Day: 4 September 2014

Hello, I’m Olivia and have recently joined the King’s sustainability team as Sustainability Projects Assistant. After volunteering at Sussex students’ union, whilst studying for my undergraduate degree, as Ethical and Environmental Officer I have always been keen to move into a role working in sustainability within a large organisation such as a university.

Since my undergraduate degree I have worked in various voluntary sector organisations including Stepney City Farm, Forum for the Future and, FareShare, all of which have sustainability at their heart. They have all been wonderful organisations to give me a base understanding in what it takes to practically address sustainability issues in today’s world.

Last September I began a MA in Environment, Politics and Globalisation and King’s so I could gain a deeper understanding of contemporary sustainability issues. So when the job on the Sustainability team was advertised I thought what a perfect opportunity to practically apply what I had learnt during my MA and in previous roles.  I am extremely excited to be working at King’s, an organisation that I really care about and want to help become a more sustainable place for students and staff alike. I know it is going to be a challenging role, as King’s is such a diverse and large environment, but nevertheless rewarding!

On a more personal note I am passionate about organic horticulture and food production and would love to have an allotment in London, if only the waiting lists were shorter! I am particularly interested in modern day food systems and the associated sustainability issues. I am also a keen knitter, mad about cycling, book worm and, love disco and funk.

Please do be in touch if you have any sustainability ideas about what you would like to see happen at King’s, no matter how big or small; we are all ears!

Hi, my name is Sarah and I am the new intern joining King’s sustainability team, working as a sustainability projects assistant. I am very excited about joining the team and starting my role, and thought this would be a nice way to introduce myself to everyone.

I am just about to finish my MSc in Environmental modelling, monitoring and management at King’s which as the title suggests has given me a good background in Environmental studies. I completed my undergraduate at Exeter University in geography as well.  In my spare time I set up a small cupcake business, attending the local food market in Dorset (http://www.belmontbakery.moonfruit.com) and I hope to continue this whilst here in London!

I have always been keen on working in a role which can help to make a difference for the environment, so when this internship arose I was delighted! With my background in geography I normally associated sustainability with the environment, i.e. waste and energy. Sustainability, and this role at King’s, covers a much broader spectrum than this, including ethics, culture and food and I am very eager to learn more about these areas.

Being a scientist, I like to monitor and measure things, so I decided to use a carbon footprint calculator at the beginning and end of my internship to see if I can improve my personal sustainability over the year. I used the WWF calculator (http://footprint.wwf.org.uk/) which showed my footprint as 20.9 carbon tonnes, (this means we’d need 3.31 planets to survive if everyone lived like me!). Hopefully over this year I can lower this value, by learning through the internship, and hopefully encourage others across the King’s campuses to do the same.

I am very excited about the next 12 months, working with multiple projects with staff and students across the campuses, as well as providing connections between King’s and external organisations. I am looking forward to engaging with people’s ideas surrounding sustainability and promoting projects that can create change.

I hope to hear from you all soon,

Sarah