In support of the Student Green League, Gavin Bath (Campus and Sustainability Rep for Royce Hall) has written a guest blog for us…

Why do we need to take positive action? Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for years, you will have heard and seen about our changing climate, and hopefully this should be enough for you to want to take action. To further this, check out this great interactive web page which demonstrates how the world’s most populous regions have been affected by extreme heat since 2013. Carbon Brief explains how “Extreme heat events can have serious health impacts – Europe’s 2003 summer heatwave, for example, caused more than 70,000 deaths. Extreme heat can also worsen air quality problems and ground-level ozone, exacerbate drought and wildfire risk, reduce labour productivity, damage infrastructure and reduce crop yields.”

So, do you want to make a meaningful positive change to your local community? Do you want to learn and grow by joining the environmental movement that is sweeping our Earth? Do you want to take action towards making the Earth greener instead of waiting around for other people to get started?  

Well then, let’s be the change that we want to see and learn more about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs for short!). SDG’s were made by the United Nations as a blueprint of goals and targets for countries to aim for in order to make the world a more peaceful and prosperous place.  There are 17 goals in place.

They range from social targets, such as reducing gender inequality and poverty levels, to more environmentally focused targets such as being able to access clean renewable energy and creating sustainable cities and communities.  

You don’t need to be a United Nations Ambassador in order to make a meaningful difference (although if you are one you certainly can make a difference)! We can all take small scale action in order to help meet the SDG’s, for example if you’re interested in improving access to education you can sign up as a mentor and help your fellow students, or join one of the many social mobility charities such as Zero Gravity which work towards improving access to opportunities for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Whilst it may pose a bit of a challenge to make a completely functioning sustainable city by yourself, you can go a step smaller and ensure that your lifestyle at university is sustainable. By recycling, turning off the lights when you’re not using them, using your food waste bin correctly, and learning more about sustainability and what you can do to make a meaningful positive impact about the environment, you are making a HUGE difference! Check the links above for relevant information from our Loughborough University Sustainability website for specific how-to’s.

It’s easy to feel helpless in the face of adversity, however by each of us taking meaningful positive action towards taking care of mother nature, day by day and step by step we are working together towards achieving a more green, a more peaceful, and a brighter future!  

If SDG’s are a topic that you are interested in, feel free to explore more at the United Nations dedicated website.  

This article is in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 13: Climate Action. To read more click here.

If you’d like to write a blog for us to support the Student Green League, email enviroassist@lboro.ac.uk with your topic suggestion.