#SDGTeachIn 2019 at DMU

The National Union of Students held its annual #SDGTeachIn week from the 18th 22nd February 2019, which encouraged academic staff to include the UN’s SDGs in their teaching, learning and assessment throughout the week and beyond. Staff who planned to do this were asked to pledge their activity on the NUS Sustainability website.

DMU staff from across all faculties of the university took part, including:

  • Nicola Thomas, BAL
  • Jamie Jordan, BAL
  • Jaleesa Wells, ADH
  • David Rae, BAL
  • Kate Wilkinson, BAL
  • Irene Antonopoulos, BAL
  • David Rae, BAL
  • Pamela Hardaker, CEM
  • Kate Wilkinson Cross, BAL
  • Simi Akintoye, BAL
  • Natasha Katuta Mwila, BAL
  • Rick Greenough, CEM
  • Andrew Reeves, CEM
  • Helen Griffiths- Haynes, HLS
  • Ros Lishman, BAL
  • Jie Liu, ADH
  • Darren Sparkes, BAL
  • Rupert Gammon, CEM
  • Muyiwa Oyinlola, CEM
  • Mark Charlton, HLS
  • Sally Gaukrodger-Cowan, ADH
  • Helen Burbidge, ADH
  • Neil Young, BAL
  • Claire Lerpiniere, ADH
  • Angela Davies, ADH

The Sustainability Team went along to some of the lectures, seminars and classes that took place during the #SDGTeachIn and they were all incredibly interesting and engaging. The students who attended them seemed to gain a lot of knowledge and were opened up to new ways of thinking about sustainability.

Green Behaviour Change Frontrunner, Charlotte, went along to Nicola Thomas’ lecture on the Tuesday morning for the Brand Management module in BAL. This lecture was all about Sustainable Branding in the Fashion industry which focussed on Sustainable Development Goal 12: Responsible Consumption. The lecture looked at fashion’s impact on climate change, including material choices such as fur and leather and the wasteful habits of the fashion industry: throwing away and incinerating new and usable items. It was an interesting and eye opening lecture which demonstrated how important sustainability is in all walks of life, and how it can be applied to different subject areas.

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Pictured: Nicola Thomas teaching her #SDGTeachIn Lecture on Sustainable Branding in the Fashion Industry.

Molly, our other Green Behaviour Change Frontrunner sat in on Sally Gaukrodger-Cowan’s seminar about how students can embed sustainable development within their textile projects. Sally played videos talking about the need for Sustainable Development Goals, and linked each goal to fashion brands and possible ideas for students to work with throughout their second year assignment for their own brand. She loved prepping for SDG Teach-In and said that she learnt a lot, proving that this all important week is not just for students! She also showed the class an app called ‘Good on You’, which allows you to search any clothing brand and discover how ethical and sustainable they are with the production of their clothing – check it out if you want to live more sustainably!

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Pictured: A slide from Sally’s workshop quoting how students will incorporate SDG’s into their projects.

The #SDGTeachIn was really successful this year, DMU ended up 4th overall in NUS’ results table with 25 academics pledged and 14.178% of our students reached, which was the 2nd highest % of students reached in the UK. This was a huge increase on last year’s results where we had 12 academics pledged and reached 388 students.

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These figures can only continue to go up and we can’t wait to see how members of staff and students get involved next year and begin to include it regularly in their teaching, learning, assessment and everyday life.

Thank you so much to everyone who got involved!