Nottingham’s universities lead climate action discussion as part of Sustainability Action Week

Sustainability Action Week 2022

Sustainability Action Week 2022 logo

A Universities for Nottingham initiative - Nottingham Trent University (NTU) and University of Nottingham (UoN) will host a series of events from 28 Feb-6 March in partnership with the universities’ student unions and Nottingham City Council.

Activities will focus on how everyone can play a role in supporting Nottingham’s commitment to become the first carbon-neutral city in the country by 2028.

The flagship event of the week is the Nottingham Sustainability Action Panel Discussion and Workshop - a collaborative discussion addressing the impacts of COP26 to Nottingham's own climate goals, and what we, as institutions, plan to do reduce carbon emissions.

Following the panel discussion, workshops will take place where participants can share ideas and explore pathways to carbon neutrality through individual and collective action.

Other highlights of the week include a talk from Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust on volunteering opportunities, an interactive workshop on Eco-Anxiety and spring sowing at the NTU Clifton allotment.

Among the events being held across the University of Nottingham’s campuses, will be a Sustainability Fair on Tuesday 1 March, which will offer the chance to find out more about the action we can all take to reduce energy, waste and carbon emissions, pick up some freebies and see the university’s solar powered racing car.

Both universities are already leading the way in terms of taking positive action through the use of the Green Rewards Programme, which, due to its success was recently adopted by all the local authorities throughout Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. Through the Green Rewards App, users log their sustainability actions, which collectively across the City and County has already saved over half a million kilograms of avoided carbon emissions.

Charmaine Morrell, Head of Sustainability at Nottingham Trent University said: “Our two universities are in the top five most sustainable universities in the world and the City Council has an ambitious carbon-neutral by 2028 target which is UK leading. However, there’s much more that we need to do together and individually.

“There’s a lot of expertise on our doorstep, and much we can learn to help reduce our impact on the environment, we all have a responsibility to act on the climate emergency that we are in, that’s us as a large University and also us as individuals. We’re hopeful that our Sustainability Action Week will go some way to help raise awareness and encourage that action, no matter how small.”

Andy Nolan, Development and Sustainability Director at the University of Nottingham said: “The newly updated Universities for Nottingham Civic Agreement reflects that it is better to do things together wherever we can to make a bigger impact. I am delighted we’re not only making a commitment but that we are actually delivering things, like Green Rewards, that can involve everyone. Whilst we are avid champions for these issues within our own organisations, it is our partnership working on these issues which will really help us to deliver the step change we want to see for Nottingham.”

For more information on Sustainability Action Week and how to get involved, visit https://www.ntu.ac.uk/about-us/sustainability/news-and-events/sustainability-action-week-2022 and https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/sustainability/getinvolved/saw.aspx