Welcome to the Sustainable Development Society!

Please join our email list and keep up to date! Type "subscribe" in an email to: sdsocmail@st-andrews.ac.uk    and we will keep you informed about our events and activities.

Students, Staff, and the Community of St. Andrews, the Sustainable Development Society would like to work with you! We are focused on raising awareness, and changing behavior towards sustainable development. We are interested in moving beyond the Brundtland definition that defines SD as development "that meets the needs of future generations without compromising the ability of current generations to meet their needs". SD is about balancing the Economic, Social, and Environmental as well as integrating different scales (Global to Local) and different disciplinary perspectives. We try to confront out narrow culural perspectives of the world and stimulate creative responses in making the slow but constant journey towards sustainability.

NEWS:

October: Students have arrived, and SDSoc has held a number of events already. Our Fresher's Fayre and Fresher's Social brought in over 200 students interested in  'making it real', and we had some great discussions and meeting new, energetic students! The sustainable development undergraduate degree is the fastest growing here at the university, and for good reason. Last year, the first graduates of 2008 headed off to various organizations, and a postgraduate degree program is in the works.

On 28th Oct. Mike Small discussed how to source food locally in the 21st century. When asked "what made you do it" regarding his families year-long (and ongoing) local food experiment, Fife Diet, his only response was "Why aren't YOU doing it?". When we think about food, it's extremely political. How much access do you have to local, fresh food?

We also hosted a pub quiz in October, and are now preparing for a next speaker, Geoff Squire (http://www.scri.ac.uk/staff/geoffsquire), on the topic of GM foods Nov. 21 (Gateway Building, 2pm, free entrance, fairtrade biscuits, tea, coffee). We are also preparing for the WSCSD conference in Zurich in Jan. 2009.

May: We are planning with the Student's Association, University Estates, Merchant's Association, and St. Andrews Preservation Trust for St. Andrews to become plastic-bag free. A website has more information, and Fife Council is excited about an awareness-raising day, once during the summer, and again during the Fresher's Week Sept. 22-29 where a large, plastic container in the town square will be available to dump all those rubbish plastic bags. Fairtrade, organic cotton bags will become available soon, although don't forget SDSoc also has bags for £1, you can purchase them by contacting any of the committee members.

If you are planning any events that relate to SDSoc or have any ideas as all about SD, we would like to know about them! We can suggest ideas, assist with publicity, and perhaps manage some of the tasks. If you have any questions or ideas about SD, or if you are planning events, programs, or activities that relate to SDSoc, please get in touch!

We are committed to the importance of sustainable development across all brackets of students at the University of St. Andrews. Please join us in "making it real"

Email: sdsocmail@st-andrews.ac.uk

Visit our Facebook Group