We’re highlighting the impacts of the climate crisis by sharing the first-hand experiences of staff, students and alumni, focusing on those in the global south.  Our next contribution is from Aayush Goyal, a University of Edinburgh alumnus and co-founder of social enterprise, Social Stories Club. 

As Oxfam’s #SecondHandSeptember comes to an end, concerns about the environment are greater than ever. Third-year Sustainable Development student and charity shop volunteer, Elizabeth Simpson, discusses how you can avoid fast fashion and reduce your impact upon the planet. 

Medicine has a considerable environmental impact, with 100 million tonnes of solid waste generated each year in the UK, 85% of which generally ends up in landfill sites across England and Wales. We hear from the students trying to tackle this by directing medical surplusses to countries in need of medical supplies.

The University of Edinburgh is working to ensure it buys products that contain certified sustainable palm oil.

For their 2019 gold project, the Centre for Dementia Prevention Awards office team worked to create ‘EcoBricks’ to raise awareness of single-use plastic consumption and reduce the volume of waste reaching landfill.

For their 2018 gold project, the Sport & Exercise Sustainability Awards office team addressed their cleaning products, to reduce plastic waste, release less harmful chemicals and improve staff wellbeing.

The Easter Bush team chose to explore ways to be more resource efficient in their 2018 Sustainability Awards Gold project. This included avoiding the use of 5,224 cardboard boxes.

​Through their Office Sustainability Awards Gold project, the IGMM team brought together staff from different areas, united by their enthusiasm for gardening. Read about their experience.

Peter Higgins, Professor of Outdoor & Environmental Education, Director of the Global Environment & Society Academy and Director of Learning for Sustainability Scotland shares his views on education and the recent school climate strikes.

Lan Wang reports back from the 24th annual Conference of the Parties (COP), a meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to address climate change globally.