Political and Creative Yarns: Your Guide To Sustainability Week!
Words by Sophia Honey (she/her)
It’s time for the most creative, fun, and zero-waste week of the year: Sustainability Week!
This has been a big year for sustainability at our university with the ‘No Disposable Cups on Campus’ scheme becoming a long-term policy at our cafes. This was done with the help of Auraki cups, which you have been using this year to get your caffeine fix. With the start of a new trimester, this is your reminder to keep bringing your own keep cup or to use an Auraki cup around campus. Otherwise you will be left sadly caffeineless! Please be considerate to the staff who are working hard to clean the cups.
Another exciting initiative this year is that you can now pick up period underwear for only $11.50 from the VUWSA office! For the price of only two boxes of tampons, you can pick up some stylish underwear made by MyCup. This is a perfect way to ditch the waste from tampons or pads.
This year’s Sustainability Week has an arts and crafts theme running through it! On Tuesday, you can bring some clothes in for basic repairs to our workshop at Te Aro campus. This is hosted by Sustainability Trust, and our friends at Massey University have also been invited! We will also be running a Beeswax Wrap workshop on Friday to teach you how to make your own reusable wrap (much better than lame glad wrap). These arts and crafts are a reminder that with a little creativity, we can reuse materials and participate in a circular economy.
It’s also important to remember sustainability in the local body elections coming up! Vote, vote, vote, and when you do: please vote green. Listen to your candidates about what their vision for sustainability in Wellington is. Hold them accountable to these promises and show them that this is a priority. Look out for resources, like climate score cards from Generation Zero, that indicate your most environmentally-friendly candidates. There will be a panel discussion about sustainability with some local candidates on Thursday 28 July from 1pm in the Hub, so be sure to pull up.
I am so lucky to work with you and our sustainability groups to make our campus a more accessible and green space. Let’s celebrate this week and keep having discussions about how to be more ambitious and green. Get involved! Get green! Check out awesome campaigns like Greenpeace’s mission to cut out nitrogen fertiliser (which can be found at https://www.greenpeace.org/aotearoa/action-on-fertiliser/) . Get involved in a sustainability group on campus because it’s definitely not too late in the year! And come say hi to me at the VUWSA office in the Student Union Building - I don’t bite and I love to chat.
