This year’s FHSS Sustainability Student Summer Summit attracted more than 70 students and 49 were enrolled. 39 students finally participated in both taught and project components of the Summit and received their certificates of completion.

It was a three-week Summer programme in June exploring sustainability development topics that provided students with the opportunity to apply their learning to real-world situations. In the first week taught component students learned from UNNC academics from all three faculties and CELE, as well as external speakers. Under the supervision of UNNC academics, students then worked on projects for 2 weeks, presenting the outcome of their work at the award ceremony at the end of the three weeks.

Michaela Seserman (CELE), Dr Sadia Jamil (FHSS), Dr Svenja Hanson (FOSE), Professor Jing Dai (NUBS China), and external speaker Dr Robert E. Gutsche Jr (Florida Atlantic University) gave taught sessions about freecycling and reUNNC, sustainable journalism and corporate social responsibility, future energy and climate change, green supply chain management, and social justice. Michaela Seserman, Dr Sadia Jamil and Dr Svenja Hanson then supervised student projects.

Highlights of student works include the production of two promotional posters and two 5-minute videos introducing reUNNC and the BYOC campaign, supervised by Michaela Seserman. These materials will be used during induction week to introduce new students to freecycling and waste reduction on campus. Students supervised by Dr Jamil and Dr Hanson focused on research projects on the topics of news reporting about sustainability, and carbon emission reports released by local and international companies respectively. Students working with Dr Jamil completed the first draft of an academic paper which will be submitted to a journal later in 2023.

Students enjoyed their time at the summit and equally enjoyed the taught and project components. A key outcome of the summit is the creation of high-quality outputs which will be used by staff and student associations to promote waste reduction, and the completion of academic work giving students the opportunity to participate in research as part of their studies. FHSS will continue to run this Summit as an annual activity and look forward to welcoming the next cohort of students.