Students from 23 universities across the UK and Ireland attended the inaugural meeting of the Student Sustainability Council, an initiative spearheaded by climate activists at UCL.
‘SSusCo’ convened for the first time last month with over 30 delegates in attendance and adopted a national campaign for sustainable banking in higher education.
SSusCo aims to coordinate lobbying efforts by activists on students’ unions and universities to become more sustainable, and educate students about their potential to fight the climate crisis through online and in-person events.
This breakthrough project comes as the Students’ Union is expected to announce it will soon stop banking with Barclays (p3), the major funder of oil and gas, after months of campaigning by outgoing Sustainability Officer Alan Salazar and his student team, at UCL’s chapter of the SSuSCo.
Alan, who spearheaded SSusCo, said: “I think it’s an invaluable platform to do so much more.”
The first motion was tabled by the UCL delegates sought to expand their sustainable banking campaign across all member universities.
Speaking to The Cheese Grater, Alan explained: “Some banks are the main financiers of the fossil industry, so if students nationwide signal that they’re switching away from them for more sustainable alternatives, you will be providing [banks] a financial incentive to divest.” Banks listed include Barclays and JP Morgan, which operates Chase UK.
“It could seriously have an incredible impact”, he said.
Asked whether lobbying UCL and the Union were on SSusCo’s agenda, incoming Sustainability Officer Oskar Baltrop said: “The immediate focus is on student action,” but added influencing institutional banking remains a long-term objective.
A second motion adopted by SSusCo, tabled by delegates from Reading, aimed at raising awareness about misleading pricing strategies used by energy providers to push overconsumption, and “promote cost- efficient and environmentally-friendly providers”.
‘Not a one-time thing’
Activists discussed in length the organisation of the newborn council.
Alan emphasised the importance of strong “institutional building” to “ensure SSusCo is “not a one-time thing”.
“We’re building slowly, but very professionally with the right tools through which the Council can actually exist in time, rather than simply [in] name”.
UCL delegates will host two more meetings of SSusCo until the next rotation of the chair, but it is not yet clear how this will happen.
Asked during the meeting what would happen if no one stepped up to chair the meetings, Alan said: “I hope it doesn’t come to that.
He added: “We need more people to care, and the truth is that we have so many passionate people in our community.
“We just need to provide them with the right resources and tools — hopefully now that will be the case [with SSusCo].”
Union backing at last?
The sustainability officer also praised the support and resources provided by the Union.
The formalisation of UCL’s chapter of SSusCo as an official Union body took place last week when it was ratified by Union Executive.
The relationship between the sustainability officer and his Union hierarchy appears to have smoothed out, after Alan publicly criticised Education Officer Shaban Chaudhary in a Zone meeting back in February.
The sustainability officer had said: “I am finding it very frustrating and feel not supported by the Union.”
He specifically regretted the officer’s “lack of engagement” with a policy proposal aiming to ban fossil companies from UCL Careers events, adding Chaudhary never responded to his emails.
This article appeared in CG92
