SusSed

Written By Muhammad Zainudin

The Sustainability Skills and Education (SusSed) Series

SusSEd is an initiative project by the Green Impact Team in the University of Sheffield. What exactly is Green Impact? Their website describes it as, ‘Green Impact is a simple, rewarding and fun sustainability accreditation scheme’. The definition outlines the clear aims of the University of Sheffield to make a huge impact on the environment whilst maintaining its integrity and values. Nicholas Nuttgens, mentioned during one of the SusSEd’s talks that apparently people talk about climate change for less than 5 minutes, when it is in fact one of the biggest issues facing humankind. Even the United Nations addressed climate change as one of the problems to be tackled in their 17 Sustainability Goals.

SusSEd includes 11 inspiring motivational talks by renowned professors and experts in their own respective fields. They are trying to attract as many people as they can by hosting the talks during lunchbreaks, 12:10pm to 1:00pm every Tuesday and Thursday. University students can attend talks for free and register their name for each session to get HEAR Recognition.

Every session was amazing; a few talks really touched my heart and passionately inspired me. The first one was from Nicholas Nuttgens, his topic was ‘Talking About Climate Change: Developing Our Skills’. He began the talk, by telling us how the world perceived Climate Change in one word, based on his life-long survey. The words were SLOW, HUGE, COMPLEX, INVISIBLE, INTERGENERATIONAL, INTERNATIONAL and CHALLENGING. I think all these words perfectly describe climate change because it is reacting slowly and is rarely seen by the naked eye.  Perhaps, it will not be us who will experience the hellish effects of climate change but it may be endured by future generations. To help tackle climate change, we can change small actions from our normal and comfortable everyday routines like switching on the AC, using less air travel for holidays and encouraging more car sharing to make a difference. However, the sad truth is, probably, only a few people will do it. Nicholas split everyone into groups of five to dicuss various scenarios. The discussion had a huge impact on me as I reflected on all the petty decisions I had made during my life, risking the lovely Earth. It made me more aware of changes I could make, such as shopping online rather than driving a carbon-releasing car to an air-conditioned mall to buy one shirt.  

The Sustainability Skills and Education (SusSed) Series

SusSEd is an initiative project by the Green Impact Team in the University of Sheffield. What exactly is Green Impact? Their website describes it as, ‘Green Impact is a simple, rewarding and fun sustainability accreditation scheme’. The definition outlines the clear aims of the University of Sheffield to make a huge impact on the environment whilst maintaining its integrity and values. Nicholas Nuttgens, mentioned during one of the SusSEd’s talks that apparently people talk about climate change for less than 5 minutes, when it is in fact one of the biggest issues facing humankind. Even the United Nations addressed climate change as one of the problems to be tackled in their 17 Sustainability Goals.

SusSEd includes 11 inspiring motivational talks by renowned professors and experts in their own respective fields. They are trying to attract as many people as they can by hosting the talks during lunchbreaks, 12:10pm to 1:00pm every Tuesday and Thursday. University students can attend talks for free and register their name for each session to get HEAR Recognition.

Every session was amazing; a few talks really touched my heart and passionately inspired me. The first one was from Nicholas Nuttgens, his topic was ‘Talking About Climate Change: Developing Our Skills’. He began the talk, by telling us how the world perceived Climate Change in one word, based on his life-long survey. The words were SLOW, HUGE, COMPLEX, INVISIBLE, INTERGENERATIONAL, INTERNATIONAL and CHALLENGING. I think all these words perfectly describe climate change because it is reacting slowly and is rarely seen by the naked eye.  Perhaps, it will not be us who will experience the hellish effects of climate change but it may be endured by future generations. To help tackle climate change, we can change small actions from our normal and comfortable everyday routines like switching on the AC, using less air travel for holidays and encouraging more car sharing to make a difference. However, the sad truth is, probably, only a few people will do it. Nicholas split everyone into groups of five to dicuss various scenarios. The discussion had a huge impact on me as I reflected on all the petty decisions I had made during my life, risking the lovely Earth. It made me more aware of changes I could make, such as shopping online rather than driving a carbon-releasing car to an air-conditioned mall to buy one shirt.  

The second talk that inspired me was by Christopher Jones who discussed public perception towards carbon dioxide. Jones is actively involved in making the public face of Carbon Dioxide Utilisation (CDU) a forethought. During his talk, he quoted Apt & Fischhoff (2006), “without public acceptance, it may be impossible for electric sector innovations such as CDU to gain regulatory approval, find sites or secure funding”. Based on his research, using focus groups he found that CDU awareness was very low. The discussion covered three areas: Conceptual (should we do this?), Technical (can we do this?) and Societal (what will happen?). As a result, conceptually, he found that CDU is valued as part of mitigation effort and is accepted generally with significant caveats and technically, CDU may be possible.

In conclusion, I found all the talks very motivating and they helped the attendees realise that an environmental crisis is very real and needs to be tackled imminently. Furthermore, SusSEd staff are dedicated to keeping the events running smoothly for the presenters and audiences. I hope that Green Impact will continue this noble initiative to educate young peoples’ attitudes towards improving the environment.
The second talk that inspired me was by Christopher Jones who discussed public perception towards carbon dioxide. Jones is actively involved in making the public face of Carbon Dioxide Utilisation (CDU) a forethought. During his talk, he quoted Apt & Fischhoff (2006), “without public acceptance, it may be impossible for electric sector innovations such as CDU to gain regulatory approval, find sites or secure funding”. Based on his research, using focus groups he found that CDU awareness was very low. The discussion covered three areas: Conceptual (should we do this?), Technical (can we do this?) and Societal (what will happen?). As a result, conceptually, he found that CDU is valued as part of mitigation effort and is accepted generally with significant caveats and technically, CDU may be possible.
In conclusion, I found all the talks very motivating and they helped the attendees realise that an environmental crisis is very real and needs to be tackled imminently. Furthermore, SusSEd staff are dedicated to keeping the events running smoothly for the presenters and audiences. I hope that Green Impact will continue this noble initiative to educate young peoples’ attitudes towards improving the environment.