NetZero News
The NetZero Society has enjoyed an immensely successful start as a society at Heriot-Watt. Since its formation in early 2022, committee members of the society have put in many hours of hard work to provide everyone at the university with a diverse range of informative and engaging events, with a focus on career, research, and lifestyle. All this hard work has recently been recognised at the Heriot-Watt Student Union Volunteer Awards 2023 where the society won the “Strive for Sustainability award”!
Here are some of our past workshops, talks and site visits that have been organised for everyone at Heriot-Watt to take part in!
Career
Skills and Change for a Sustainable Future
November’s Sustainability week saw the society collaborate with the Chemistry society to host its most successful event of the year. It centred on providing information on the skills needed to have a successful career in a sustainability related field. We had over 100 attendees both online and in person show up to learn necessary skills from experienced academics in sustainability related fields from multiple Heriot-Watt campuses. This event was nominated for the Event of the Year award at the Volunteer Awards 2023.
Network with Net-Zero
On 8th of March, we collaborated with the Heriot-Watt Muslim Society to bring speakers from different industries to Heriot-Watt. This event provided an informative discussion and networking opportunity with professionals working in sustainable fields.
INEOS site visit
On 29th March we made an exciting trip to INEOS Grangemouth for a site tour and interesting discussion with Helen Stewart, Sustainability Manager, and Pavel Vedernikov, Process Engineer and Grangemouth Energy Network member. The talks were centred on their plans to reach their net zero goals by 2045 and ways they influence colleagues to make sustainable lifestyle choices. We aim to continue to work with INEOS in our future events.
Research
Find your footprint workshops
This semester, we kicked off our research with a series of workshops to evaluate the carbon footprint of Heriot-Watt and provide some positive ‘handprint’ suggestions – ways in which the university could reduce its carbon footprint and be all around more sustainable. The workshops brought student and staff members together to build the survey and exchange ideas on the choices we make to live more sustainably. The workshops were a great success, and the results are to be expected in the coming weeks!
Lifestyle
Cook along class
We hosted a cooking class showcasing tips and tricks on how to be more sustainable and waste free in the kitchen, while at the same time making some great food.
Environmental wellness panel
This workshop allowed for important discussions to take place on topics such as climate anxiety and environmental well-being, thanks to our panel of well-being experts and students.
Socials
To bring like-minded people together and build a community where everyone is heard we organised fun socials throughout the year. This year we organised meditative nature walks, a living social exhibition visit at the Royal Botanical Gardens, litter picks, a picnic by the loch, sports in the meadows and a movie night.
It has been a fantastic start to the NetZero Society, and we thank all our members, collaborators, and funders for the immense support we have received. This success would not have been possible without each one of you!
Please keep an eye out for the many more events that will be brought to you in the future from the NetZero Society!
Sir Patrick Valance, Chief Scientific Advisor UK, and Professor Julie Fitzpatrick, Chief Scientific Adviser Scotland, with Ashween Virdee, President of the NetZero Society, during a visit to the RCCS labs.