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A 'lightbulb moment' for carbon neutrality. First workshop impressions.

19/5/2017

10 Comments

 
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Dear friends and supporters,

Last weekend (13-14 May 2017) we got one step closer to our vision of a carbon neutral university.

You ask how?

We organised a workshop we called ‘Changing Systems: Not just Lightbulbs’
and invited sustainability professionals and visionaries from universities to learn together how to make changes – System Changes.
 
What can be effective in building pathways to zero carbon in a university or college?  How can we engage people, sustain the momentum, produce results?  We focussed our conversations onto “What Works”, and we will produce a guide covering what emerged.  Our expert speakers provided stories of what, in their experience, really does work.

Who came together and how did the magic happen?

We invited people who have already set off on zero carbon journeys and asked them to tell us their stories of change.
 
And they came.

Our main speakers
Paul Allen, the project coordinator for the Centre for Alternative Technology’s Zero Carbon Britain (ZCB), presented recent findings and striking examples which show us how a zero carbon Britain is possible – with existing technologies – by 2030.
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The findings of ZCB’s latest research, “Making it Happen”, were introduced by
lead author and sustainability professional Lisa Hopkinson.  Lisa talked us through ways barriers to zero carbon can be overcome – including in the fields of psychology, communications, economics, politics and governance.  
David Somervell, previously sustainability adviser for the University of Edinburgh talked us through their ‘Zero by 2040’ vision.  For us Sheffielders, this is fascinating - a fellow Russell Group university with an ambitious goal and a detailed strategy to realise it.
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Finally, our CNU event lead and MSc student at the Centre for Alternative Technology, Adam Howard, presented ‘Theory U’.  This model proposes that certain key stages underlie effective change initiatives.  Complex systems, it urges, require us to listen first – and then to “lead from the emerging future”. 
Great stories from course participants and great atmosphere over the weekend

Besides our four main speakers, we had an excellent team of workshop participants from all over the country - SOAS University of London, the University of Warwick, Sheffield Hallam University and even international attendees from as far as Australia.  Several of them gave short TED-style talks on their own projects and experiences, bringing an additional depth of experience to the table.
The whole concept of the workshop was based on group work to identify what actually works – enabled through experienced facilitation by professional facilitator and CNU member Nick Nuttgens.
As a network, we aimed to increase human interaction and enable sustainable collaborations for the future.  Participants came together for an evening meal provided by the Real Junk Food Project team.  RJF catered for us over the whole weekend, keeping our food footprint low and our bellies happy.  A bit of warmth and many smiles are just as important as facts and we had a good mix of both…
What to expect next…

After a lively weekend we have loads of new ideas, motivation, and notes from our sessions, which we are going to pull together over the coming weeks.

We will make all resources available in the near future and we have also set ourselves a goal - to create a guide to ‘What Works’ that can help universities and other similar organisations in building zero carbon pathways.

Our aims:
  • Short interview videos with our main speakers online;
  • Full length lectures and summary blog posts online;
  • The initial draft guide to ‘What Works’ will be opened up for review by participants. The goal is to publish by the end of June.

This whole event, and what we are now building from it, is the work of volunteers.  (No-one has been paid a penny, apart from expenses.)  We are enjoying ourselves as a team!  Please get in touch if you want to help make it happen.

Thank you.

Your CNU event coordinators
Adam Howard, Stephen Folkes, Dan Olner, Aaron Thierry
10 Comments
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12/7/2017 08:23:41

Wow, what a great opportunity for the student of the workshop and many ideas of the discussion here the education field. These types of activities are very necessary for student growth level. Different institute are mostly focused on these activities and also announce the anal result is so good.

Reply
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26/7/2017 16:33:02

We had two of your leaders stop here in your early year and was impress. Are a tiny two person guesthouse with amazing carbon neutral status ignored by uni's and green organisations that get paid.
We have achieved, years ago what many organisations have policies on and strive towards. ALL energy from renewables for over 4 years....3 Elec car point ( inc Tesla for nearly 7 years)...no nuke/ carbon elec this century....solar panels since 1983....OCR A level 3 page question on us about 5 years ago.....won many national eco awards against huge multi nationals and posh eco places charging 6 times more than us....two of us on a min wage maybe...solar thermal...solar elec....bio sewerage plus small seedbed and trout pond...turf roofs...consnservatories collecting heat...mega insulation of 1883 building 700ft up a Welsh mountain....3 hydros ( over 450MW ) within a mile.... Tested and awarded max grades by Green tourism...superhomes...trip advisor Green global leader...Won Considerate Hotelier eco award in London twice ( savoy won previous year with multi million pound refurb of fire area 10,000 words written. no pr or booking gained) ...rainwater harvesting....Wales Green energy awards ( came second to National trust...over 30 years of teaching technology and examiner for technology...etc
Would we be a site worth visiting. Practical low carbon solutions that have been done.
Regards, John WHITEHEAD

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