Louisa Winch, MSc Renewable Energy student and Green Officer

Cranfield University

During my nine months at Cranfield, I have stepped into the Green Officer role with a mission to create change in awareness, behaviour and practices amongst students and staff on campus and beyond. I have supported initiatives such as tree planting, litter picking and community gardening, re-started the student energy saving campaign with a new action logging platform and poster competition and introduced the first ‘Clothes Swap’.

To help the University achieve their ‘zero avoidable waste by 2030’ SDG, I have campaigned for the replacement of disposable, hard-to-recycle, hot drinks cups on campus with a ‘bring your own’ cup campaign, resulting in the removal of disposable cups from several main drinks stations and the introduction of a 25p charge for disposable cups and cutlery at campus cafeterias.

I have encouraged fellow students to take part in the ‘Love Student Leftovers’ competition, adding a vegan category nationally. Along with the committee, I have run several ‘Green Film Nights’, supported the November ‘Green Week’ activities and hosted a ‘Build Your Own Planet’ event. Other campaigns I’ve enjoyed include Earth Hour and Veganuary.

Annual carbon savings achieved with the initiative:

• CO2t savings 2022/2023: 3 (Estimated).

Top 3 Learnings

1. Leadership is not about spotlighting yourself but empowering others to take collective action and create impact.
2. Climate action should not be exclusive to any specific groups but accessible to all members of society.
3. It is not that others ‘don’t care about the environment’, often it’s just not on their radar or the top of their priorities.