Green Initiative
The Green Initiative working group in the School of Psychology aims to bring staff and students together to enact more strategic, deeper change at the School level, embedding good environmental practices across their activities. The group was established in 2019 to support greener activities within our School and to liaise with other university staff in a global effort to support a more sustainable university lifestyle.
The Psychology Green Champions are:
"Our vision is to become a task force for environmental sustainability behaviour change, and a resource for staff and students, so they can be empowered to make small changes in their lives to help protect and conserve our natural environment."
Green Initiative Aims
- To act as a point of contact to the School of Psychology to support various Green
- To encourage participation in initiatives such as the Climate Friendly Holiday Shut Down Campaign
- To encourage talks and seminars on energy, water, food conservation and waste reduction research
- To act as a resource available to the School of Psychology to help and guide people interested in helping the environment
- To increase enthusiasm, interest, and a commitment to both staff and students around environmental issues
- To conduct and promote psychological research relevant to understanding, with the aim to facilitate, “Green Behaviour” in the School and across the University
- To actively participate in Queen’s new “Green Award” programme
The School of Psychology was delighted to host Dr. Marica Cassarino, School of Applied Psychology and Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland on Monday 15th May as part of the School’s Green Initiative. Dr Cassarino delivered a seminar titled ‘Giving Psychology “away” in a climate crisis: Learnings from a community-engaged research on air quality attitudes in Cork City’.
Abstract: The climate crisis is a global issue affecting every living creature, and largely caused by human activities. This has pushed a call to action for Psychologists to actively engage with communities to promote positive environmental attitudes and behaviours. In this talk, I will build on Miller’s concept of “giving psychology away” and discuss an example of collaborative research that applies theories of environmental risk perception to understand attitudes towards air quality in Cork City. This project involves academics, policymakers and community practitioners with the aim to inform public communication strategies as part of the Cork Clean Air Strategy. I will conclude with a brief reflection on the process of positioning our role as psychologists in a changing climate.
Dr. Cassarino is an Environmental Psychologist interested in environmental attitudes and pro-environmental behaviours, as well as the impact of built and natural environments on psychological wellbeing. She has expertise in community-engaged research aimed at addressing Sustainable Development Goals, including the creation of sustainable cities and communities (SDG11) for the promotion of health and wellbeing (SDG3) and reduction of inequalities (SDG10), and climate action (SDG13). Full profile at https://maricacassarino.blog/
Interested in discovering more?
Read our Green Initiative Newsletter
Check out the QUB Green Comic Book Plastic Nightmare (downloadable)
Take a quiz:
- The most effective ways to curb climate change might surprise you (CNN)
- How big is your carbon footprint? (WWF)
- What is your ecological footprint? (Global Footprint Network)