Green Gown Awards 2021: Sustainability Champion–Staff-Edinburgh Napier University,A. Duggal-Finalist

Ankit Duggal

I reinforced the garden club with a sustainability initiative to equip students and local community volunteers to make the campus a more widely used resource. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need to connect with nature and promote environmental sustainability, alongside the practical virus security of utilising outdoor space, campaigning the creation of green space and community food resources through developing new space within the campuses. We cultivated the area by adding new beds, one tonne of sustainable soil, manure, and sand, alongside weather protection in order to form an outdoor community classroom space, that is integrated with a practical food resource enabling people from across the community to learn more about climate change, contribute to greenhouse gas reduction and bring technology in support of nature. I extended this project to our other two campuses that are three to six miles apart. I advocated and supported the active transport of our sustainable environment team in the University. It is evident that everyone can play a part to help climate change.

Top 3 learnings:

1. An opportunity to participate in hands-on learning that teaches not only the intended subject but also responsibility, teamwork, and respect for nature.
2. Practice the learning of turning food waste into useful compost and reduce the carbon footprint in transportation.
3. Awareness for biodiversity and climate change; in addition, how everyone can contribute within their limited resources.

Videos

• Video #1 (click to hide)