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The University of Southampton
Sustainability Action

Keynote Speakers

In addition to hearing students present their research, two inspiring keynote speakers opened and closed the symposium.

Jakob Grandin, Educational Coordinator at the Centre for Environment and Development Studies (CEMUS) at Uppsala University and the Swedish University for Agricultural Sciences

Jakob Grandin

Jakob has worked with interdisciplinary, student-led and highly participatory university education for ten years. He co-initiated and developed Sustainable Development A, one of Sweden's first integrated university courses in Sustainable Development, developed the course Processes for Change: Leadership, Organization and Communication, and is currently creating a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Climate Change Leadership. Jakob has also worked at the secretariat for the Baltic University Programme, a network of 220 universities in the Baltic Sea Region, where he developed student conferences on climate change, education and human rights. As a hobby project, he consults on sustainability strategies and graphic design for corporations and organizations.

Through his work in Education for Sustainable Development, Jakob realized that the problem-focused and globalized way in which many sustainability challenges are framed may lead to passivity that inhibits meaningful action. His key concern is therefore to reframe sustainable development from a science of environmental problems to a creative process that enables pluralistic and socially just transformations to sustainable futures. This is also the focus of Jakob's recently defended Master's thesis, which investigated the agency of local actors in adaptation to socio-environmental change in Nepal.

Outside work, Jakob is an avid hiker and is currently trying to learn cross-country skiing in order to extend the outdoors season.

Follow Jakob on Twitter .

Lydia Butler, European Environment and Sustainability Graduate at Samsung Electronics

Lydia Butler

Lydia Butler currently holds an environmental business support function for the European Environment Team at Samsung Electronics Ltd. During her time at the company, Samsung has celebrated achieving Gold Class in the 2016 Dow Jones Sustainability Index, receiving the Carbon Trust ‘Best in Product Carbon Footprint’ award for their Galaxy S series carbon footprint reduction and achieving overall achieving total improvement in Product Power Efficiency by 42% over six years. The team Lydia works in supports environmental functions across all European operations and specialises in product compliance with European environmental legislation; with a focus on the three core topics of waste, chemicals and eco design. She is responsible for environmental communication, producing training materials, supporting trade shows, applying for environmental awards, competitor analysis and other policy or data support functions for the team or Korean headquarters. Frequently interacting with current sustainability topics related to circular economy, WEEE (waste electrical and electronic equipment), technological environmental innovation, environmental policy, energy efficiency, recycled materials, supply chain etc. she has a passion for business responsibility and technology-driven sustainability.

Follow Lydia on Twitter.

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