{"id":541,"date":"2021-10-28T09:24:37","date_gmt":"2021-10-28T09:24:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/difference\/?p=541"},"modified":"2022-01-04T15:12:16","modified_gmt":"2022-01-04T15:12:16","slug":"designing-a-sustainable-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/difference\/designing-a-sustainable-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Designing a Sustainable World"},"content":{"rendered":"

Authors: Dr Pooja Basnett<\/a>, Dr Linda Percy<\/a>, Dain Son Robinson<\/a>, School of Life Sciences, University of Westminster<\/em><\/p>\n

Educating the current generation about the impact of human society on the planet\u2019s natural resources and empowering them to design sustainable solutions is key in building a sustainable future. With the global climate crisis and environmental degradation, there is an urgent need for the reorientation of curriculum to embed content that underpins sustainable development. With COP26 about to begin<\/a>, we\u2019re reflecting on our own efforts to inform and empower our students in this field.<\/p>\n

Our objective was to make sustainability an intrinsic part of student learning in our Biological Sciences degree in the School of Life Sciences.\u00a0 Therefore, we introduced a first-year core module called \u2018Application of Biological Sciences\u2019, where students are presented to the foundational notions of sustainability. That way, they become familiar with the concept of circular economy within the context of plastic pollution. Subsequently, in the second-year core module \u2018Contemporary Global Issues\u2019, students explore regional and global problems such as climate change and biodiversity, waste and pollution, food and water security, and their impact on the world\u2019s resources, the environment, and human societies. Through their own research, students identify and examine the underlying causes of the environmental and societal pressures and the risks these pose, such as water scarcity and conflicts or biodiversity losses versus food provision, thus prompting transformative learning.<\/p>\n

Lastly, our core module \u2018Designing a Sustainable World\u2019 for final-year Biological Sciences students was developed as a part of the University\u2019s commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals<\/a>. This module inspects the environmental, social, and economic foundations of sustainability and the influence of policy, governance, and design on them. We encourage undergraduates to design solutions to tackle local, regional or global sustainability issues. Possible solutions are designed\u00a0 from a variety of perspectives, which can result in a sustainable product, process, business or a built environment. While designing these sustainable solutions, students are guided to embrace a holistic approach integrating environmental, economic, and social impacts.<\/p>\n

Over the years, students have proposed some exciting sustainable concepts. These include the use of microbial fuel cells to produce electricity from society\u2019s waste, electrospun natural fibres used to develop air filters for bus stops, biodegradable plastics grown by bacteria, dish detergents produced from algae fatty acids, apps to monitor air pollution and pharmaceutical waste and many more. Embedding sustainability into our course curriculum has allowed \u00a0students to gain a deeper understanding of sustainable development and make it part of their everyday lives. Many of our graduates from the course have chosen to pursue graduate studies in sustainability-focused master\u2019s courses or research degrees that involve developing sustainable solutions for real-world problems. In turn, some have successfully started their careers in sustainability within large corporations and public sector organisations.<\/p>\n

As educators in sustainability, our vision is to equip students of all backgrounds with the knowledge, skills and attributes to become global citizens and environmental stewards. We take pride in our successes, both in promoting the discussion and prototyping real-world solutions. We aspire to change wider society, allowing a more sustainable future for all.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Author\u2019s biography:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr Pooja Basnett<\/a> is a senior lecturer in Biological Sciences at the University of Westminster. She received a Cavendish scholarship from the University of Westminster to complete a PhD in Applied Biotechnology. Her research focuses on the production of value-added products using waste feedstock and their application in the field of medicine.<\/p>\n

Dr Linda Percy<\/a> is a senior lecturer in Molecular and Applied Biology at the University of Westminster. She has worked as a postdoctoral researcher on the EU project\u00a0SEED<\/a>. In 2009, she was awarded the summer studentship from the British Phycological Society to investigate lipids and biopolymers in marine dinoflagellates.<\/p>\n

Dain Son Robinson<\/a>\u00a0is the Sustainable Development Goal Co-Ordinator for the University of Westminster, and is also a recent graduate from the University where she Founded\u00a0 the Student Environmental Society. With a passion for increasing biodiversity and wildlife population in London, she also works closely with Bees in the City<\/a> to help deliver their goals by engaging with the students and stakeholders within the university.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Authors: Dr Pooja Basnett, Dr Linda Percy, Dain Son Robinson, School of Life Sciences, University of Westminster Educating the current generation about the impact of human society on the planet\u2019s natural resources and empowering them to design sustainable solutions is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":639,"featured_media":546,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,18],"tags":[135,69,27,136,60,137,37,26,71,32,66,70,29,72,65,138,30,33,31],"class_list":["post-541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biology-biomedical-sciences","category-life-sciences","tag-biological-sciences","tag-biology-and-biomedical-sciences","tag-college-of-liberal-arts-and-sciences","tag-contemporary-global-issues","tag-cop26","tag-designing-a-sustainable-world","tag-higher-education","tag-las","tag-life-sciences","tag-london","tag-research","tag-school-of-life-sciences","tag-science","tag-study-in-london","tag-sustainability","tag-sustainable-development-goals","tag-university","tag-university-of-westminster","tag-westminster"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/difference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/difference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/difference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/difference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/639"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/difference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/difference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":642,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/difference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541\/revisions\/642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/difference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/difference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/difference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/difference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}