One Planet Week
One Planet Week runs every year to celebrate and share the University's sustainability knowledge and research to staff, students and the wider public. We are using Bioregional's One Planet Living® framework.
One Planet Week aims to provide a platform from which to promote awareness, and share knowledge and actions on sustainability to staff, students and the wider community. The title reminds us that we live on a planet with finite resources and that currently we're living beyond those limited means - every year the average European consumes 3 planet’s worth of resources (for the USA the figure is 5 planet’s worth)!
This year we have a range of on-campus and online, with the online events also being recorded for catch-up on the Sustainability YouTube Channel.
For presentations given outside of One Planet Week, we have a range of sustainability and climate change themed talks within our York Ideas YouTube playlist.
“Sustainability is at the core of our university strategy, and is becoming ever more pressing. Our Plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030 is under way, so for One Planet Week this year I encourage you to find out more about what we're doing, and to get involved with the research, educational and social events planned by our students and staff.”
Charlie Jeffrey, Vice-Chancellor
One Planet Week 2023: Land and Nature
Our theme for 2023 was Land and Nature and our timetable of events for the week featured a range of events. We had talks, workshops, competitions and social events all related to our sustainability theme and open to staff students and the wider public.
One of the 10 principles of One Planet Living® (a framework by Bioregional), Land and Nature focuses on creating, protecting and restoring land for the benefit of people and wildlife. It promotes positive impacts on natural ecosystems and not to harm them, from extraction to production and retail. It further outlines the need to source materials responsibly and eliminate the use of materials associated with the destruction of natural habitats, while making a positive impact to local biodiversity.
Through some of our events we looked at what biodiversity means now and through time, how natural habitats can be created on small and larger scales and how to work with and protect natural resources for the benefit of both people and wildlife. We also explored the importance of biodiversity on human wellbeing through our on-campus guided walk, how to transform our senses for nature and a cooking demo was provided by our on campus chefs. Whilst our Art and Media competition provided some fantastic examples from our staff and students inspired by Land and Nature.
All recorded talks for the week are now available on our Sustainability YouTube Channel and our student written contributions around the theme can be found on our blog.
Previous themes and events
Find out more about our previous One Planet Week events in the dropdowns below.
OPW22’s theme was Equity and Local Economy, which focused on a range of sustainable events revolving around the topics of local food, climate crisis, practical actions and sustainable businesses. It saw events such as a live cooking demo using locally sourced sustainable food, to learning about Yorkshire’s bioeconomy and business growth. There was a wide range of workshops and discussions with many social events and activities. Some of the presentations from the week can be found on the OPW22 playlist on our Sustainability YouTube channel.
We moved all our activities online for 2021 and covered sustainability related to Culture and Community, including sharing a virtual meal in our online cooking demo. We also looked at how different communities are affected by the climate crisis and how sustainability solutions can affect and interact with those with disabilities. Some of the presentations from the week are available on our OPW21 playlist on our Sustainability Youtube Channel
OPW20 was on the theme of Zero Carbon and included a range of educational and practical events to show how low carbon living could be achieved. We teamed up with GIKI to help people find low carbon foods when they shop and ran a community volunteering event to plant 1000 trees for One Planet both on campus and on local school and community recreation grounds. Some of the presentations from the week can be found on the OPW20 playlist of our Sustainability Youtube channel.
#OPW19
OPW2019 had some great events from the Ocean Plastics Exhibition to Ethical Clothes Swaps, Quizzes, Tombola, Eco-cafe crawls and making your own Beeswax Wrap workshop.
We also had our "More Sustainable Options" labels in the Nisa in Market Square, which highlighted local and seasonal products, vegan options, Fairtrade accreditations, recycled materials, and/or use of sustainable palm oil.
Our calendar below shows all the activities which ran throughout the week.
The calendar is visible to all members of the University - you need to be logged into your University Google Account to see it. Click the +Google Calendar button (bottom right) to subscribe to the calendar.
#OPW18
In 2018 staff and students demonstrated their commitment to the theme (and principle) of Zero Waste!
Starting with a Karaoke Night in the Courtyard, #OPW18 included a range of workshops from upcycling to fixing musical instruments; a college recycling audit competition; a Zero Waste Challenge; a virtual Wonder Wander in the 3Sixty Room; and building a bug hotel building - to name but a few.
What next?
Being more sustainable isn’t just for One Planet Week!
Check out our web pages to find out more things that you can do to make sure you're living more sustainable and within our one planet's resources.
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