New beginnings and creating change collaboratively – an Earth Day Q&A with Head of Environment and Climate Emergency, Dr Emma Page

Earth Day originated in America to raise awareness about environmental protection and is celebrated on 22 April; this year marking 50 years of raising awareness about environmental matters. Dr Emma Page is the Head of Environment and Climate Emergency at the University of Exeter and started in October 2019. For her, with Earth Day coinciding with spring, it’s not just about campaigning and providing a spotlight on our commitments and progress, it also means new beginnings, fresh ideas and hope. It’s a date in the environmental calendar that we can use to celebrate and get others involved through events, challenges and positive action.

We caught up with Emma to ask her some questions, and find out how we can get involved in combating climate change.

What drew you to work in the area of sustainability?

I have always loved nature and the outdoors and was drawn to work in the area of sustainability by a love of nature and interested in making a difference, my first job involved managing pollution issues and all manner of environmental management as an Environmental Health Officer. This meant getting involved and finding solutions to waste issues, investigation of air pollution events and chemical spills, creating environmental management systems for businesses, building mitigation and improvement plans, as well as community engagement; and every role since has had a similar focus.

What does your role involve?

I am developing a team and the response to the Environment and Climate Emergency White Paper – 20 key themes and over 288 recommendations. This includes setting up Forums, bringing contributors together to prioritise recommendation, identify additional ideas, quick wins and identify key actions that will bring about transformational change. As part of this programme of work, we are looking for support from students, staff and suppliers to work with us to deliver this agenda and have already started to progress many of the recommendations in the Working Group Report. There are a number of exciting programmes underway and working with the new Environment and Climate Emergency Board to set out new governance structure and approach, new ways of working as well as data collection and reporting, engagement and incentive programmes in the coming months.

Given the University’s commitment to tackling its declared Climate and Environment Emergency what are some of the key outcomes you are aiming to achieve in your role?

I am aiming to achieve transformational change for the University and not just meet the goals by the target date but exceed these and embed positive environmental change across all aspects of the University. This would be from area such as Climate literacy in the curriculum, and carbon neutral buildings, which I believes will reflect the commitment of the leadership team, deliver the expectations of the staff and students and bring about meaningful outcomes.

What do you believe are some of the biggest challenges and opportunities facing us due to climate change?

I believe that the biggest challenge facing the University in adopting the Environment and Climate Change agenda is infrastructure change. However, since mid-March due to the Coronavirus pandemic, we are now working in new ways, embracing change in our daily lives and we are learning to positively embrace reduced travel, work remotely/ virtually and take care of our community. I’m hopeful we can continue the momentum to reduce the need to travel and embrace the lessons learned from the current time, which may enable us to truly adopt the Climate Emergency as an emergency.

In your opinion what are some key actions that still need to be taken in order to support our earth? How can people get involved?

There are many key actions that we can all take in our day to day lives in our new ways of working; taking ownership for simple things that change our footprint – reducing the key major carbon intensive activities including car travel, business travel, looking at what we buy – its travel miles, its carbon footprint in production /sourcing, the impact of food that we buy and impact on natural resources.

University wide, we are still at the beginning of our journey and the Colleges and Professional Service teams are just starting to identify what actions they will take and own to achieve Carbon Net Zero for their own footprint. This programme is totally dependent on involvement of individuals across the University. Whether by joining one of the Thematic Forums to contribute savings ideas or progress actions, aligning student projects to the one of the White paper recommendations, hosting engagement events, or pledging leadership action to drive initiatives forward and realise savings, everyone can get involved.

To find out more email Emma or the Climate Emergency Inbox.