{"id":874,"date":"2016-07-28T09:41:18","date_gmt":"2016-07-28T09:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/sa\/?p=874"},"modified":"2016-07-28T09:42:31","modified_gmt":"2016-07-28T09:42:31","slug":"new-chapters-constant-commitment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/sa\/2016\/07\/28\/new-chapters-constant-commitment\/","title":{"rendered":"New chapters, constant commitment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Blackout<\/a><\/p>\n

When I joined the University\u2019s Sustainability Action Programme<\/a> four and a half years ago, I came ready to work. What I didn\u2019t expect, was how much I\u2019ve learnt along the way.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve learnt that students really are changing the world for the better, through their innovation, their commitment to the planet and their peers, and their academic brilliance. Over 100 of us gathered for the UK\u2019s first international student sustainability symposium<\/a> in April to celebrate student research that is making the world better now, and for future generations.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve seen groups of committed colleagues give their time, their energies and their expertise to support the university and its local communities. In December last year I was a small part of a big team co-ordinating a collection of Christmas gifts for local charity<\/a> SCRATCH\u2019s Christmas Complete project, ensuring that over 1930 young people had a Christmas gift that year.<\/p>\n

It is however, when students and staff work together that I\u2019ve seen the greatest impact. The partnerships we\u2019ve forged to deliver swap shops<\/a>, take Waste Wars<\/a> into its tenth year, launch the annual Sustainability Action Awards<\/a>, and develop and deliver Blackout <\/a>\u2013 campus switch off campaign spanning five campuses \u2013 have enabled us to take student-staff sustainability engagement to greater heights.<\/p>\n

The nature of sustainability is that the achievements are great, but the job is never done. After four and a half years at the University, I\u2019m taking all of this learning to a new role and organisation. My job title may be changing, but my dedication to sustainability and community remains constant. The University\u2019s commitment also remains, with the announcement earlier this year that environmental, social and economic sustainability form one of the four pillars of its strategy<\/a>. Looking back at all we\u2019ve achieved over the past four years, I\u2019m excited to see what the years ahead hold for this community of brilliant and dedicated students and staff. It\u2019s been a privilege to be part of it.<\/p>\n

\"symposium_audience\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Thank you to all my colleagues who\u2019ve made working at the University so enjoyable and rewarding. A particular shout out must go to the various Chairs of the Sustainability Action Programme during my time here \u2013 Simon Kemp, Neil Smith and Lucy Potashnick. <\/em><\/p>\n

I may be leaving the University but I can still be found on Twitter<\/a>\u00a0if you want to get in touch or see what my next chapter holds.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I joined the University\u2019s Sustainability Action Programme four and a half years ago, I came ready to work. What I didn\u2019t expect, was how much I\u2019ve learnt along the way. I\u2019ve learnt that students really are changing the world for the better, through their innovation, their commitment to the planet and their peers, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93328,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52771,496237,431146],"tags":[763151,388456,493667,496255,36582,496232,496240,460885,496248],"class_list":["post-874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","category-student-and-staff-experience","category-student-experience","tag-sotonglobalcitizens16","tag-awards","tag-blackout","tag-community-2","tag-education","tag-make-a-difference","tag-swap-shop","tag-volunteering","tag-waste-wars"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/93328"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=874"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":880,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874\/revisions\/880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}