Hi, my names Chris. I have recently joined the Student Green Office as a project officer. My primary focus whilst working in this role will be based around the mantra of #LearningfortheFuture: one of the three core principles of the US in the World campaign. To introduce myself properly to you all I’ve written a short blog about myself, so here goes.

I am in my 4^th year of an Accounting and Finance degree. For my year in industry I worked as a criminal courts analyst, looking at the efficiency and work rate of all the criminal courts in England and Wales. When I finish my degree, I hope to either go back into the civil service in an analytical role or work for one of the big banks/Auditing firms.

When off the clock one of my favourite things to do is kick back with a good box-set: The best thing I’ve watched this year being Chernobyl on Sky. I’m also a keen reader with some of my favourite reads being 1984 (George Orwell), War of the Worlds (H.G Wells) and Frankenstein (Mary Shelly). I know this may all sound a bit grim and dystopian, but it just makes for more captivating drama/fiction.

Despite what I may be portraying I do occasionally get outdoors. My biggest achievement this year was climbing the UK’s tallest mountain Ben Nevis. There was no real story about it being one of my big goals for the trip. I just woke up one morning, looked at the weather and thought that it was to good an opportunity to pass-up. For the whole climb I had clear skies and sunshine which afforded me the most spectacular vista when I reached the summit. I also found to my surprise that the mobile signal at the top of the mountain was better than the signal received in Canterbury. When I did eventually get back to the bottom (after 9 hours) I could barely walk, but felt thoroughly accomplished: a 24 stone couch potato had just managed to scale the highest mountain in the country. I then immediately reverted to my more typical form and bought myself two large big tasty meals at McDonalds.

I wanted to join the Student Green Office as I believe I can provide an alternative perspective to the sustainability department. People who know me will probably not think of me as your typical eco/sustainability champion: for this reason, I knew I should apply for the role. Unfortunately, so many people only think of sustainability as being engaging, and achievable, to a certain demographic: this is a universal problem and thus requires all different types of people to come together to tackle this crisis. I aim to bring a pragmatic approach to this role that will look to tackle the issues surrounding sustainability in a way that will be appealing, and attainable, for an audience who may not have previously considered sustainability a concept they could properly get involved with.

Right, now the serious bits over I would like to finish by welcoming you to come and talk to me if you see me if you see me round campus and to get involved with any of the sustainability projects run by the University. Till then…goodbye!