Five student-led projects have been chosen to share a £10,000 fund to promote sustainability and help Sussex graduates create positive social and environmental change throughout their future careers.

The projects – launched at an event in Falmer House today (Thursday 16 May) – are part of a wider initiative to integrate sustainable development across education at Sussex.  

Bids for up to £2,000 were invited from groups of students, working with academic staff, to fund initiatives or activities that will promote or embed sustainability in the curriculum or some related area.

The successful projects this year are:

Creating an outdoor teaching and learning space on campus

A team from Law, Politics and Sociology will be organising a workshop to explore the creation of an outdoor classroom as an alternative teaching space on the campus. In 2010 the University of Kent successfully created such a classroom and those involved in its creation and use will be invited to discuss its design and the realities of outdoor learning.

Transition University of Sussex

A team from Global Studies will produce a report on establishing Sussex as a transition university, examining ways in which the University can minimise its negative environmental impacts by reducing its carbon footprint, promoting local biodiversity and minimising waste. The students will establish contacts with non-profit organisations, businesses, local government and the University’s Estates and Facilities Management team; learn about sustainability-related careers from practitioners; and develop research skills.

Multi-use not refuse!

A multi-disciplinary team from Life Sciences and Global Studies aim to reduce the consumption of plastic water bottles on campus. They want to change the mind-set of students by encouraging sustainable habits. During Fresher’s Fair they will give out both reusable water bottles and maps showing the location of water fountains around campus. They will also organise a ‘Water Awareness Week’ in early October 2013 to challenge students to refrain from buying bottled water on campus for a week.

Transition University website

A multi-disciplinary team from Life Sciences and Global Studies will be setting up a website that acts as a hub for the sustainability projects happening on campus. This will be based on the St Andrews Transition University website, and will have a homepage which links to pages for each initiative, including Sussex Scoop, Sussex Roots, Free-wheelers, Swap-shop, Free-shop, and the bike-hire co-op, and links to local sustainability projects. This project will also include setting up Sussex Shoots - a veg box scheme.

The pieces of a feast

Students and staff from three schools – Media, Film and Music; Global Studies; and Business, Management and Economics - will recruit a network of people to grow or develop a single food ingredient over the course of the summer, then bring it to a final event where a chef will prepare the pieces in a shared feast. There will also be seminars with external speakers on food sourcing, photographic documentation of processes and student participation in a farmers’ market.

For more information on the projects, visit Sussex’s Education for Sustainable Development website or email esd@sussex.ac.uk.

A task force has been set up to drive forward progress in embedding sustainability in the curriculum at Sussex, to ensure that all students leave their courses with the skills and knowledge to understand and address sustainability issues in their future careers.

These five projects are the first stage in this process. A number of other possible activities are being explored by the task force, including:

• Creating new electives to ensure that all students are able to choose sustainability modules as part of their course
• Training for academic staff to encourage them to share knowledge and skills about sustainability with students
• The development of a programme of sustainability-related careers services.

This initiative is one of the results of an earlier HEFCE-funded project which involved senior managers and students working together on sustainability plans for the University.