News and events

We will be running events for all staff and students to get involved in during our Climate Action week between 13-17 March 2023. This year, we are encouraging our students and colleagues to deepen their understand of the current climate crisis.

We are all working towards the net zero target by 2035, and we would like to encourage all departments to organise an activity/event for their staff or students to take part in for Climate Action week. This could be a webinar, campaign to reduce waste, an activity, a discussion on embedding sustainability within the curriculum, a plant based bake off, communication about sustainability initiatives to encourage others be more sustainable at home and at work.

If you will be running an activity in your department then please let us know via email sustainability@essex.ac.uk by 22 February. 

Dr Bike from the charity Re-Cycle will be on our Colchester campus at the North Towers Causeway fortnightly on Wednesdays in term time between 8.30am – 2.30pm. The team offers free checks as well as providing servicing, repairs and affordable second-hand bikes. 

The SDG Teach In is a campaign led by Students Organising for Sustainability (SOS-UK). This campaign calls on educators (across all disciplines) to include the Sustainable Development Goals within their teaching, learning and assessments from March 1-31.

The Teach In aims to:

• Raise awareness of the importance of sustainable development
• Catalyse curriculum reform and test new ideas
• Embed sustainability and social responsibility across all learning
• Link teaching, learning and assessment to local and global concerns
• Prepare students with the knowledge, skills and attributes to tackle the world's greatest challenges

If you are an educator and would like to be a part of this campaign, please visit the link for more information.

The Sustainable Essex Awards is an environmental accreditation internal programme run by the Sustainability Team. It brings staff and students in a department together in a team and provides them with a tangible framework to make their department more sustainable whether that is in the office or at home.

This is a great event for staff and wider departments to take part in:

• It demonstrates an environmental commitment to prospective staff and students.
• It is an opportunity to save resources and money.
• It increases staff collaboration and morale.   

 Students can get involved in Sustainable Essex by taking on roles such as auditors.

Find out more information about the Sustainable Essex Awards

Each month we will be hosting a pop-up stall in which we will explore a theme around sustainability. Students and staff can join us in discussing and coming up with new ideas to combat environmental issues.

Each year the Sustainability Team takes part in Welcome Week. This is a chance for all new and returning students to learn more about the sustainability team and what events and activities are coming up in the next academic year.