Sowing seeds for sustainability
Cambridge students Engage for Change
Engage for Change project features student innovators tackling sustainable challenges across Cambridge.
Finding homes for used toasters, recycling batteries and inspiring a fondness for secondhand fashion are just three of the sustainability challenges Cambridge students addressed in the 2024 Easter edition of the Engage for Change project.
Engage for Change, a partnership between Cambridge Zero and Cambridge Student Hubs, is an eight-week project that runs in both the Lent and Easter terms, which encourages students to make sustainable changes at College and across their University experiences.
The project aims to help students develop useful skills, such as teamwork and resilience across different year groups while problem-solving key issues.
“Students are especially aware and eager to contribute to local sustainable development, so it's only right to provide them with the opportunity and space to do so,” Engage for Change Programme Manager Charlie Davey said.
“Each of these 22 student projects provides a direct opportunity to engage with sustainability at Cambridge University, or a blueprint which can inspire others to start their own projects,” said Davey.
Many of the students identified waste as a key issue. Darwin College PhD student Dick Ferieno Firdaus conducted a waste audit of the Cambridge Institute for Manufacturing facilities, and is hoping to use the findings to improve recycling. Kashmira Jirafe, also a Darwin College student, created a project to raise awareness of how to recycle batteries.
Several of the issues raised by these student projects are being considered by Departments in the University to tackle sustainability.
Ideas Launch
Unwanted goods going to a new home at "freshers jumble sale"
First year Geography student from Newnham College Sarah Keast-Butler’s project involves hosting events to collect donations from departing students and share them with new students at Freshers' Week.
Sarah Keast-Butler / Photo by David Wilson/Cambridge Zero
Sarah Keast-Butler / Photo by David Wilson/Cambridge Zero
Each year when students move out of their Cambridge accommodation, they often no longer require a lot of their possessions, such as bedding, electricals and cooking utensils. If not donated, many of these wind up in landfill - ending the lifecycle of these goods prematurely. Keast-Butler's project attempts to change this by holding donation events within her college for departing students to share their no longer needed items.
“Before starting this project, I didn’t realise that lots and lots of items get left behind each year, I presumed people would want to take their items with them," said Keast-Butler.
Donations will be held until the start of the following academic year, when she hopes to hold social events to share these items and asks that people pay what they can.
The "freshers jumble sales” will be an opportunity for new students to connect with other students in Newnham College and reassure some anxieties. She believes this is also a great introduction to the college community.
Newnham College, Photo by Zsolt Bognar on Unsplash
Newnham College, Photo by Zsolt Bognar on Unsplash
“I hope it will remove a barrier, which causes people a lot of stress and makes people feel more comfortable, especially living in a new situation,” she said.
Keast-Butler was inspired by "Project Second Life", a Darwin College project.
“Project Second Life” is a student-led recycling scheme which collects belongings from departing students to offer them to new members. Student volunteers collected, sorted and displayed 850kg of donated goods in 2023, raising more than £1,100 and recirculating 430kg of items within the Darwin community.
She hopes to raise student awareness about buying habits and persuade the community to extend the lifespan of the household goods and clothes that they do buy.
Sarah Keast-Butler / Photo by David Wilson/Cambridge Zero
Sarah Keast-Butler / Photo by David Wilson/Cambridge Zero
Photo by David Wilson/Cambridge Zero
Photo by David Wilson/Cambridge Zero
Sarah Keast-Butler / Photo by David Wilson/Cambridge Zero
Sarah Keast-Butler / Photo by David Wilson/Cambridge Zero
Family focussed events to raise awareness to the importance of seed diversity for food security
Gonville and Caius and Department of Geography PhD student Pei Jiang is interested in the power dynamics of seed commodification and conservation. She is working in collaboration with Cambridge University Botanic Garden to introduce a series of family-friendly events to raise awareness on why seed diversity matters for people and the planet.
Jiang wants to educate the public on the risks of monoculture farming practices - where a single crop variety is grown in a field on a large scale - and the importance of growing a collection of naturally occurring crop varieties.
Pei Jiang / Photo by David Wilson/Cambridge Zero
Pei Jiang / Photo by David Wilson/Cambridge Zero
Working with Cambridge University's Botanic Garden she is creating a series of family activities to highlight to children and their parents, how our food system relies on a narrowing genetic diversity, with few varieties making it to the supermarket shelves.
“In the UK, people eat a lot of potatoes, but did you know there are around 500 varieties of potatoes in the UK, only a few of which are available in the supermarkets," said Jiang.
Seed Papers - Labora / Youtube
Seed Papers - Labora / Youtube
In the family activity sessions she will share how to create “seed papers” – paper which when watered grows into plants or flowers.
Not only is this recycling unwanted paper, but Jiang hopes this can be a visual representation of the many different types of seeds which are not commercially grown or available.
Pei Jiang / Photo by David Wilson/Cambridge Zero
Pei Jiang / Photo by David Wilson/Cambridge Zero
“If you only grow one or two varieties of a plant, then if they suffer a disease or are struck by pests it will become a total crop failure,” Jiang said.
Extreme weather events, such as drought, heavy rain, storms and wildfires also pose a threat to food security. These extreme events are happening more frequently due to increased global temperatures caused by climate change, requiring more resilient and diverse crops to adapt to them.
“The activities will be a good way to get young children together and involved with the wide varieties of different seeds, and also a good opportunity to educate their parents,” Jiang said.
She also hopes to raise public awareness of sustainable farming practices that reject monoculture, where single varieties of crops are planted across vast tracts of land to the exclusion of other plants and crops.
“It is not safe for farmers to grow only these varieties of seeds, as these seeds often rely on harmful fertilisers and other chemicals to grow. This practice depletes the soil of its nutrients and harms the environment," said Jiang.
Cambridge Zero is the University of Cambridge’s ambitious climate change initiative, harnessing the power of research to tackle climate change at one of the top global research universities in the world.
Published 17th July 2024
Images: David Wilson
The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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