The AUB Environment Committee are delighted to announce the winners of the AUB Sustainability Awards 2020. These awards are in recognition of final year undergraduate student work that take a particularly interesting or innovative approach to sustainability.
Below, you can explore some of the issues and approaches our students are taking on, from creating sustainable events and campaigns, to encouraging us to consume less meat, and the development of new shared living models of social sustainability. There's even a ‘veggie’ rap musical!
This year’s winners are:
WINNERS
Charley Harvey, BA (Hons) Architecture
Leon Newman and Brianna Barwell, BA (Hons) Acting
HIGHLY COMMENDED
Amelia Best, BA (Hons) Illustration
Tom Cornwell, BA (Hons) Graphic Design
Project team: EarthBourne, BA (Hons) Creative Events Management
COMMENDED
Ffion McCormick-Edwards, BA (Hons) Fashion
Emily Duncan, BA (Hons) Fashion Branding and Communication
Katherine Welch, BA (Hons) Fine Art
Emma Rodak, BA (Hons) Textiles
WINNER
Charley Harvey, BA Architecture (Part 1 ARB/RIBA)
Charley’s project, The Urban Chine, proposed a shared living model for Bournemouth town centre, taking its inspiration from the chine's landscape and knitting together the living green spaces of the town. The project applies sustainability principles through materiality and technology, as well as aspiring to a new model of social sustainability, merging the natural and built environment.
Charley said: "Sustainability has been at the heart of my projects throughout university and it is a long-held belief that it should be at the heart of all design, as climate change becomes an increasingly prominent issue across the world, having detrimental impacts to society. Having the chance to make a difference and do something to help the planet and the people on it is my biggest motivator.
"Being recognised in these awards means the world as it shows AUB is at the forefront of promoting the importance of sustainable design and encourages creative approaches towards combating the climate crisis. As students we are the next generation with the chance -the need- to make a difference."
WINNERS
Leon Newman and Brianna Barwell, BA (Hons) Acting
Leon and Brianna created a unique rap musical called Veggie Wrap (No Mayo). This piece was designed to be Theatre in Education to educate people on how simple choices like what you eat can have a huge effect on the environment.
The musical specifically focussed on the benefits of moving towards or adopting a vegan diet both for the individual and the planet. The musical takes the form of a late-night discussion between two friends, and delivers questions, facts and conundrums for the audience to consider through articulate and skilful rap performances.
HIGHLY COMMENDED
Tom Cornwell, BA (Hons) Graphic Design
Tom’s project Savesome is a reward scheme for supermarket shoppers aiming to help them reduce their consumption of meat products. The reward scheme encourages users to aim for a healthier meat reduced lifestyle for themselves and for a positive impact on the world around them.
Tom said: "I just wanted to say thank you for this award, I feel very privileged to be part of this group of students who are all doing amazing things. I have always believed in living life with the aim of leaving the world in a better place than how I found it.
"The AUB Human talks inspired me to take action in my work and the insightful projects became the catalyst for my own ideas. With the ecological crisis we are now facing, innovative design is needed to create a sustainable future for our planet and the life it supports."
HIGHLY COMMENDED
Georgina Mason, Catherine Mackenzie, Isabel Garcia-Godoy, Luc Perez, Nicola Sadler, Charlie Wright, BA (Hons) Creative Events Management
Georgina Mason, Catherine Mackenzie, Isabel Garcia-Godoy, Luc Perez, Nicola Sadler and Charlie Wright created EarthBourne at Home, as a way for everyone to celebrate Earth Day, even in Lockdown. The 22nd April 2020 marked the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day with the theme of climate change.
The group of Creative Events Management students came together with the aim of educating children and promoting the impact of climate change in a peaceful and positive way.
EarthBourne at Home was designed as a website packed full of free activities and ideas to help families celebrate our incredible Earth. Crafts from recycled items, gardening without a garden, nature themed yoga and exciting edible goodies made from basic ingredients are just a few of the things to feature on the website, released after Earth Hour on the 21st April 2020.
Group leader Georgina said: "Our original Earth Day celebration was set to feature an Eco-Market, celebratory mural and free children’s workshops at Bournemouth Aviary, but just like so many events around the world, we were so gutted that this had to be cancelled.
"As a group we felt as though there was a real opportunity for parents to help their children learn about the incredible impact these unusual times are having on our Earth, which is why we created EarthBourne at Home."
HIGHLY COMMENDED
Amelia Best, BA (Hons) Illustration
Amelia’s project is a beautifully illustrated fictional children’s picture book. The book, titled The Air we Breathe, focuses on air pollution and how we can help our planet to overcome it.
COMMENDED
Emily Duncan, BA (Hons) Fashion Branding & Communication
Emily’s project, A Circular Life, is an online platform, encouraging customers to consciously shop and rent uncompromisingly luxury sustainable products. Through meticulously researching the true meaning of brand transparency, A Circular Life partners with the best British based labels advocating environmental and social philosophies.
The brand brings together driven thinkers whose practices are devoted to sustainability, through activism, fashion and art. The platform encourages customers to rethink, re design and re-invent the way we consume by buying less and buying better.
Emily's vision is to create a community of like-minded individuals that are striving to do their bit to save the planet, without sacrificing style. The platform's renting section is devoted to connecting forward thinking women to move towards a more sustainable focused future. Through advocating the movement of consciously consuming, Emily's mission is to work with transparent trusted brands that are driving the force for change, striving to tackle sustainability from a different angle, and allowing everyone to be part of this journey.
Emily said: "I am overwhelmed to receive the AUB Sustainability Award! I have been really inspired by the AUB Human talks in developing my knowledge of sustainability as well as benefiting my project further. My aim is to continue projecting the importance of sustainability in new, innovative and creative ways in order to raise awareness of the beauty of nature."
COMMENDED
Emma Rodak, BA (Hons) Textiles
Emma’s collection is based around the relationship between nature and design. Based around mental health, the concept of Biophilia suggests that because we evolved in nature, we have a biological need to connect with it.
In a new era of combating climate change, seeking solace in nature has never been so important. Inspiration from the Japanese tradition of shinrin-yoku, a form of eco-therapy that reconnects humans to nature through the act of forest bathing, has been explored.
Emma said: "Imagery and textures captured from my favourite childhood place, Swithland Wood, is emphasised throughout the collection through techniques such as Irish machine and digital embroidery. Intricate hand-valued embellishment skills and fabric manipulation are also emphasised throughout the collection."
COMMENDED
Katherine Welch, BA (Hons) Fine Art
Katherine works with materials that she found in specific locations, recycling them and using their inherent meaning to transmit her ideas.
Katherine said: "The two works were created to put across the idea of how socio-political and socio-economic factors affect the people and cultural norms of the Dominican Republic and how the country is often naïvely viewed as a tourist destination. This removes the fact that there is an insurmountable amount of petty crime, violence, unstable homes and alcohol addiction."
COMMENDED
Ffion McCormick-Edwards, BA (Hons) Fashion
Ffion’s accessories collection, Life After Lake, takes inspiration from her family's impassioned admiration of water skiing.
Ffion said: "My parents' cringe-worthy wedding was the spark of this idea; as they left the altar under an archway of water ski's to then be towed away on the back of a speed boat - I felt this wedding was iconic and had to be shared!
"Each accessory in this collection was created from reusing and reclaiming vintage wetsuits; life jackets, water shoes, knee board straps and more all from the late 1980s to the early 2000s, donated by close family and friends. I wanted to keep the originality and character of each wetsuit or life jacket alive within every design. Pioneering the reworking of vibrant, surplus fabric is a conscious work ethic behind the collection ensuring there is a life after the lake."
She added: "Reusing existing materials is extremely beneficial and important to not only me as a designer but also the environment. Aside from minimising the volume of discarded materials and waste being sent to landfill each year, it also reduces the need for mass production using new or raw materials which means a reduction in air pollution, water pollution and much more."
