After learning the ropes of the vast undertaking that stretches all across King’s, I quickly identified the first issue from a communications perspective. Through chatting with both staff and students, I ascertained that there was a visibility problem for KCS. Many did not know about King’s climate and sustainability aspirations, or even that KCS even existed to help encourage and facilitate these plans. As we approach summer 2024, nearly halfway through this project, how has this visibility changed, and what work have we done to combat this?
We know from surveys both within and outside of King’s that staff and students are increasingly concerned about the climate crisis. Indeed, a survey from Unite Group showed that students were more concerned about climate change than any other issue in 2021 – including COVID-19, the dominant news piece of that year.
On paper, the climate crisis ought to unite a community and give a collective purpose to a group of individuals. After all, it affects each and every one of us. But in practice, it’s certainly a challenge. At a university as large as King’s, there is a constant stream of new information, a large swathe of communications constantly vying for attention and interaction for both students and staff to engage with, all rightfully deserving their own space and audience. How do you cut through all that, and really begin to engage with a community of 45,000 members, on a subject that in theory, needs everyone’s attention?
Momentum certainly has been building. From a communications perspective, we use various communication channels such as newsletters, social media, and website updates to keep the King's community informed about sustainability initiatives, achievements, and upcoming events. These communications help build awareness and create a sense of involvement.
We have planned to organise educational campaigns on key sustainability topics, starting with a multi-year waste campaign planned from September 2024. These campaigns aim to raise awareness, provide practical tips, and inspire behaviour change within the King's community.
We host debates, seminars, and panel discussions featuring experts, researchers, and activists in the field of climate and sustainability. These events provide opportunities for learning, networking, and sharing ideas among members of the King's community.
Interactive engagement events like a recent tree planting activity, where nearly 1,000 trees were planted by volunteers on King’s sports grounds in April 2024, encourage active participation and demonstrate the collective impact of sustainable actions.
The Climate Action Network is an open, interdisciplinary forum which aims to bring together people from across the King’s community who are passionate about sustainability, now with nearly 500 members. We plan to also seek input and participation from the wider King's community through surveys and focus groups, which will guide not only our upcoming waste campaign, but future campaigns and endeavours. This inclusive approach ensures that community members feel valued and empowered to contribute to sustainability efforts.
Through the Sustainability Champions programme, we recognise and celebrate individuals, teams, and departments that demonstrate outstanding commitment to sustainability. This recognition inspires others to get involved and showcases the collective achievements of the King's community.
I have been consistently inspired by the tireless efforts of my sustainability engagement colleagues, whose knowledge and dedicated passion in identifying opportunities to engage and inform has been impressive and energising. They work tirelessly to create projects and initiatives, such as the aforementioned Climate Action Network and the Sustainability Champions programme, to unite and inspire the wider community.
I identified it was important to create a strapline to attach to the project. We needed a call to action that was simple and powerful, yet effective in succinctly summarising inspiring collective action. After spit-balling a few ideas, we settled on ‘Make Change Together’. It offers inclusivity, suggesting everyone has a role to play, whilst conveying the idea that proactive and impactful action through collective efforts can make meaningful change. It also has a positive and motivating tone, which aims to appeal to a broad audience, as well as being action orientated to offer clarity and appeal to a diverse audience. Essentially, it aims to inspire behaviour change and emphasise community involvement. I strongly believe we have hit that goal through the strapline, and we’ve had excellent feedback from members of the community.
We’ve created a distinctive look and feel to KCS, and we’ve re-hauled the newsletter to make it more streamlined and visually appealing. There are also plans to rehaul the messaging on the website to make it more accessible and offer more resources on how to get involved.
King’s Climate & Sustainability month was a key moment for us during the academic year. It’s when all our hard work comes together to engage with the wider community. I don’t think we could be accused of doing things half-heartedly. Over the five weeks Climate & Sustainability ran this year (22 January – 1 March), 42 events were held. Some were created solely by the KCS team, some were in collaboration with other faculties/directorates, and others were community-led events hosted by staff/students after a call out to run events.
Throughout the month, over 2,300 members of the community attended these events, equating to 110 hours of engagements. From a communications perspective, we reached nearly 100,000 people through our channels. We also held pop-up stalls across all campuses, engaging with staff and students (with free sustainable vegan cake to entice). We saw that Instagram was an effective tool for disseminating messages. Through identifying the social media platform as a key tool for engaging with students, we’ve recruited a Content Creator, who is a student at King’s. The thought behind this was to create content for students, by a current student, with the hope of creating more relevant and fresh content for the student community.
We also identified that there is a rich array of insight and projects across King’s that needed a place to showcase, a space to amplify. That’s why we’ve created Ripple Effects, a new blog to showcase different perspectives, projects and think-pieces about all things climate and sustainability, which you’ll be reading this very piece on! The aim is for the blog to cast a ‘green light’ – pun intended - on case studies from across the King's spectrum, from education, operations, and research projects, to initiatives, events, and think-pieces. We recognise the importance of bringing everyone's voices into the conversation on climate, celebrating our diverse strengths and pooling our knowledge to help make the world a more sustainable place. We are always looking for more perspectives to add to the pot, so if you are interested in contributing, do get in touch to discuss further.
It's a starting point, but I believe we have made great strides in the past year. Visibility will only get stronger, and it’s clear that we are gaining some momentum. The climate crisis isn’t going away; it will be omnipresent throughout our lives. Universities are in the advantageous position to be educating the leaders of tomorrow, whilst pioneering world leading research and innovation through interdisciplinary thinking. But we still need the help of the community to come together and take collective action. The time is now. I call on all the King’s community to engage with us, take action and ‘Make Change Together’.