Young People Explore Green Careers with Thirteen

Amy, George, Ollie and Macey; a group of A-Level Geography students from Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College in Darlington recently took part in a packed programme of activities, gaining valuable insight into how environmental goals are embedded across different areas of the business. Highlights included:

• Training up on excel analysis, to have a go at analysing real life emissions data and making proposal for the business’s emissions reductions with Samantha Bradley
• Having a go at planning their own housing estate, understand how we need to balance environmental and socio-economic needs in urban land planning
• Visiting the Thirteen recycling centre; to learn more about the furniture upcycling scheme and even cleaning and preparing some collectors' items for sale with Rhys Baker and Katie Forde
• Meeting Thirteen's bees and chickens, discussing why increasing the presence of biodiversity in urban estates is so critical for nature recovery. The students even got suited up and spent time with an expert beekeeper.

• Touring the Union Village site with Thirteen's project manager Sam White, to understand the complexity of regenerating urban derelict spaces and how we strive to offer fantastic homes to our customers
• Receiving an expert’s introduction of Geographical Information Systems, often not seen by students until university level, from GIS Lead Rebecca Dick. Observing the benefits of looking at social and environmental data in a spatial aspect
• Finishing off with a talk from Anoushka and Jess in our employability team for some top tips for future applications and tailored advice for green employment

Finally, we challenged our students to each research and deliver an innovation that they felt would benefit a social housing organisation:

• Macey explored the potential of community gardens, as spaces that could improve biodiversity in otherwise grey areas, reduce the urban heat island affect by creating shaded and cooler areas for residents to enjoy and improving social cohesion by creating secure spaces for residents to enjoy safely and build new connections.
• Amy introduced the concept of bio ashtrays—an innovation to reduce the littering of cigarette butts, with a raised tray made from fungi that actually consumes the cigarette. This would reduce littering, improve air quality and stops leaching of chemicals into the ground. Ideal for placement around designated smoking areas at offices and communal customer spaces.
• Ollie presented on Hempcrete, a carbon-negative building material made from hemp, offering a greener alternative to traditional construction materials. An overall net carbon negative substance it would ensure buildings actually cleaned the air, with applications as a breathable insulation surface, in the study period so far it's been shown to almost eliminate damp and mould occurrence
• George proposed the use of salt water-powered lamps, a low-cost, renewable energy solution. With temperatures rising and pressure on the grid growing we're predicted to experience more outages than ever before, the lamp powered by easily accessible saltwater in Teesside, could enable residents to have lighting in an emergency and even have capacity to power a phone to call for help.

Environmental Impact Advisor Sammie said "The students have been thoroughly engaged, enthusiastic and taken every opportunity to learn more. They should be enormously proud of themselves and how they've represented their college. We cannot wait to see where they end up in their careers"

At Thirteen, we believe that creating a greener future starts with sharing knowledge, building confidence, and opening doors. Programmes like this and our partnership with the University of York, are some examples of how we’re supporting young people take their next step towards a sustainable career. If you work at a sixth form, college or university and would like to find out how your students could get involved, please email learning.development@thirteengroup.co.uk