Environmental Sustainability at York (ESAY)

📢 Final call to submit your event or activity for Sustainability Week 2025! The University of York's annual Sustainability Week (SW) offers staff and students the opportunity to organise or join a range of fun and engaging activities relating to sustainability and the environment. SW25 will take place 3-7 March 2025. ➡️ Submit your sustainability or environment-related event/activity (deadline: 19 January): https://bit.ly/3Z8pYGz #SustainabilityWeek #SW25 #sustainabilityatyork

Nature on Campus: ‘Rijnveld's Early Sensation’ Daffodil (Narcissus) 🌼 Several drifts of Rijnveld's Early Sensation daffodils are currently in bloom on campus. Unlike most daffodils typically associated with spring, this early-flowering variety began blooming late last month—providing much-needed early season forage for bees. Despite a recent cold weather slowing their progress, they continue to bring a touch of springtime cheer to the winter landscape. Where to find them? 📍 You can admire these bright yellow blooms along Newton Way and catch a glimpse of a few more starting to flower on the large roundabout at the entrance to Campus East. Keep an eye out for more of our biodiversity highlights in our #NatureOnCampus series! #Biodiversity #biodiversitylivinglab #sustainabilityatyork #CampusWildlife #Daffodils #WildlifeOnCampus

📅 Play for the Planet 2 - Save the date | Call for proposals (25 April 2025, 9am to 5pm, in-person at University of York) Are you curious about the role of games in tackling environmental challenges? Whether you’re a game designer, researcher, or just passionate about the planet, Play for the Planet invites you to connect, learn, and play! This one-day event explores how games—tabletop, digital, and role-playing—can drive education, research, and public engagement on climate and ecological crises. Why join? - Link research and practice in environmental gaming. - Share your experience designing or researching environmental games. - Learn how to use games for education and engagement. - Connect, collaborate, and explore new directions in environmental communication. How to get involved? - Research Blast: Give a 3-minute, 1-slide intro to your work. Abstract deadline: 12pm, 17th January 2025 - World café question: Suggest a discussion topic on games and the environment. - Game speed intro: Showcase a game you’ve designed or researched. - Join the fun: Bring your ideas, play with others, and imagine new possibilities. ➡️ Submit an abstract to speak (deadline 17 January): https://bit.ly/41jIJbo ➡️ Sign up to attend: https://bit.ly/41jIJbo #PlayForThePlanet

Our campus at the University of York has welcomed us back with beautiful, wintry scenes after Christmas ❄️ Take a look at Campus East transformed by the frost yesterday! #UniversityOfYork

Play for the planet: five climate change games for the festive season (written by Dr Lynda Dunlop and Prasad Sandbhor)🎄 Climate conversations at Christmas can be tough - but what if games could help? While many people in the UK worry about climate change, holiday traditions around travel, gifts, and waste often spark disagreement. Games, however, offer a unique way to bring people together, encouraging playful, non-threatening discussions about climate action. Our wonderful colleagues Dr Lynda Dunlop and Prasad Sandbhor from the University of York have written an article for The Conversation, sharing five games to try for stimulating conversations about climate change over the holidays. ➡️ Read their article to find out more! https://lnkd.in/dHHWJi4A #sustainabilityatyork #PlayForThePlanet

12 Days Wild: the Wildlife Trusts ❄️ 12 Days Wild is a festive nature challenge from the Wildlife Trusts, encouraging you to do one wild thing a day from the 25 December to the 5 January. Your wild acts could be little things to help nature - like recycling your Christmas tree or feeding the birds – or ways to connect to the natural world, like taking in the calm of stargazing. Find out more and get involved here: https://bit.ly/2YzQCHj

Engendering Change conference: Inspiring creative solutions for York’s sustainable future 🌱 On 29 November, 2nd Year students from the Department of Environment and Geography came together for the Engendering Change conference, marking the culmination of a solutions-focused module addressing real-world challenges in food, transport, and energy systems for the City of York. Throughout the Engendering Change module, students received theoretical and practical guidance before collaborating in teams to design creative, actionable strategies for transformational change. Their efforts culminated in a professional-style conference organised by a student-led committee of six, who were responsible for crafting an agenda, inviting guest speakers, and ensuring the event mirrored professional conferences. With 175 students, and 15 external guests, the conference featured: 🌿 A keynote by Ian Mackay from Leeds City Council 🌿 Breakout sessions showcasing student-led innovative solutions 🌿 Insights and connections with external guests including Cllr Kate Ravilious and Cllr Paula Widdowson, along with representatives from City of York Council, Good Food York, Edible York, and York Community Energy. Guests praised the professionalism of the students’ presentations and their visionary ideas, which offer hope for York’s sustainable future. A huge well done to all the student teams for their outstanding presentation efforts and to the student committee for organising such a brilliant and inspiring conference! ➡️ Read the full story to learn more about the creative solutions that emerged from this inspiring day: https://bit.ly/4gA9kFI #sustainabilityatyork

Celebrating the Sustainability Clinic highlights 2023/24! 🎉 As the year draws to a close, we think that it's the perfect time to reflect on and celebrate our achievements. We’re thrilled to share the Sustainability Clinic Highlights Report 2023/24! In September 2023, the Sustainability Clinic became an elective module open to all undergraduate and taught postgraduate students. This hands-on, interdisciplinary module has since empowered hundreds of students to tackle real-world sustainability challenges, creating meaningful change for organisations across the region. Key highlights include: 🌿 Winning a Green Gown Award for student engagement 🌿 Earning a Highly Commended recognition at the International Green Gown Awards 🌿 Engaging 500+ students and collaborating with 70+ organisations to date 🌿 Attracting students from diverse disciplines, including Maths, Education, Archaeology, and Politics (to name a few!) We encourage you to explore the full Highlights Report to read inspiring case studies, success stories, and find out how you might be able to get involved in the module. ➡️ You can find the link to the Full Highlights Report at the bottom of this page: https://bit.ly/3Vxuw79 A huge thanks to all the staff, partner organisations, GTAs and student teams who have helped make this module a success so far! #sustainabilityclinic

The University of York has been ranked the 12th most sustainable university in the UK and 34th in the world, according to the QS Sustainability Rankings 2025 🌍 These rankings assess 1,744 universities worldwide on their impact in addressing Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) challenges, in which York achieved the #1 global position for governance. Some of York's recent sustainability initiatives include: 🌿 3000+ trees planted on campus grounds in 2023/24 🌿 £153,815 raised to reinvest in sustainable projects through the Latte Levy since 2019 🌿 100+ staff and students have participated in Climate Fresk workshops, with 20+ facilitators trained 🌿 2,800 people reached through Green Impact at York actions in 2023/24 with 192 teams participating. ➡️ You can see the full QS World Sustainability Rankings 2025 by visiting here: https://bit.ly/4gj3Y1k ➡️ Read our latest Sustainability Annual Progress Report to find out how we're advancing on our sustainability objectives: https://bit.ly/3ZsnWzO #sustainabilityatyork

There's still time to submit your event or activity to Sustainability Week 2025! The University of York's annual Sustainability Week (SW) offers staff and students the opportunity to organise or join a range of fun and engaging activities relating to sustainability and the environment. SW25 will take place 3-7 March 2025. ➡️ Submit your event/activity (deadline 31 December): https://bit.ly/3Z8pYGz #SustainabilityWeek #SW25 #sustainabilityatyork