and in the long term hopefully this will increase what is called ‘planetary consciousness’ in other health care professionals. Zi Long Chow, SIPS Intern semester 1 2020 My project was a student engagement project designed to communicate sustainability on campus, and to achieve this I created a podcast talking about the work that the University has done in the past…students only tend to see the end product of these projects and not necessarily the process, so my task was to peel back the curtain and let people in to see the process for achieving sustainability goals… Through the research phase I narrowed down the focus to energy, waste and transport and added carbon management because that was a huge part of the story and sustainability

governance. [Through interviews with staff and students] I created stories that show how a project comes from being an idea in someone’s head to something that students can actually see and interact with on campus…. when I started I didn’t know how an organisation becomes certified carbon neutral, talking to people, listening to their stories and how passionate they are about their jobs was really rewarding… A week before I was due to finish UTAS was ranked third [in the Times Higher Education Rankings] for climate change action… I realised how through small steps and small actions that people do on campus we can actually achieve a very major global goal… and seeing how all the small steps fit together to end up with this amazing outcome was really rewarding. Ellen-Rose Sorensen, SIPS Intern semester 1 2020 Check out Ellen’s Sustainability@UTAS podcast Congratulations to Kawinwit Kittipalawattanapol (Ink) who has finished his SIPS Fellowship on biodiversity engagement for students and updating biodiversity information in the Natural Space Management discussion paper. In recent decades due to changes in how we live, the move to more urban areas and spending more time looking into screens people might not have a chance to go out into nature and there is a sense of disconnect. Therefore, my project is to help address this issue and to help protect natural values by increasing intrinsic values and encouraging lived experience for students and people surrounding UTAS campuses. The aims of my project were to promote intrinsic values of nature and biodiversity around the University and Tasmania and to help with conservation of those values, as well as to help students orientate around campuses while learning about natural values. I enjoyed learning about the natural values on the campuses and surrounding areas, and how we can be involved in the decision-making processes and through citizen science. Kawinwit Kittipalawattanapol (Ink), SIPS Fellow 2019-2020

Green Impact, our staff sustainability engagement program Congratulations to the Student Mobility team who are leading in the points this week and welcome to the Reach Out! CoSE Community Engagement team! Join the Green Impact Yammer group for regular #actsofconnection run by the ACTS team with staff from other Australian and New Zealand universities, so far there has been an online yoga class, plawking (picking up rubbish on a walk), a class with tips on looking after indoor plants and a challenge for World Earth Day! The students involved in the program, the Green Impact Project Assistants, are looking forward to supporting teams through pre and post audits in semester 2. In the Yammer group we are sharing ideas for actions that you can do from home as well. Ask us if you are unsure how your activities might fit in the Green Impact program.

Do you have a

great idea and would

like to pitch a project for students in 2021?

Head over to the SIPS webpage to nominate a project for next year.

Attendees at the SIPS end of semester 1 presentations, 2020.

2

Sustainability Bulletin • Issue 14 May/June 2020

Made with FlippingBook Ebook Creator