By Jasmine Brook-Tanker, Masters, International Development
Lucy Hurford and Tegan Kemp, from the Bristol branch of the organisation ‘Six Degrees’, recently provided insight into the exciting opportunities for University of Bristol students with a passion for sustainability.
Six Degrees has a central focus and passion for sustainability, offering their consultancy services without charge to encourage and advocate for new and effective pathways to sustainability. Working with Russell Group university students across the country, Six Degrees acts as ‘the UK's cross-university student-powered environmental think tank’.
Epigram recently spoke with members of Six Degrees to discuss the consultancy internships they run periodically, and the opportunities available for Bristol University students in the new academic year.
The consultancy organisation first started in Oxford in 2018, and utilised students from the University of Oxford to pilot their first projects. Six Degrees have since consulted ‘a variety of organisations, non-profits, research institutes, SMEs, and larger corporates’ by providing ‘tailored advice on environmental impact mitigation, long-term business value creation, and environmental policy’.
This summer, Six Degrees Bristol are running two summer internship projects in partnership with student-led consultancy organisation, the COVID-19 Student Response Network (CSRN). These projects are collaborating with the Green Party in Lebanon, looking at their sustainable agricultural development and FROZ, a Lebanese, eco-friendly e-commerce platform. Six Degrees and CSRN aim to help develop their systems which track the environmental impact of their products.
Working over eight weeks, within teams of four to five students, these groups are given briefs, and from there collaborate and create their projects. Though Six Degrees provide training and resources, Kemp told Epigram that ‘there is a lot of freedom and space for them to develop the project and make it their own’.
At the end of the internships, the groups produce a final report and present their projects at symposiums. Having been operational for less than a year, Kemp emphasised the distinct opportunity for individuals to get involved in the up-and-coming organisation and make an impact in the early development of the Bristol branch of Six Degrees.
Six Degrees Bristol encourage their consultants to refer to the Sustainable Development Goals throughout the project to ‘help them explore the brief while maintaining a sustainable perspective’.
Six Degrees acts as ‘the UK's cross-university student-powered environmental think tank’
Kemp underlined that they have embraced students from a range of academic backgrounds and skill sets, beyond the typical environmental disciplines, and welcome anyone who demonstrates a personal passion for sustainability. Applicants need no prior experience with consultancy to apply, just an enthusiasm to learn new skills and embrace the environmental ethos of Six Degrees.
Previous consultants have found the programme ‘really rewarding, interesting and creative’ allowing them to learn ‘a lot about climate mitigation tools and consultancy work’. They also found the work ‘more engaging, more interesting, more collaborative’ than they expected, with Kemp noting how consultants ‘really appreciated the development of client communication skills and commercial awareness’ for their own professional development.
These internships are particularly opportune for students to pursue projects that were well-aligned with both their career progression, as well as their personal interests.
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Applications for the consultancy projects open in September, but you can support Six Degrees now by keeping up to date with their work through their Instagram @sixdegreesbristol. Six Degrees Bristol are regularly creating new opportunities and work with University of Bristol students and societies like BUST (Bristol University Sustainability Team). You can also support Six Degrees and the consultants by watching the symposiums at the end of the summer internship projects.
Featured Image: Six Degrees and Unsplash/Mikey Harris (made using Canva)
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