Enviro Collective

Our collective is a gathering place for all students who are passionate about creating change for the better. We’re not just ‘greenies’, and we’re not all vegans. You don’t have to know all the chants at rallies, in fact, you don’t have to have any experience campaigning. Whatever your experience, we would love to have you on board. And unlike societies, becoming a member is FREE!

While we do organise and take part in campaigns, protests, and fundraisers, we also function as a space where like-minded people can come together and empower each other. We’re here to help students who want to develop their knowledge on current environmental issues and critical, independent thinking. We regularly hold skill-building workshops to train us in tackling these issues in our own lives and communities

It’s important to understand the context which underlies the world that we live in today. Our society is built upon the dispossessed lands of First Nations people—and thanks to their sustainable management, this country has harboured a natural abundance of life for tens of thousands of years.

Within the past few years, this country has been catastrophically ravaged by bushfires, with record temperatures straining our ecosystems and the regional communities whose

livelihoods are linked with the land. While they are starved of water, our neighbouring Pacific communities are being inundated by increasingly powerful storms and rising sea levels. Millions of people in the Global South are already being displaced as unpredictable rainfall makes it harder to grow food.

There is absolutely no doubt that these shifts are due to human emissions and the changes in climate they have created—and yet, the governments and “leaders” of the world remain complacent in taking decisive action. Our social and political systems continue to reward greed and the shortsighted illusion of economic growth over forward-thinking and collective good. Change, whether environmental or social, will not come unless we critically reconsider and then radically reconfigure the structures we live under.

For these reasons, we must be intersectional in responding to environmental issues and recognise that their effects are focused on populations who are already disadvantaged and underprivileged. Righting these wrongs requires the application of climate justice—the people most responsible for climate change should be held accountable for solving it, and voice must be given to those who are often overlooked.

Throughout the COVID crisis, we continued to grow our membership by kickstarting a seed planting initiative, where free seeds were mailed to UTS students. They were encouraged to spend their time at home growing their own herbs and veggies and shared tips and tricks during meetings.

Enviro Collective members headed up a ‘Fossil Free Super Switch’ stall on Alumni Green during October, having discussions with UTS students on the importance of switching to sustainable banks / super accounts and channelling money out of fossil fuels. (If this piques your interest, search MarketForces for more trustworthy information!)

Throughout 2020 we also held Zoom movie nights, streaming ‘2040’, ‘Something in the Water’ and David Attenborough’s film ‘A Life on Our Planet’. There is something uniting about watching films which exemplify our continued fight for environmental justice together. These films fueled the fire of our collective even when we could not gather in person or take to the streets in protest.

Together with other UTSSA collectives, we ensure that we place disadvantaged and marginalised people at the forefront of our advocacy. In 2020 we worked with ASEN (Australian Student Environment Network) to organise a rally in solidarity with the Djab Wurrung people in Victoria against the decimation of sacred trees and ongoing cultural genocide faced by First Nations People across the country.

As a member of the Australian Student Environment Network (ASEN), we also work with enviro collectives from other universities and organisations from the broader climate movement.