{"id":1059,"date":"2024-10-31T14:21:50","date_gmt":"2024-10-31T14:21:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/gsi\/?p=1059"},"modified":"2024-10-31T14:21:51","modified_gmt":"2024-10-31T14:21:51","slug":"gsi-assembly-how-should-we-as-the-university-and-community-reduce-our-carbon-footprint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/gsi\/gsi-assembly-how-should-we-as-the-university-and-community-reduce-our-carbon-footprint\/","title":{"rendered":"GSI Assembly: How should we, as the university and community, reduce our carbon footprint?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Marco Agolzer 30 October 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 23 October, the GSI hosted the second in a series of community assemblies, encouraging participants to come together and respond to the question \u201cHow should we, as the university and community, reduce our carbon footprint?\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The series, led by myself, a 3rd-year undergraduate Physics student and GSI Assistant Directors Rapha\u00eblle Haywood, Ernesto Schwartz-Marin, and James Dyke, began with an inaugural assembly on 20 March<\/a>. The aim of these assemblies is to find out precisely what matters to staff, students and others at the University, as well as members of the local community, without applying any biases or pressure. Through this series of assemblies, the GSI can facilitate an ongoing conversation that everyone in the University community can be a part of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were delighted to have over 55 people register to attend the assembly on 23 October, alongside more than 10 trained facilitators. Participants came from across the University and the local community, which included members of the University\u2019s Sustainability Team. Unlike the previous assembly, participants and facilitators were divided into small groups 5-7 at the start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a short introductory speech by Assistant Director Rapha\u00eblle Haywood, GSI Director Peter Cox summarised the University\u2019s current status on net zero and highlighted concerns with carbon offsetting. Head of Sustainability programmes Nicola Corrigan then explained the concept of \u2018insetting\u2019, an alternative which involves reducing an organisation\u2019s emissions within their supply chain or geographical area, and introduced some possible next steps that the University could take to decarbonise. This was done in order to ensure all participants had the necessary context to best engage with the question and provide them with possible starting points for the dialogue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once I had laid out the principles that would drive the assembly process, the group discussions began. The breakout groups were a great success once again. Participants were able to shape and engage the conversation, sharing their views equally on what measures they felt the University and local community should take to reduce their carbon footprint, and how they could boost each other\u2019s efforts. The facilitators helped to guide the conversations to reach constructive and specific outcomes and ideas. Each group\u2019s top three actions were later shared to the full group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whilst continuing discussions over tea, coffee, and snacks, all those present at the assembly had the opportunity to vote on the three actions they would most like to see the University take on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A wide range of ideas emerged from the assembly, and the three most popular recommendations were:<\/p>\n\n\n\n