Massey making strong efforts to combat climate change

After the recent success of the School Strike 4 Climate protest in Wellington, Massive Magazine looked at the university’s involvement in combating climate change and promoting sustainability.

The international movement’s annual protest march took place in Wellington on the 15th of March.

It aims at gathering government attention and pushing for sustainable change.

The national coordinator for the New Zealand movement Sophie Handford said around 20,000 people across the country took part on the day.

She feels that there has been an “awesome” level of involvement from universities, particularly from student associations and student political groups.

“A lot of people interested in student politics wanted to find a way to encourage the rest of the university students to be involved and that worked well as we had a good turnout of university students across the board,” Sophie said.

While Massey students themselves and members of the MAWSA executive attended the climate march, the student association as an organisation did not take part.

“While we [MAWSA] were never contacted about the School Strike 4 Climate Change... we wholeheartedly support student engagement with the movement,” said MAWSA executive Tallulah Farrar.

Massey University has various initiatives to work towards sustainability such as their Climate Action Plan Advisory Group, which Tallulah says are working on a strategy to become net carbon zero.

There are also plans to gather student submissions on the Zero Carbon Bill and Campus Co-Lab has produced an ‘Eco made easy’ zine available at the university.

“There are lots of opportunities for students to get involved in sustainability projects through things like Campus co-Lab and talking to lecturers when they notice unsustainable practices,” said Tallulah.