Events &
activities
During the COP26 conference UCA partnered with Surrey County Council which funded Coming Up for Air; a three-week public exhibition of work by our Fine Art students and staff at UCA Farnham. Students and staff were briefed to create work in response to climate change and sustainable travel. The exhibition and interviews with contributors were livestreamed at the COP26 conference in Glasgow on 10 November 2021.
Our annual Green Week 2024
Coinciding with International Earth Day on 22 April Green Week 2024 offered a wide variety of student and staff engagement activities were undertaken across all campuses. Activities included challenges to go for a day without using or purchasing anything in single-use plastics in line with our commitment to phase-out single-use plastics, local environmental volunteering opportunities, meat-free and low carbon food in our refectories and encouraging safe cycling. In addition, during the week there were two public exhibitions of student work on sustainability and creativity, supported by the School of Fine Art in Canterbury and The School of Fashion & Textiles in Epsom.
Since 2016, UCA students and staff have operated a stand and/or presented talks at the Farnham Sustainability Fayre, In 2023, the Sustainability Manager gave a presentation to members of the public on UCA’s sustainability programme and our focus on Net Zero 2030. In previous years UCA has showcased student art inspired by nature and constructed from found objects and recycled materials.
Farnham Repair Café (FRC)
In 2015 The Centre for Sustainable Design® (CfSD) set up a collaboration with Transition Town Farnham to establish Farnham Repair Café, a place where local people can seek advice and get free assistance from local volunteers to repair and extend the useful life of broken or faulty products, including electrical and mechanical products, furniture, clothing, textiles and bikes. Between January 2015 and October 2023, Farnham Repair Café has attracted over 5,000 visitors and achieved 2,300 fully repaired products, diverting over five tonnes of products from disposal to landfill and saving over 61 tonnes in carbon emissions and saving local citizens almost £190,000 by extending the useful life of items through repair. During the course of its operation over a dozen Farnham students and two UCA members of staff have regularly volunteered their time and expertise to assist with repairs and help run the Repair Café. In March 2016. In March 2016, FRC was featured in Nature.com
Case Study: UCA Student Films on Farnham Repair Cafe (FRC)
In 2015, Sven Mattes, second undergraduate on BA (Hons) Film Production completed a short film on FRC (Available to view on Youtube) with extracts featured on Brazilian television. In addition, between January-April 2016 a project was organised between the The Centre for Sustainable Design® and first year students on the BA (Hons) Media & Communications and BA (Hons) Media & Creative Writing courses to develop and produce two short films to help promote FRC to the local community - see: http://cfsd.org.uk/events/farnham_repair_cafe/
More information on Farnham Repair Café and CfSD research on global Repair Cafés can be found on The Centre for Sustainable Design® website