Central Saint Martins (CSM) Climate Advocates are employed to contribute to UAL’s Climate Action Plan and support the embedding of climate, social & racial justice into all courses. Climate Advocates will take a holistic approach to embedding climate, social and racial justice through collaboration with UAL Changemakers and other student partners.
With the support of Climate Advocate Coordinators, you will build relationships with a range of student and staff at UAL, to support activities which enable schools, programmes and courses to implement change.
Climate Advocates will engage with college and course teams to understand the multi-layered approach CSM and UAL are taking to address the climate crisis. The Climate Advocates will play a key role in understanding students’ viewpoints on climate justice within the curriculum. Through training and collaborating with academic programmes to develop curriculum co-design projects for the coming academic year, Climate Advocates will participate in practices of curriculum change and support activities which embed climate, social and racial justice.
CSM is looking to recruit 4 CSM students/alumni to join the Climate Advocate Programme.
Duties and responsibilities:
- Meet with Climate Advocate Coordinator (and where relevant Programme Director or other staff) to establish workplan for the year and parameters of the role.
- Attend training as agreed with Coordinator. This may include the Climate Emergency Interactive Film, Principles Workshop, Curriculum Design, Carbon Literacy.
- Meet regularly with other Climate Advocates and Changemakers to coordinate work.
- Gather feedback from students about Climate Justice, Climate Emergency and Sustainability in the curriculum.
- Contribute to reapproval, validation and modifications processes where appropriate.
- Work with Climate Curriculum Developer, Programme Directors and course teams on co-design curriculum projects to further strengthen climate justice within the curriculum.
- Contribute to UAL communications about activities and projects.
- Contribute to written reports and visual representations of the work undertaken.
- Contribute to organising and hosting public events and/or showcase to show findings to the College.
Project areas:
We have identified 3 project areas for Climate Advocates to develop:
- Collaborative Toolkit– building on last year’s work with Changemakers to co-create and share practical tools and resources that support inclusive collaboration at CSM.
- Bio-enquiries– scoping and co-designing a shared outdoor learning space in the CSM Roof Garden, enabling hands-on exploration of ecological practices, material sustainability, and cross-course collaboration.
- Bring the Bees at CSM– planning and developing a safe and sustainable bee habitat on CSM’s roof terrace to support biodiversity and ecological learning.
In your application, please outline how your interests align with one or more of these projects. If they do not, you are welcome to propose other areas of climate justice you would like to focus on.
Mode of work:
The Climate Advocate Programme will start in the Autumn Term 2024 (Phase 1) and continue into the Academic Year 2025/26 (Phase 2). This initial call out is for Phase 1 (11weeks) and will be extended for Phase 2 (up to 19 weeks).
Climate Advocates work both on-site and remotely, with mandatory 2-hour in-person meetings on Wednesday afternoons and flexible scheduling for other tasks.
How to apply:
To apply, please submit a (no more than) 350-word cover letter including:
- A short bio;
- Why you would like to be considered for the role;
- How your interests align with one or more of the “Project areas”. If not, propose other areas of climate justice you would like to focus on.
- How does climate justice play a role in your current activities.
Please also submit up to 5 images/samples of your work as a portfolio.
We are particularly interested in hearing from students who are underrepresented in higher education, such as those who identify as D/deaf and/or disabled, those from low socio-economic backgrounds, people of African or Caribbean heritage, South Asian heritage, East Asian heritage, West Asian heritage, Central Asian heritage, South East Asian heritage, people of Middle East and North African heritage and those who have experienced racism.