Go Green Salford is our Festival of Sustainability run twice a year, once in Spring time and again in Autumn. It is a two week celebration of sustainable action happening on campus, across our community and beyond. This Autumn we had our biggest Go Green Salford yet, with the whole fortnight jam packed with loads of events, activities and workshops relating to sustainability.
We kicked off the festival with our craft bookmark making session at the Library’s Zine Maker Space, using recycled materials to design our own bookmarks. Later on, Professor Andy Miah, Chair of Science Communication & Future Media at the University, hosted an insightful online session which explored the impact of AI on our planet.
We then went over to Media City for an immersive film screening of Ocean, followed by an insightful discussion with Professor Katherine Yates and our audience, which opened our eyes to the impact of humans on our blue seas.
On the first weekend, we were lucky to be guided on educational walks and talks by experts during our BioBlitz, which ended with an enjoyable bat walk.
Across the rest of Go Green Salford there were a variety of sustainable craft workshops, making things such as posters and tote bags using scrap materials, saving things from landfill and making something beautiful in the process.
We also had lots of informative talks including Is Climate Change Racist? which explored the links between capitalism, colonialism and climate change and Embedding Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) into the Curriculum. This session showcased the great work already being done by some of our academics to incorporate ESD into their teaching with the aim of inspiring others.
To further celebrate climate action, we hosted our first Sustainability Fair followed by our first Salford People Planet Pint. Creating spaces to learn more about sustainable action happening on campus and locally and having time to talk and learn from one another about sustainability.
On the final Friday, Chorlton Repair Café hosted for us our first Repair Café, giving staff and students the opportunity to have fixed their broken things, for free! Our Go Green Salford concluded with a walk run by the University’s Nature Society. Heading off from Peel Park Campus, the walk explored the local woodland of Prestwich seeing what Autumn had to offer.
We really enjoyed this Go Green Salford and are looking forward to our Spring Go Green Salford, 8 – 21 March 2026. If you want to tell us what you thought of our Autumn Go Green Salford and give us some suggestions about our next one, then we really welcome your insights, which you can give us here. Sustainability is a collaborative process, if there is something you want to run with us, whether your staff, students or other, then get in touch!