Student Spotlight: The Sustainability Clinic
Amy tells us how she helped create a sustainability action plan for a local charity during her participation in the Sustainability Clinic in 2022.
Amy Compton is a 3rd Year Law student who took part in our Sustainability Clinic pilot back in 2022. Amy and her fellow student team were matched with Park House Barns, a local charity in North Yorkshire, and worked with them to help achieve their sustainability goals.
We asked Amy to share more about her project.
Who did you work with?
I worked with a small team to create a sustainability action plan for a local charity, Park House Barns, who help young people with autism, learning difficulties and mental health conditions to develop work skills in their chocolate studio and horticulture centre.
What did your project involve?
We researched and presented ways in which the charity can become more sustainable - both in a short and long term time scale.
What did you learn from this experience?
I discovered so many ways in which businesses can become more sustainable, such as enquiring into their supply chain to ensure the production process is as ethical as possible. This experience was invaluable to me as I pursue my passion in sustainability. It was so rewarding to get such great feedback from Michelle at the charity, who was so grateful for our research and advice.
Interested in hearing more? Find out how you can include the Sustainability Clinic in your studies.
About the Sustainability Clinic
The “Sustainability Clinic” is part of our suite of sustainability-related York Interdisciplinary Modules (YIMs), which have been designed to equip students to work collaboratively in multi-disciplinary teams to solve local, regional and global sustainability challenges.
Working in a multi-disciplinary team, students have the opportunity to work with local and regional organisations, government, community groups, charities or businesses to help them find a solution to or better understand a real-life sustainability problem that matters to them.
Problems focus on a wide range of topics including environmental quality and biodiversity; awareness raising and education; sustainable business, policy and regulation; and heritage and culture.
The Sustainability Clinic is available as an elective module in 2023/24 to 3rd year undergraduate students and postgraduate students in semester 1, and is repeated in semester 2 (subject to timetable/department availability). It has been established through a collaboration between the Environmental Sustainability at York (ESAY), Careers and Placements, the Baroness Hale Law Clinic and York Environmental Sustainability Institute (YESI).
Find out more about the Clinic