Thank you for coming to the third annual Ethical & Environmental officer training day.

Whether you’re new to your role, a returning officer, or a staff member who has been plugging away at this agenda for years I hope you find today useful and informative.

 Today is not only a chance for you to see what NUS and NUSSL are doing in terms of environmental campaigns and initiatives. It is first and foremost a great opportunity for you to learn from others around this room, an opportunity for you to showcase to the movement the great work taking place in your unions.

For those of you who have attended previous E&E events today will be markedly different. There will not only be more opportunities to see how NUS and NUSSL have expanded our programs and initiatives.

Change was the buzz word of the last year. It was rife in NUS, and the E&E section was no different. For many years the NUSSL ethical and environmental manager had been a lone soldier, banging on about his work to anyone who would listen.

Year on year he got more unions involved in Sound Impact and NUSSL’s other schemes, which you will hear about more shortly. Success led to expansion, and soon more and more people were paying attention to what was happening in this new and exciting department. That led to new posts being created and more schemes up and running.

But last year this expansion took on new and exciting routes. Working together NUS and NUSSL secured funding for the expansion of the Carbon Academy program, the continuation of the Sound Impact award scheme, and a considerable sum of money from the Greener Living Fund for a brand new behavioural change program.

I was delighted to have been involved in this work last year as a block of 12 member in NUS, and was even more delighted to be elected in April as the first ever Vice President Society & Citizenship, at such a crucial time in the climate change debate, and such a exciting time internally with all this new projects taking shape.

You shall hear all about how our new schemes shortly, but for the moment I just wanted to say a massive thank you to all the staff in the E&E team in NUSSL for getting us to this stage.

Of course its not just NUS and NUSSL which have seen this area of work expand. Your unions and our colleges and Universities are placing greater emphasis on the ethical and environmental agenda, and NUS and NUSSL are working with individual institutions and sector bodies to help them address their ethical and environmental dilemmas.

And of course with the creation of a new Vice President post NUS’ environmental commitment can stretch beyond simply changing the lives of individuals and our institutions, and in addition focus on the bigger, greater environmental challenges in wider society.

It’s not just NUS which has seen radical changes over the last 18 months. Across the NGO and campaigning community, as well as within education, government and the media- climate change has gained significant prominence and credibility. More and more leaders within institutions and within Government are looking for action and creative solutions.

This is why I am pleased here today there will be opportunities for delegates to see what other external partners are doing in the wider ethical and environmental movement. Over the coming months in the lead up to the crucial negotiations in Copenhagen NUS will be ensuring our members are informed, and active in shaping the debate, feeding in their thoughts on what national and international leaders should do to resolve the biggest challenge facing our generation.

Of course as students unions our primary focus will be on changing our members behaviour, and altering practices within the institution. But as a organisation with a large and active membership we can add a important dimension to the climate change campaigns. Last year I affiliated NUS to Stop Climate Chaos, to ensure we were not only focused on shifting behaviour at a local individual level, but nationally, collectively shifting the UK government to take bold and crucial steps towards a low carbon future.

NUS and NUSSL approach to the environmental agenda has come a long way in a very short time. But remember there is still lots more that can be done. Over the course of today I hope you feel energised and inspired to get more involved in our work over the coming months. If you have any questions or ideas that you want to explore please do not hesitate to ask questions or speak to any one of us during the breaks.

I wish you a successful day and let’s hope that when we meet again next year we can talk about even greater paths for greening our students unions, our Universities and society at large. 

Resources from the E&E training day can be found here.

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