Green Gown Awards 2020 - STUDENT - Meggie Eloy and Carla Field, University of Leicester - Highly Com

HIGHLY COMMENDED: Sustainabiity Chamption - STUDENT - Meggie Eloy and Carla Field, University of Leicester

As a geographer and a law student, we felt that our University needed to improve its environmental conscience, so we decided to act. We formed the University’s only sustainability-focused student society and ran many activities and campaigns to make a difference. 

One of our proudest achievements was creating a zero waste shop for students and staff on campus. After consistently running pop up shops across campus, we built an evidence-based business case to pitch to the University of what students want. Fast forward a year and there is now a dedicated space for zero waste goods on campus. 

Our second, but equally important focus, was to advance our University’s investment policy and ensure that every investment made considered the social and environmental impacts. Through various meetings with the University’s Finance Director and Goldman-Sachs, our thorough research and persuasive argument meant that we were able to encourage the University to directly divest from fossil fuels and influence a new highly acclaimed Ethical Investment Policy. 

Top 3 learnings:

1. Every institution can and should do more for the environment.  
2. Student opportunities are not limited to their degree.  
3. Being sustainable does not mean spending more money.