Residents have a chance to learn more about sustainability through the medium of dance as part of a week of sustainability themed activities in Worcester city centre.
Students at the Heart of Worcestershire College will be taking to the streets for public performances that illustrate the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals – an international blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future. This will be one of the highlights of the University’s city-based Go Green Week.
The event, which runs from Tuesday (April 9) to Saturday (April 13), sees the University working with a number of partners to raise awareness with the public on issues surrounding sustainability.
Katy Boom, the University’s Director of Sustainability, said: “Whether it’s dancing, handicrafts or free food we have something to suit everyone, which will get people engaged with the issue of sustainability while showing them what they can do to help.”
Earlier this week, the University was ranked number one in the UK, and 26th globally, for Quality Education and number one in the UK, and joint 4th globally, for Gender Equality in the Times Higher Education’s new ranking based on universities’ commitment to and achievement of these Sustainable Development Goals.
The dancers, who have been trained by a student from the University, will kick off the week on Tuesday by delivering their performance every half an hour from 12pm to 2pm, at the fountains at South Quay. There will also be a chance for people to get creative by illustrating the SDGs themselves with chalk and to have a go on an electric.
Wednesday sees the return of the Feed the 1000 event outside the Guildhall between 12pm and 2pm. Following on from the last two years, organisers will again attempt to give away 1,000 meals, equivalent to the average amount of food a UK family wastes in a year. A number of local supermarkets, a food distributer and market stall holder will provide the ingredients, having donated produce that would otherwise have to be thrown away, such as wrongly shaped vegetables. Catering students at the Heart of Worcestershire College will use these to cook up the meals.
The week continues with a number of events, activities and giveaways running at The Pod in the Crowngate Shopping Centre from Thursday to Saturday, 12pm to 4pm. These include free plants; beeswax wraps (designed as a reusable alternative to cling film) and the chance to make a wildflower bomb, activities to raise awareness of carbon footprint and a raffle. There is also an hour long litter pick starting from South Quay, at 10am.
Ms Boom added: “It’s about collaborating because we all need to meet the challenges of the Sustainability Development Goals but we can’t do it on our own. We need to do it together and learn and support each other and this is one good example of helping to make Worcester a more sustainable city.”