Lauren Hunter, YU Communications and Data Insights Officer & Kate Hainsworth, YU Associate An era of implementation COP30 concluded with a clear message: the time for implementation is now. At the summit, world leaders agree to accelerating implementation of the Paris Agreement, expand finance for adaption, launch a Technology Implementation Program, and strengthen cooperation across …
On 5 March 2025, the Student Sustainability Research Conference welcomed students from across the Yorkshire & Humber region to showcase their sustainability-themed research, projects and installations. Over 100 students, from the twelve member institutions of Yorkshire Universities (YU), had the opportunity to present their research in a professional conference setting and learn from their student …
Monika Antal, YU Assistant Director This article was first published by Wonkhe on 25 June 2024 A root and branch audit of twelve higher education institutions across Yorkshire has found that students across the region are being offered real-life challenges to apply their academic knowledge and critical thinking skills to meet genuine community needs related …
Sustainability is at the heart of higher education institutions across Yorkshire – a new report published today reveals. The new Yorkshire Universities guide also highlights how the commitment across the region’s HE sector to collaborate with external partners and embrace Service Learning was enabling students to obtain “real world opportunities” to use their skills and help address …
Invitation to the launch of our Good Practice Guide on Engaging Students with Sustainability through Service Learning. The YU Good Practice Guide for Engaging Students with Sustainability through Service Learning has been produced following completion of a pilot project funded by the UPP Foundation and we’re launching it online on the 24th of June. Service …
Hannah Wyatt In March, I had the opportunity to represent the University of Hull at an event focused on sustainability and student engagement across Yorkshire – the Student Sustainability Research Conference (SSRC) held at the University of Leeds, where my team and I led an interactive workshop session based on our Eco-Sprint project. The journey …
The Student Sustainability Research Conference, held at the University of Leeds on 6 March 2024, showcased the research of over 100 students from across Yorkshire. This is the second year that the conference has been open to students from the twelve Yorkshire Universities (YU) member institutions across all levels and disciplines. The collaborative approach to …
Yuki Gauchan and Monika Antal, Yorkshire Universities On 1 December 2023, jointly with the Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission (YHCC) and the UPP Foundation we hosted a Multi-University Challenge Day on sustainability. The event showcased the power of collaboration among students from across the twelve universities in Yorkshire. Working together, they generated innovative ideas on a challenge …
Place-based approaches to policymaking seem to be gaining momentum in the UK. Whether people think it is cost-effective or feel it is just the right thing to do, the fact is that, over the last few years, there has been an increased interest in understanding the interconnections and relationships within a place and how working together can have a broader, deeper, and lasting change for the community. Within this context, in Hull and East Yorkshire, we have invited policymakers, academics and people with lived experience to sit at the same table, reflect on their role and take action and responsibility for improving the quality of life of their communities. In so doing, we have three underlying assumptions.
Given that it is widely acknowledged that the cheapest energy is that which you don’t use, we take a tangential approach to issues of energy prices and inflation and focus on energy efficiency policy that reduces demand at source. Our focus is housing retrofitting from an institutional or framework perspective. We briefly set out what retrofitting is (since this is a moving target), and what the need for it is in the UK. We then focus on the Climate Change Committee’s current assessment of policy. This brings to the fore the government’s minimalist approach to ‘developing a market’. We argue that this approach invokes an individualised market psychology which is both conceptually and practically problematic, given the need for urgency and the current situation of inflation and uncertainty. We conclude by suggesting a fundamental rethink is required.