Sarah Speight
Sarah is Professor of Higher Education at the University of Nottingham. An archaeologist by background, Sarah has been the university's academic lead for 'education for sustainability' since 2011.
Location The University of Nottingham
Activity
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Wow, that sounds like a big undertaking. So you need to get the Ministry of Education and the professional body for Engineering interested in your ideas. I wonder if anyone else on the course has experience of influencing major change in a national curriculum?
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I would be interested to here more about your curriculum programme. I can see that you are a company director in Sudan - is your proposal a training programme for staff or is it for schools? Can you share some of the details with us?
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Sarah Speight made a comment
There are lots of interesting answers being posted here - a few are spot on, a few far off. I'll let you all know in a few days time. It's also worth considering what the wider benefits of these projects are - Mike is pushing his students to think 'outside of the box' and to come up with ideas that could translate into useful sources of renewable energy,...
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Hi Terence, I bet everyone would agree with that but I do worry that the economic approach means that we think about the money first rather than our moral obligations.
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Sarah Speight replied to Laura Maginley
Do the joint meals do more than reduce waste Laura? Is there a social dimension to this change too?
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Sarah Speight replied to Hedley Reddish
In the UK, there has been lots of discussion about our changing shopping habits - we seem to have shifted back from the infrequent big shop for food to the 'little and often' approach. Have you any ideas about why this is Hedley? I'm not sure myself.
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Sarah Speight replied to junli Lv
A MOOC can't do that, but it can provide information that would help students and staff adopt ways of saving water.
There was a controversial news item last year about another University in the UK where students were launching a 'Go with the flow campaign'. Check it out here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-29552557
The idea was that if we...
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Thank you so much for your time today Sarah - and to Georgiana too. There have been some thought-provoking comments - for example about the volume of 'traffic' there needs to be on social media for a company to take notice. I see the issue of the carbon footprint of ICT was also considered. I was at a conference today on the digital university. A colleague...
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On the subject of VW Sarah - how do you think they can rebuild trust? I am one of their UK customers with a diesel who has received a letter from them telling me that my car will be recalled when a 'technical solution' is available. Ironically, the letter bears their 'By appointment to Her Majesty the Queen' crest.
How do companies who fall this far rebuild?
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This is why projects like Big Dream Ghana are so important aren't they Joel. No one should have to die from diarrhea in the 21st century - we know what causes it and we know how to stop it. Do you think it is about political will in your own country, about money, or about education - what is necessary to improve conditions and reduce these unnecessary deaths?
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What do you worry about most? Is it the threat of pollution to human and animal health? I'd like to understand more about attitudes towards pollution in China's largest cities. Do you think there are serious efforts being made to reduce the pollution coming from the big factories?
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That is a sobering image Solomon. Removing children from poverty remains a priority aim for UNIFEC - they recognise that a child born into poverty misses out on childhood, education, health. They talk about how such children then perpetuate poverty because they never have the skills to get out of the situation without external help. It is a grim cycle that...
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Sarah Speight made a comment
Hello to everyone who has joined in during the last few days. Some of us are focusing upon Week 3 of the course but one of the benefits of the FutureLearn format is that you can study as and when it suits you. So you can choose to start at the beginning, or you could decide to see what is going on in Week 3 and then go back to Week 1. It is your choice -...
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Welcome Glory,
Law is one of the missing areas in this course - we don't have a lawyer on the team yet although we do teach environmental law at the University. There are obvious connections between your profession and sustainability.
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I have to say a particular hello to you then Hannah. I understand that the society is new this year. I wish you a successful first year and hope that the society will flourish and grow. I think you could have real influence on the University.
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Sarah Speight replied to Peter Steckles
Now that is a good idea Peter - I have the same issue but had not thought of that.
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I'd like to see a photo of your shower base herb garden Jane.
I do all the other things you mention - and I find them therapeutic for my soul as well as good for my garden and the environment. My veg patch is my green gym!
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I'll look out for the soil course Shelagh - thank you.
Getting food to Africa is not really part of the solution is it. What is of potential use is the food security research carried out by several universities including Nottingham. This is looking at disease prevention and resistance amongst other methods to increase yields. You can find some information...
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Sarah Speight replied to Thompson A. Taiwo
You mean you would prioritise reducing your energy consumption don't you Thompson. That's a pretty good choice as it does 'drive' everything else.
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Sarah Speight replied to Sana Ishaq
That's a small but significant approach Sana. I did something similar when I spent 2 weeks travelling through Italy and Greece this summer. I took a reusable water bottle with me and refilled from public drinking fountains wherever possible. This did mean that I didn't buy the large number of plastic disposable water bottles that I would have done previously.
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Sarah Speight replied to Linda Murphy
I agree too Linda - and I continue to reduce my meat consumption. But I'm really struggling to get my husband too reduce his. I've been focusing my arguments on health grounds rather than water use - perhaps this is where I'm going wrong? Or I might be being too 'preachy' with him!
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I wouldn't say that was frivolous at all David. Those of us who can, do! I'd be aghast at the thought of giving up my car permanently yet, I take great pleasure in using public transport when on holiday. What's going on in my head! I want to have it all - the car at my disposal but also a feeling of virtuosity. I know what I need to do, but I will need a big...
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Sarah Speight replied to Poppy Tait
Two really good examples here Poppy and Will (Redding on Reading!). How do you feel about such incentives? I think they are sensible and helpful although the romantic part of me wants people to stop littering just because they should, rather than because they can earn money. (I do remember taking the lemonade bottles back to the shop as a child and getting...
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Sarah Speight made a comment
Everyone who has posted here so far is committed to wasting as little as they can and to recycling and reusing. You're talking about recycling glass into candle holders, creating your own compost, using horse manure and, in Michael's case, having a septic tank which means that you can also reuse human waste as fertiliser. Can anyone share an example of an...
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Do you think this level of waste would be acceptable to local people if they knew about it Rosie? I watched a BBC programme recently (Hugh's War on Waste that several people have mentioned). Hugh approached a fast food outlet and challenged them on their waste - they said that they were freezing food for collection by local charities in about 6 of their 600...
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Sarah Speight replied to [Learner left FutureLearn]
There are lots of website now sharing images and ideas from people making jewellery and other artistic items from rubbish. Here's just one example: http://www.recyclethis.co.uk/20101109/recycled-into-jewellery-more-beautiful-items-made-from-rubbish
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Sarah Speight replied to Sana Ishaq
Composting is fantastic! I am lucky to have a large garden but it is very steep. My local council will collect garden waste to take to industrial-scale composting facilities, but I cannot carry my garden waste up a steep slope and then 2 flights of stairs to the road. So, I think I currently have 10 composting areas around my garden. This means that some of...
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Hi Lou Ann,
Like you, I have tomatoes growing everywhere because there are so many seeds in my home produced compost. I reopotted a plant for a colleague at work with compost from my garden. A tomato sprouted, kept on growing and produced about 8 small fruits. These have been ripening and the last will be eaten this week - that's not bad for mid November...
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Sarah Speight replied to Mike Hosken
Thanks Mike - several of us would encourage those who can access the BBC iplayer to watch these programmes. They are a powerful reminder of the waste inherent to modern British society.
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That's a really interesting point. What happens with left over food at Chinese new year? I visited Beijing 2 years ago and was interested to see leftover food being packaged up at a University event and being left for students in a student's leisure area. I thought how sensible that was. Would this be a common practice?
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That BBC programme was shocking, wasn't it. We were shown a mountain of parsnips. all being ground up for animal feed or fertiliser because they did not meet supermarket standards. Madness - at what point did we start focusing upon the appearance of food rather than it's taste? In some societies, (mainly western ones?) we seem to be forgetting where our food...
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Karen -
we're all sorry to hear you lost your Dad recently. It sounds like you have lots of memories of outdoor cooking/family events connected to him.
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Hi Karen and Emily,
I am a great fan of 'one-pot' cooking - it sounds like Emily is too. During the British winters I make lots of stews with all the ingredients in just the one pot. Less washing up, less need to supervise different ingredients with different cooking times. And, as Emily tells us, slow cookers can be pretty energy efficient. I don't cook...
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Sarah Speight replied to Sana Ishaq
Sorry Sana,
I haven't been able to open your link. I think I know what you mean! I usually rip the pages out of a spiral bound agenda meaning that I can recycle the paper but am left with an unwanted spiral of plastic. I have not come up with a use for these yet. Fortunately I do not too many to worry about. I am fortunate in that the University...
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Sarah Speight replied to Mark Forskitt
Hi Mark, and Fazeela - you're right that there will be assumptions behind the calculator but I still reckon it's a useful tool to get us thinking about where our greatest water usage is located. I've used it to make some changes in the areas I feel I can influence - e.g. the food I eat, when I would replace certain electrical goods.
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Sarah Speight replied to Margaret Kirkham
Hi Margaret,
I agree it's tricky to arrive at reasonable estimates. Would the other 3 members of the household be willing to adopt some water saving measures with you? You could have a trial week and then see what the calculator said.
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Sarah Speight replied to Cherry Franklin
That poses an interesting dilemma Cherry. Is the fish tank a luxury that you could do without, or is it making a significant contribution to your well-being? And does the dirty water get poured down the drain or is it usable for something else? (In the summer I often throw used washing up water on the flowerbeds - not on the vegetables but on the flowers....
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Sarah Speight made a comment
I have used the water footprint calculator several times now and over a 3 year period. I realise that it is not an accurate measure - it is only as good as the information I put in, but it does make me think. I am much more aware now of the water that goes into the production of my fridge, my washing machine, my TV - and I could never now replace these 'early'...
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Sarah Speight made a comment
Hello to everyone who has posted an introduction to themselves and their interests in the last couple of days. From Nottingham to Estonia, Turkey, China, Pakistan, Iran and beyond. You are all very welcome. Some folk will have completed the first week by now but there is no rush - join in with what you want o join in with, complete the opinion polls and have a...
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Sarah Speight replied to Liz K
I do agree with you that the term 'sustainability' has become a bit of a problem. Many people interpret it narrowly while, for others , it implies as you say, the minimum that we have to do. it is not a very positive word - whereas regenerative is. I'd like to hear your term used more often but sustainability is firmly fixed in the political rhetoric - it...
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Thank you Dr. Robson! My ambition was to get as many academic disciplines involved as possible so that we had a course that 'spoke' to as many people as possible - to make the point that sustainability relates to everything: the survival of language and music as well as plants, and animals (and I'm not suggesting any hierarchy there).
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Thank you for sharing that Chantelle. I liked your retiring professor's use of the term 'curiosity' - an intellectual rather than emotional attribute. Being curious and interested is another motivator to try and avoid harm to our environment. And what do you want to do with your life?
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Is this an example of an external high-profile event having a positive influence on national/regional priorities? Do you think the clean-up will lead to a permanent improvement? And where does the problem start - is it with poor neighbourhoods with no waste removal/recycling services, is it about un-regulated waste disposal?
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That 2nd picture is scary - very powerful. The Chinese government is worried about pollution now isn't it? Are there new restrictions on traffic, on factories? What actions are you noticing?
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Darrah - I've just attached the PdF. Apologies for that - not sure where it went!
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I hope you will tell us more about Shanghai in the course Jialin Fan. Shanghai is often on TV in the UK - it looks amazing. I would like to understand more about the challenges of living in such a dynamic and fast-growing city. Is the government trying to reduce the haze? How does the city manage pollution, waste, energy? Please keep sharing your thoughts as...
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I guess the question Angus is whether or not a greater knowledge of the history of where you live would make you, or others, care more about it? I read a National Trust report several years ago now that tried to measure our engagement with the historic environment. The Trust wanted to measure the extent to which the historic environment benefited society not...
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I love your comment Sana. That space will be very important to your municipality and it expresses local values - community, health, support for young people - some of the values that make us care for our environment.
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I agree Anthony - and it's clearly not just an emotional attachment to 'unspoilt' landscapes that we're reading about. I'm getting a strong sense of how many of us enjoy 'lived-in' landscapes - landscapes that represent human endeavours as well as our human love for 'beautiful' landscapes.
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I absolutely agree Patricia! Information and the ability to evaluate it - to judge what is valid and sound information. And that's a challenge in itself. I'm thinking of debates such as that about the benefits and disadvantages of shale gas extraction (which we look at in week 5) - it is incredibly difficult for most people to make an informed decision.
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Sarah Speight made a comment
I'm not surprised that many of you are either struggling with these choices, or questioning their value. It's certainly got you all talking! Remember that we do revisit the polls later on this week. They are a cypher really for getting us to think about the chain of events required for every option. We might say that a hybrid car or an electric-powered car is...
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Sarah Speight replied to Simran Vohra
It's incredibly difficult and shows that often our choices are all problematic and we need to be more creative. But thinking about these questions and many more are a starting point to being more critical, more thoughtful, more able to think of the 'bigger picture'.
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Sarah Speight replied to Samuel Njenga
I do agree Samuel - so much of what we do has unintended consequences. What we're trying to do here is to stimulate thinking about a few choices that some of us make on a regular basis - it is certainly not as simple as an either-or.
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Sarah Speight replied to kayte price
Hi Kayte and Linda,
I'd add to your comments that sustainability for me is also about social justice - I'm very conscious that greed is a luxury for some, a commonplace for others. For those of us living in developed and affluent countries, there is that big challenge of lessening our greed because we so often measure ourselves by what we've got rather...
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Sarah Speight made a comment
Hello everyone -
it's great reading your opening comments, seeing the range of countries and backgrounds we all come from, the commitment to learning, to sharing, the passion and energy for 'sustainability' in so many dimensions. We're run this course several times now - it's certainly not perfect but it is tried and tested. It's meant to be broad and to...
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Thank you Silvia,
we will try not to overclaim what we can do with an online course but you can be assured that our team is committed to more than 'green washing'. One of the things we are trying to achieve is enthusiasm and inspiration for change at all levels - within our families, our workplaces, our communities and beyond.
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Welcome Leslie - that's an excellent reason for taking on a course like this. I hope you get something useful out of it. And because it is an open source course, you will be able to take some of the content and use it in your own teaching.
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Hello Susan,
I think folk will be interested in hearing more about your work as the course progresses - the urban farming especially. The spread of urbanisation is making it increasingly essential that we work out what sustainability means for city living.
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Welcome Oliver. You will have a busy year ahead of you. Hopefully the formal of these online courses will work well for you - you'll be able to dip in and out when you like. The universities you apply to should be interested in hearing about the extra studies you have taken on.
There's a good chunk of geography in the course so you may find some direct...
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Good luck with that Rob. It's a real challenge to think through all the dimensions of a big build or refurbishment - how it is built/refurbed and maintained, how it is used in terms of its space but also in terms of the forms of learning going on inside. It sounds like you're trying to ensure the 'messaging' is consistent - sustainability in design and...
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Hi Darrah,
I feel really strong connections between archaeology and sustainability. A little later on in the course there are some articles written by Naomi Sykes - another archaeologist. Naomi talks about the landscape, our impact upon it through human history, and how archaeology reveals the ways in which our attitudes and connections have changed.
I'd... -
Sarah Speight made a comment
Hello everyone - I'm very pleased to meet you and do hope that you both enjoy the course and find something in it to inspire you. I'm Sarah the course leader. I'm an archaeologist by background but have been focused on higher education for a few years now - and on what education for sustainability means in terms of how we teach and learn at university.
We...
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Have a look at 5.15 Anne - you should find them there, all in one place
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Sarah Speight replied to Jan Mole
And your comment gives me an opportunity to acknowledge the open educational resources produced by the OU that we recycled for this course Jan. We felt it was very important when putting the course together that we reused the good academic content that was out there already - just as we have made the content of this course available for people to reuse...
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Good for you Julie. I'm much less squeamish about human waste these days - I've always been aware of how it was used in the past (urine for tanning, excrement for fertiliser). I have a shared sewer running under my lawn. It has blocked and flooded 3 times in the past 6 years - you should see the grass now! It hasn't always been very pleasant but I've seen the...
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I enjoyed your poster Marjan - it makes a powerful point. If we care, we act. Thank you
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Thank you Karen. I think you may have been having problems submitting your poster? I'm afraid that the Dropbox folder shared with me was empty. Do you want to try again? You could try emailing the poster to me, or try sharing the link with everyone in this step? I want to know what your poster is about now!
very best wishes
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You have made a major contribution to this course yourself Andy - thank you for sharing your own expertise with everyone.
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Sarah Speight replied to Jane Burd
Brigitte is on my list to invite for the next version! Thanks Jane.
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Sarah Speight replied to Michael L
Thanks for the feedback Michael - we will note that one. We're thinking about other technologies that we can use too.
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Sarah Speight made a comment
It's really good to hear of the positive feedback folk have been giving each other on their posters. I'm glad some of you have found the exercise worthwhile. And I'm enjoying looking at the posters shared in this step. Thanks everyone.
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Thank you Richard - and the course team would all agree with you about the discussions. We think that they are the most important part too. It's all about sharing ideas/views and inspiring each other
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Like it! I read an article a couple of years ago which reported on research into 14-25year olds and their use of mobile technologies. It reported that the young people surveyed were, on average, on their 6th mobile phone by the age of 25. That's a lot of 'choreographed obsolescence'.
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Thanks Jill. Years ago someone said to me that the bulk of the wealth of a church or other similar institution comes from the pennies given by the poor rather than the pounds given by the rich. In other words, millions of pennies can add up to more than hundreds of pounds. That's in part why this course ended up with the 'You' at the end.
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That's another good point - we are influenced most by those we respect and love
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Sarah Speight replied to Jane Burd
Perhaps encourage is a better word than influence? I believe that I have encouraged my husband and son to adopt certain behaviours as routine by a gradual drip-feeding approach. My husband isn't a gardener but he loves picking the veg I grow (and he will water it from the rainwater butts he has set up for me). I've also got him intersted in habitats. I dug the...
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Sarah Speight replied to Cate Cody
Brilliant - you seem to have used an effective combination of tactics - great that changes became habits and that good habits were also seen to reap economic benefits.
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This is a really good point - and it speaks to concerns raised both in this course and in the previous version about the 'cost' of sustainability - the different starting points, the affordability of sustainable food, the access to education issues.
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Both of your postings took me back to the discussions of our moral obligations which we were having in week 1. It is clear to me that we are among friends in this course in that the vast majority of us do feel either an obligation (on whatever basis), or a connection, that compels us to act/think in a certain way. I'm now thinking about why and if we are the...
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Good points Myrna. Attitude and commitment supporting practical and positive change can really drive us forwards in the right direction - employees need to influence their employers
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Sarah Speight replied to Josh Berdeaux
Thanks Josh -this fits nicely with one of the topics being discussed in the Google Hangout today. Our facilitator Laura was talking about re-wilding and saying that if she was to advise people on one step they could take in their own lives to support sustainability it would be to nurture wildlife in a portion of their garden. If we did this for one part and...
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Sarah Speight replied to Maria Skaria
Simply and profound! And what an impact it has - raising people from poverty, empowering women, changing long-held attitudes, giving people the ability to act ......
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Sarah Speight replied to Ashley Kresl
That is a good question to ask - possibly it is best to keep using the older one until it dies and then replace it. But we'd need to estimate how long the old kettle will last, consider what will happen to the kettle when we dispose of it - we need some more information to help us make that decision. Most of us don't consider the production costs when we...
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I think many of us in developed countries were told by our parents to eat all the food on our plates because we were lucky to have it - unlike those less fortunate than ourselves. Maybe it did make us less likely to waste food although more education about the food chain would surely be a better way.
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Thanks JAK - and we hope you are able to join us for the Google Hangout on Tuesday.
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Thank you Desikan - it is very kind of you to say that
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Sarah Speight replied to Sarah Holloway
Some friends of mine told me that their local council altered their reclycling schemes recently and reissued thousands of wheelie bins to communities who were left with older bins that were declared redundant (where do wheelie bins go to die?). My friends were worried out their surplus bins as they have a small house and not much room. I suggested that they...
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Sarah Speight replied to Andy Goodyear
I don’t know anyone who lives up to his convictions more than our engineer Mike. A major focus of his research is ‘appropriate technology’ and he works on a wide range of projects for international relief and development charities (e.g. Tearfund and Engineers without Borders). Mike's worked on engineering ‘solutions’ for projects in Cambodia, India, Uganda,...
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Sarah Speight replied to JOHN KNIGHT
Thanks John - If I remember correctly, this was the first time that Mike had managed to try out all 3 stoves at the same time and in a vaguely realistic setting. He was pretty nervous about it - we only had the one chance to film the results too so it was make or break time. As it was, they all worked superbly.
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Sarah Speight replied to Lesego Mosetlheng
Hello Lesego,
nice to meet you. I hope you enjoy joining in.
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Sarah Speight replied to Jane Phillips
Maxine - I really like your change of emphasis which chimes with Andy's response to Jane. I know that I have changed by attitudes/ambitions in recent years and that I do try to make changes to my lifestyle to live a less destructive life. I also try to influence my family - my husband and son are now fully aware of what our local council will recycle and what...
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Sarah Speight replied to Max Ashton
Sorry Maxine - we just have free access to the version on the page above
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It is a huge challenge for the Government of India to manage its energy needs Desikan. Is there much investment in renewables? Are private companies thinking about this themselves?
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Well said David. No point having an economy without an environment!
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Sarah Speight made a comment
The FutureLearn platform doesn't yet allow videos to be added to existing steps - that is why I always have to create a new one and delete the old one at the end of a week. Today, I have re-posted the existing comments that were in the old one - it seemed to make more sense than putting them in a PDF.
Remember to have a look at 'Mike's Mystery Objects' -...
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Sarah Speight made a comment
Sarah re-posting on behalf of Martin Aldred
Mystery object - Mask:
A moulding made from recycled, oil based, material; on a non-reuseable nylon carpet.
Why: To demonstrate the reuse of fossil fuel products. For decoration?
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Sarah Speight made a comment
Sarah re-posting on behalf of Finn Jensen
Completed the survey.
If you are looking for good quality pictures you cannot just take any from the Internet - they may have copyright on them, so you may have to get permission to use them. However, at Wikimedia Commons, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page, you can have free access to good quality...
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Sarah Speight made a comment
Sarah re-posting on behalf of Claire Warman
I've also completed the survey
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Sarah Speight made a comment
Sarah re-posting on behalf of Jane Burd
Survey completed. Have you heard of bluegreencities.ac.uk?
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Sarah Speight made a comment
Sarah re-posting on behalf of Richard Morgan
Interesting survey. I came across a statement made by an American researcher who said that tree lined streets are significantly cooler (maybe 4 or 5 degrees) than a neighbouring street with no trees - I cannot find the reference now but I would be interested to know more about this. The research was done in a...
