Small actions lead to big results
The Students’ Association’s Environmental Subcommittee (ES) has been active in a number of ways, including leading on production of a guide on environmentally sustainable practices for student-run events. The Sustainable Events Guide and Assessment includes a commitment for societies and student groups to reduce consumption and waste at their events.
The ES also produces UnEarth Magazine, with a creative and artistic focus on sustainability and environmentalism. As well as publishing pieces on a wide range of sustainability issues, they also host events to increase student engagement on issues relating to sustainability, climate action, and the nature crisis.
In 2023, the ES organized a trip to Kinkell, just outside St Andrews, to provide an opportunity for students to learn about small-scale conservation efforts and engage in local rewilding initiatives.
The ES team has also been instrumental in coordination of the annual Green Week, which features events and activities to engage the student community in opportunities for climate action, including panel discussions for green careers, signposting pathways into sustainability-related careers, and insight into how businesses and organisations are tackling sustainability in their areas.
March to the Meadows
Since the 1930s, the UK has lost more than 41% of its native wildlife since the 1970s and, since the 1930s, over 97% of its flower-rich grasslands. This ecological crisis requires us to take a stand now more than ever to counteract biodiversity loss and make refuge for our valuable local wildlife.
Fife is a mosaic of landscapes and communities which requires a collective effort to protect and increase our local biodiversity. Fife Council’s grassland management strategy is a step in the right direction. It aims for 10% of Council-managed grasslands to be maintained in a new way, encouraging wildflower meadows. However, we believe we can do better.
In collaboration with Transition, students coordinated a community event, March to the Meadows, purposed to highlight the loss of biodiversity in the UK. School children, students and locals gathered in St Salvator’s Quad and marched through the town to the North Haugh meadows, which the University manages to support biodiversity, to highlight the cause.