Nottingham College’s Sustainable Futures project is returning this year, giving students the chance to develop ideas that could make a difference to the environment and their local communities.
The next programme will begin just before the October half term, with students from across the College invited to get involved.
The project gives students the opportunity to take an idea and develop it into a practical project, with support from industry professionals along the way. Students pitch their ideas, take part in workshops and then present their final proposals to a panel of judges.
Last year’s programme brought together students from across the College, with teams pitching ideas around some of the biggest sustainability challenges facing society.
The first stage saw groups present their ideas at the initial pitch, with successful teams progressing to the next stage of the competition.
Students then attended a Sustainable Futures conference, where they were given advice on everything from presenting their ideas effectively to understanding how finance works when developing a project.
It was a chance to pick up skills that went beyond the classroom and would be useful whether their idea eventually received funding or not.
The final pitch saw students present their projects to a panel which included Mayor of Nottingham Claire Ward and Lilian Greenwood MP, alongside representatives from Nottingham College and Cartwright Communications.
The winning projects were announced at an event held in Fletcher’s Theatre, attended by more than 120 people.
One of the winning projects came from Supported Learning students at the College’s Basford Campus. Working with their tutor Susan Jones, the students developed a project focused on growing their own food and eventually opening a shop at the campus to sell what they produced.
The students sow the seeds, plant out the seedlings and look after the crops before harvesting them. The produce is then sold, with the students making items such as jams and chutneys from what they grow, as well as selling fresh fruit and vegetables.
The money raised goes back into the project, helping to look after the growing plots and buy more stock for future planting.
It’s a simple idea, but one that gives students the opportunity to learn about growing food, reducing waste and running a small enterprise while working together on something they can see develop over time.
Sustainable Futures is such an important part of our drive to net zero and to considerable culture change. It enables both staff and students to engage in projects that can have real impact, both internally at College but also to wider communities. We are only too happy to see the project return, with more funding and participation from more departmental areas. All of those involved have such fantastic experiences that they can carry through to their professional lives.
Matt Bunn, Photography Lecturer and Sustainable College Lead
The Basford project was just one example of the ideas developed through Sustainable Futures. Other projects explored areas including food waste, consumerism, climate awareness and how creative subjects can be used to communicate sustainability issues.
Students also had the chance to take their ideas outside of the College. Fashion and Textiles students, for example, used funding from Sustainable Futures to develop Eco Day activities as part of Nottingham’s Green Hustle Festival.
The project has given students the opportunity to work with people and organisations outside of College, while developing skills in presenting, budgeting, teamwork and project planning.
Sustainable Futures is part of Nottingham College’s wider work around sustainability. The College has an ambition to reach net zero by 2030 and is continuing to look at how sustainability can be embedded across its campuses, curriculum and wider College community.
Now, the project is getting ready to start again.
The new Sustainable Futures programme will begin just before the October half term, with more funding available and opportunities for students and staff from even more areas of the College to take part.
For those getting involved this year, the challenge is the same: come up with an idea, develop it and see where it can go.
And, as last year’s projects showed, that idea could be anything from growing vegetables at Basford to finding creative new ways to tackle some of the biggest sustainability challenges we face.
