From Catherine Morris | Sustainability Manager

Happy Earth Day 2022!

This year’s Earth Day theme is “Invest in Our Planet”. This day looks to engage everyone, from individuals to businesses and governments to recognise our collective responsibility and help accelerate the transition to an equitable, prosperous, sustainable economy for all. The campaign is focussed on reframing the conversation, accelerating action, and bringing us together to understand that this is within our reach if we work together.

For the University of Kent, this year’s Earth Day also marks 6 months since the launch of our Strategy for Climate Action and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),so I have been reflecting on what we have achieved since the launch event last year.

Often when you are engrossed working on something, it isn’t until you take a step back and assess that you can see how far you have come. This webpage talks more about some of the major achievements of the last 6 months but I would also like to take some time to celebrate the little actions.

For every exciting news-worthy project we are taking hundreds of small, incremental actions and nudges that collectively have a huge impact. Whether that’s replacing a high carbon footprint dish with a lower one on a food outlet menu, turning down an office’s heating by 1°C, installing a new recycling bin, or recruiting another staff sustainability champion, we are taking action every single day.

Wherever in the University you live, work or study, these little visible and invisible changes will be contributing to reducing our impacts and helping you to do the same. Collective responsibility and working together is at the heart of our sustainability agenda and I have been so encouraged over the last 6 months to see how staff, students and the local community are coming together to take action and build a new sustainable future.

We have some fantastic projects, events and initiatives planned for the next 6 months which we will be sharing as we go, so please watch this space.

If you would like any more information or would like to get in touch than please visit www.kent.ac.uk/sustainability or email sustainability@kent.ac.uk