Hello! I’m Meg, the Sustainable Living Assistant – a new Graduate Business Partnership (GBP) role introduced by the Sustainability and Residences Team last year. My role is focused around
developing and delivering initiatives that encourage sustainable living across our student accommodation and the University more widely. Read on to find out what I’ve been up to since I started last June.
The highlights of my role so far have been running the Gift It Reuse It scheme, working on the Love Where You Live campaign and producing the ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycling: A Student Guide’. I’ve been a champion of zero-waste initiatives and reuse for as long as I can remember, so being able to coordinate the GiRi scheme – where we take unwanted items from students leaving halls of residence and offer them out again to new students – has been thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding. I’m looking forward to the second Big Collection this summer when
students move out in June, and I’m particularly excited to set up the Free Shops for students arriving in September (they’re great fun to organise and arrange!).
Another highlight of my role has been creating video content for the Residences Love Where You Live campaign, which aims to communicate key information about living in halls to students in interactive ways. Check out my videos here.
Creating instructional videos about how to use the Waste Action Reuse Portal for students (Warp It) has also been a lot of fun and has helped to improve my video editing skills! Social media and comms have been integral to all these projects, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed producing social media posts to help promote them to students.
I have a creative background, having completed a foundation course in Art & Design prior to university, so I’ve really relished the opportunity to do some graphic design as part of my role, creating informational posters for halls of residence and Instagram posts.
One of the things I’ve enjoyed most in my role is working in conjunction with the residences team. As my role is focused around sustainable living, my position is half funded by the University’s Residences team. I loved my time in halls of residence back in 2020 when I was a student here, so it’s been really enjoyable to revisit all the places where I used to spend time! Before starting my current position following completion of my Master’s last September, I worked as an Accommodation Assistant each year, assisting new students with their move in to halls and answering any questions they had about student life. To be able to do a role which combines my interest in student living with my passion for sustainability has been a dream!
As an added highlight, I’m currently taking part in the Circular Economy Masterclass which is run by the University’s Business School. The circular economy is a system where materials
never become waste and nature is regenerated. Taking part in this 6 week course has allowed me to gain an in-depth theoretical knowledge of circular ideas and principles to supplement
my practical circular practices (most namely GiRi!).
Having this knowledge will hopefully help me to contribute to achieving the objectives of our new Circular Economy Strategy.
I’m looking forward to continuing in my role until May 2026, supporting new Green Consultant’s projects and helping to foster sustainable living practices and circular mindsets amongst students