The West of England Combined Authority recently held their annual School Summit, inviting young people from many secondary schools across the West to make their voices heard on sustainability issues in the area. Information about the summit is here: https://www.westofengland-ca.gov.uk/schoolssummit/
The event welcomed over 100 GCSE students to Ashton Gate Stadium for a day of listening to their thoughts and ideas on what the area can do differently, with the aim of informing future policy and planning.
The Inspire Sustainability team were invited to be part of the summit by providing a workshop on ‘VISION 2040’. In this workshop, the students were asked to imagine attending an event at Ashton Gate in the year 2040, and discussed what sustainable innovations they would like to see. The students began by hearing the current environmental impact a matchday at the stadium has. Did you know that every matchday uses the same power as an average home uses in almost 3 years?
The students were than tasked with a competition to come up with as many innovative and creative sustainability solutions as they could, winning a throw at the rugby training nets with each idea. The session was kindly supported by the Bristol Bears and they provided balls and nets for the students to practice their rugby skills on. The day certainly became competitive with students from Bristol Brunel Academy coming out on top across the day!
During the session, the student’s ideas for a more sustainable stadium experience were all collected and will inform future planning, as well as form a mural art piece showcasing the innovations. Great ideas included harnessing the use of solar panels, wind turbines, better connected public transport, and even included plans and considerations to make the stadium more accessible for the deaf.
For more information about this event or to hear more about other projects the Inspire Sustainability team is working on, contact engineeringourfuture@uwe.ac.uk