In September 2019, the School of Anthropology and Conservation (SAC) declared a Climate and Environmental Emergency. Led by a group of staff and students called the Sustainability Working Group (SWG), the School committed to reducing carbon emissions, helping support the University understand the climate crises we face, and establish and mandate a staff-student working group to work towards the commitments.
In line with the declaration, a new role within the School has been created, the Sustainability Lead, to ensure that SAC is consistently working towards the goals. To ratify its commitment to the declaration, the Sustainability Lead is credited with financial recompense. Having a Sustainability Lead does not take away from the incredible work that the staff and student volunteers within the SWG undertake: it provides robust support for them and a direct line for the SWG to feed back its progress to the School.
The activity of the School’s Sustainability Working Group, including the declaration of a Climate and Environmental Emergency, is set to be broadcast on KMTV in a special extended feature, outlining the work that has been done and what the plans for the future are. We hope that this will further advance the urgency and scale of the climate crisis, as well as presenting actions that can be taken in mitigation. SAC intends to lead by example, and this special is a chance for people to be inspired by what the School is doing.
You can tune into ‘Protecting our Planet’ online at KMTV, as well as Freeview 7 or Virgin 159 tonight, Thursday 5th November, at 22:15.
To mark the occasion, we caught up with the Sustainability Lead, Dr Charlie Gardner:
“These are exciting times in the School of Anthropology and Conservation!
“The School’s Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE) is rightly famous for the positive environmental impacts it has had around the world, but we’ve sometimes neglected the negative effects of our actions closer to home. That all started to change in 2018/19, when students and staff from across the School came together to form a Sustainability Working Group.
“On the back of the group’s work, the School took the ambitious step of declaring a Climate and Environmental Emergency last autumn. In making the declaration, the School recognises that ‘business-as-usual’ is not an option and academic institutions must take steps to reduce our emissions and environmental impacts as soon as possible. Specifically, SAC’s declaration commits us to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by 45% by 2025, with the aim of reaching net zero emissions by 2040.
“Excitingly, the declaration also included an innovative and highly democratic mechanism to ensure the changes we make are as fair as possible – rather than making decisions from on high, the School has decided that students and staff should be deciding on how to meet our goals. To facilitate the process, a staff member has been appointed as Sustainability Lead (and it’s me, yay!).
“Since then, we’ve been working on multiple fronts, with small groups of students and staff developing a range of exciting projects. In terms of our climate impact, we’re investigating how to reduce our emissions from heating and powering our home in the Marlowe Building, and developing guidelines to reduce unnecessary business flights. But we also have a group working to enhance green spaces and wildlife on campus, a group fighting the proliferation of single-use plastics and other waste issues, and another working to improve the sustainability of the food offered on campus (so look out for more plant-based options coming your way!). Yet another group is focusing on the wellbeing of students suffering from eco-anxiety, and we’re also working on our communications, so you can expect to hear a lot more from us in future. In the meantime, why not follow our Instagram, @sac_swg?
“Of course, we have a lot of work to do to turn SAC into a truly sustainable School, but we also have big dreams and we’re not stopping there. We hope that our actions inspire others to take similar steps in their respective Schools, and that the structures and plans we develop serve as models that others can replicate. So if you’re inspired to start your School on the journey to sustainability, we’re here to help – you’d be welcome to attend one of our meetings and find out more about what we’re doing. If you know any SAC students just come along with them or, if not, email me, Charlie Gardner, as Sustainability Lead.
“Together, let’s turn Kent into a world-leading, sustainable university we can all be proud of!”
Watch Protecting the Planet here.