University College Isle of Man (UCM) launched its Sustainability Model at the fifth annual Research Festival on 13th October at the Nunnery campus.
At the event which welcomed academics, students and members of the public for a series of talks and workshops, Geoff Chatwood, UCM Vice Principal, led the discussion about UCM’s sustainability efforts, delivering a talk about how a large organisation such as UCM is transforming its approach to sustainability, what efforts have been made so far, and plans for the future.
Chief Minister, Alfred Cannan, officially opened the event, followed by a keynote address by Climate Change scientist and member of 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winning team, Dr Douglas Fox, who travelled from the United States to be in attendance.
This year saw 18 presenters, some being special guests, UCM staff and former students, delivering insightful discussions about their chosen Island related topics.
The festival’s theme of ‘Secure, Vibrant and Sustainable’ in line with the Island Plan, was represented during breakout sessions which spilt presentations into the three different categories.
Geoff commented: ‘One of UCM’s key strategic priorities is to create a safe, sustainable, flexible and vibrant learning environment which is informed by best practice. We are committed to playing our part in supporting the Island Plan and its overall goal of being a more sustainably conscious nation.
‘We have already begun to action some of the proposed points within our plan, such as developing and implementing a new course costing model, designing new spaces which are adaptive to future skills needs, and embedding sustainable thinking into our curriculum through Adult Learning ‘Sustainable working’ upskilling courses, to name but a few things.”’
More information on UCM’s sustainability model can be found here.
Videos of each presentation will be available to ‘watch again’ here soon.