Monday the 8th of October; Dark morning runs, exploring the campuses and making exciting plans for the year ahead.
First proper day as a Campus Cycle Officer. I arrived at Sighthill campus at around 9.00am after a windy, wet, yet enjoyable cycle from the train station. As I was locking my bike, I started to chat with students I seen. I met one student from Italy, she had cycled in from the town centre. We chatted about cycling, her studies and the college. She told me she loved cycling to college, it was her way to wake-up and positively start the day. – this was an awesome thing to hear from a student on my first day as a Cycle officer- It made me feel hopeful and encouraged me to inspire more people to gain that feeling from cycling.
I met with Carola, my awesome colleague, working at Napier as a Campus Cycle Officer. She gave me the best tour around Napier, showing me all of the facilities and the cycling infrastructure. She told me about the work they have been doing to encourage cycling in Napier. We planned to work closely together this year on different projects. Also planning to attend the weekly, free meditation sessions run at Napier together.
After I met with Alex and Claire, who are part of the Low Carbon Travel team with the Student’s Association at Edinburgh college. We talked about the events we can collaborate on and they provided me lots of useful information about the students travelling trends. I found out that over 60% of student use public transport, which is amazing from a sustainability point of view, however, less than 3% cycle.
I then went explored all of the campus facilities, taking pictures and chatting with students. I travelled to Granton campus in the afternoon, to explore the campus and the ease of cycling there.
Ideas
-Apply for funding for facilities including updating showers (shelves, chair, hair dryer)
Led light ride for Christmas; decorating bikes, plus get lights to give out for winter cycling safety.
-Replace all bike tools and pump, with weather resistant tools at all campuses
Tuesday the 9th of October; Another cold and wet day, but Edinburgh is still beautiful, I got a badge!!!
I spent the day in Milton campus today. Exploring the college, meeting the staff and finding out more about work that the amazing sustainability team have been doing.
With the help of two amazing staff there, I got my badge, email and computer login set-up. The job feels real now. I was able to share ideas for this year. I talked about my passion for the impact that active travel has on student’s mental health and my ideas for events surrounding this. It was really nice to meet people who are also inspired to make a difference.
Wednesday the 10th of October; Bright and sunny day, no more waterproofs woohoo, FLAT tire, Tea, Cake and chats for World Mental Health Day, plus meeting with Adam from Sustrans.
Today was such a productive and exciting day. It was full of great conversations, meeting new people and planning for the year ahead.
I arrived at the college at around 9.00am. I spent the first few hours researching and exploring the sustainability share files. Finding out more about the work previous interns had done at Edinburgh college.
I met with Adam from Sustrans at 11.30am. Adam is an Active Travel Champion officer with Sustrans. The projects trains and support students to become active travel role models, to encourage others to cycle and commute more in ways which are more sustainable. It was really encouraging to meet with him. Alex from the team joined us too, which was great as we were able to share ideas and plan for future collaboration on events.
Plus, The Well-being team were running a Tea and Cake event in honour of mental health day in the Atrium. It was lovely to see the team encouraging students to talk and open up about how they feel.
Ideas from today
-Potential to set up a fortnightly lunch walk or cycle to promote mental and physical well-being.
-Be involved in the be bright be seen campaign with Edinburgh college
-Collaborate with Alex and Adam on different projects throughout the year
Thursday the 11th of October; GO Plastic Free event: sad to hear the reality of plastic, however, really encouraging event, full of exciting projects and new environmental movements in Scotland’s.
Got a bit lost on the route to The Lighthouse, the place Go plastic free event was held. I ended up asking for directions, coincidentally I ended up meeting one of directors of Bright Green Business- our employers. We walked to the event chatting about the Campus Cycling officer internship, the amazing benefits of active travel and the other work Bright Green Business carry out.
The event on a whole was very inspiring and hopeful. They began by highlighting the devastating effects of plastic. One of the most surreal facts being that all plastic ever made still exists. Plastic never goes away, it just takes a new form. From a plastic bottle, into micro-plastics, into the chemicals and toxins and into the water. Plastics causes a multitude of effects on the planet, us and the full eco-system.
However, on a brighter note, Scotland and other countries are now really coming together to tackle these issues and fight for change. Different projects, campaigns and charities are tackling environmental issues in incredibly diverse, inspiring ways. The public, the government and businesses are adopting new ways of working and developing plans to undo some of the damage caused.
There were two key speakers at the event, Catherine Gemmell from Marine Conservation Society and Susan Hunter from A S H Environmental Consultancy. Both talks were different but shared many similarities and passions for tackling plastic pollution. It was amazing to hear that Scotland are at the forefront of change in the UK for these issues. I left the event feeling inspired and hopeful for the future.
I also found out North Berwick is an absolutely beautiful place. I had the chance to walk along the beach back to the train station.
Friday the 12th of October; from torrential rain to bright sun skies, Sighthill campus today for admin, emails and to plan my active travel event for next week.
The rain was lashing down as I left the house at 7.15am this morning. I got to the station drenched, but happy, podcasts definitely help me to get through the morning commute. I got to Sighthill around 9.00am, the campus was quiet and not many bikes lay in the racks. I think the wind may have put people off this morning. I headed to the hot desk room, to catch up with emails and plan my event for next week.
To engage with staff and students about active travel, I’m hoping to set up a small stall in each campus next week. I have made small tokens with modes of transports on them. One for students and one for staff. The plan is to talk to people, find out the ways they are currently travelling and what the general feeling is towards active travel and cycling. After lunch, I headed back to the office to finish off planning the event. I also started to research bus times, so I can update all public transport information on the boards at each campus.
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