Nisha Angel is one of the candidates for the role of Sustainability and Development Officer in this year’s SU elections. Forge Press sat down with her to discuss her motivations, the importance of the role and her manifesto, as well as her plans for the campaign.
The main motivation behind Nisha running for this role is the need to “give back to the environment”, with a “main aim of bringing environmental assets into the finance industry”. She is very aware that as a student body, many of us “do not take the environment into account when we use certain products” and she aims to change this.
To Nisha, this role is especially important as “we don’t ever see the finance side of these environmental initiatives”. This leads us to be unaware of how these initiatives affect the Student Union and everyday student life. Nish proposes that “there has to be someone who takes into account all this data, and use it to bring in the best possible solutions”. Nisha feels she would be the perfect candidate to achieve this, whilst also helping us “give back to the world” in terms of sustainability and the environment.
One of her main policies is to consider having “ethical, nature based investments” which will not cause “any harm to the environment.” This is another way Nisha aims to introduce financial responsibilities to this role. She also intends to “push for carbon neutral strategies” as these are “both cost effective and very impactful to the environment.
Nisha also emphasises the importance of student engagement to help these strategies and initiatives have a long standing impact. She proposes “student led projects based on up-cycling and composting”, whilst also being open to other ideas from the wider student population.
Finally, Nisha wants to work with academic departments to introduce ideas around sustainability into the curriculum for STEM subjects, and “advocate for sustainability to be a key factor in all university financial decisions”.
