As students of UTS we use our voice to run campaigns that hold our university accountable and demand action regarding our own environmental footprint. Moreover, as a collective of empowered students and global citizens we also use our voice to take action for and against environmental issues more broadly, impacting our country and our planet.
Collective
Enviro Collective
Envro Officer: Jessica Respall
#Who are we?
The UTSSA Enviro Collective is a collection of students endorsed by the independent student union body (UTS Students' Association) that uses its power and privileges to facilitate environmental activism and action as well as student engagement with environmental issues and discourse.
With environmental issues as one of the most pressing and detrimental problems facing our generation we hope to ignite student passion for activism and use our collective power to problem solve and deliver environmental solutions where possible and practicable.
The collective also acknowledges that we meet and work on land belonging to first nations peoples and that sovereignty was never ceded. As an organisation we always try to be mindful and respectful of this in everything we do and furthermore develop our collectives solidarity in and amplification of student voices regarding indigenous struggles. We also acknowledge that despite such efforts we should never feel satisfied or passive in our involvement regarding such issues. The agenda of the collective is only limited to the environmental issues of interest to students involved. As such we encourage all students to get involved and utilise the collective's power to make positive change in this world.
#What do we do?
The UTSSA Enviro Collective has been vocal in many environmental issues over the years. More recently we have been active contributors to the #FOSSIL FREE campaign, a collective campaign across universities, demanding university divestment from coal.
In 2018 representatives from our collective met with representatives from university management and TCORP (managers of UTS’ investment fund) to discuss potential divestment pathways.
During 2018 the collective also engaged in activism regarding animal liberation hosting UTS’s first University Cupcake Challenge to spark conversation and action from UTS students regarding Australia's animal harming industries. The collective also facilitated student participation in a chicken vigil, where students joined other activists outside a slaughterhouse in Penrith to document and bare witness to the animals in the trucks entering the facility. Moreover the Enviro Collective continued to engage with and support the Australian Student Environment Network and the Australian Youth Climate Coalition attending various skill ups and events.
#What's in store for 2019?
In 2019 the collective aims to increase student engagement with environmental issues and participation in environmental activism.
We hope to achieve this through new innovative and interactive forms of activism on campus. We also aim to increase our presence in the greater community attending protests and sending more of our students to conferences and skill ups. Be sure to register with the Students’ Association and in particularly with the UTSSA Enviro Collective to make sure your apart of the proud and loud growing student movement on our campus.
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