Day 30: Final day

Well, that was 30 days that went quickly! We are prompted to reflect on the personal sphere this week and I am looking forward also to our final reflection meeting this week. I am struck by several things. The first is simply the effectiveness of each of us making commitments and being invited to record our progress against them. I have been recently been thinking about what makes learning energetic and thinking about one aspect being having an idea for the near or immediate future, i.e., if I am in a situation that perhaps appears complex and confusing, if I get an idea of something I could try out, this can bring an energy with it – to test that thing and see what happens. And in a way I feel this is what the challenge has offered me – an immediate set of actions. And, as it comes to an end, I can feel the complexity and confusion around again – I need to get to the next thing I can focus on. I think for me personally, this will be about the School’s waste and recycling and really seeing if we can make a difference to reduce this (to zero). But I am not yet clear on the next steps with that  project.

I am also struck by an awareness that dawned on my part way through the challenge that I suspect, in an organisation like a university, that there is a sense of each of us wanting and indeed needing others to take responsibility for things like getting to net zero. There is a lot happening in Bristol and I am sure we can all have a role in amplifying and supporting and initiating. And those relations within the organisation I suspect then get mirrored on a larger scale, thinking about the country as a whole – I wonder if there are institutions waiting for each other, in order to make change.

And perhaps another lesson from the challenge, for me, is the observation that change is not always particularly hard to make and that it can also be fun!