Concrete Crackdown

Campus concrete kills our climate…
but alternatives are available.

The week began with a series of talks about circular economy, change-making and advocacy from influential people in Cornwall.

Talk by Hugo Tagholm (Chief Executive of Surfers Against Sewage)

I joined the ‘Political Campaigning’ challenge along with six other students. So, as a team, we had one week to:

1. Identify a high-priority problem,
2. Develop a realistic solution, and…
3. Lobby decision-makers to make change happen.

The ‘Grand Challenges’ had an environmental focus, so we started by exploring the most ecologically-harmful activity in our local area.

Teammate George Dempster speaking with local concrete manufacturers

Due to my experience with Effective Altruism, I was already aware that concrete production was a particularly harmful activity, and so I suggested it as a campaign issue to the group. After comparing a number of options, we settled on concrete production as the most impactful issue in our area.

To back up our argument, we identified a few key insights that formed the basis for our campaign.

Then, we began exploring suitable alternatives – other forms of construction material that could offer a lower environmental impact at a competitive cost.

As it turns out, there are a number of alternatives to ‘normal’ concrete which can offer an 80% or more reduction in ecological impact.

With these alternatives in hand, our task for the next few days was to challenge decision-makers in the University on their plans for upcoming construction projects.

As the only ‘creative’ student on the team, I took the lead on the campaign’s core messaging, copywriting and visuals.

The visuals used are bold, weighty and unforgiving – the sledgehammer became a metaphor to demonstrate the strength of our message and the seriousness of the issue.

Logo for various applications

The insights that we had uncovered earlier were quite surprising, and so I decided to allow the statistics to speak for themselves. As a result, the campaign visuals are very minimal, allowing the copywriting to take center stage.

Key insights take center stage

With our solutions, key insights and core message in place, we took to social media and public spaces on campus to spread our message.

Also, in order to demonstrate the support for our cause, we created a print and digital petition. In just 2 days, we collected the signatures of over 250 students.

Petition on Change.org

Print petition for gathering signatures at the end-of-challenge event

I created this highly-shareable GIF to explain the campaign issue, show potential solutions and promote our petition in a punchy bite-sized package.

Finally, on the last day of the challenge, we decided to to make a statement by creating a large banner and hanging it from the huge, unsightly concrete wall at the entrance to the university library.

We also presented our findings to a panel of executives and academics at the university for their feedback.

Our week of campaigning concluded with a stand at the ‘Grand Challenges’ closing event at the ESL (Environmental and Sustainability Institute), where we attracted the attention of several senior academics, and were even approached by the Dean of the university.

Stand at the ‘Grand Challenges’ closing exhibition

Our week of campaigning concluded with a presentation and exhibition stand at the ‘Grand Challenges’ closing event at the ESL (Environmental and Sustainability Institute), where we attracted the attention of several senior academics, and were even approached by the Dean of the university.

Presenting #ConcreteCrackdown at the ESL

A few weeks following our campaign, we met with Hugh McCann – the University of Exeter’s Director of Estates – to deliver a proposal and discuss how progress could be made.

Proposal for the university Board of Executives

We were pleasantly surprised to find that Hugh was eager to find ways to reduce the university’s ecological impact, and had already pursued more sustainable construction materials. Unfortunately, many things had already been set in stone regarding construction contracts for the next few years, so we decided there was little opportunity for us to make an impact here.

Regardless, we had succeeded in campaigning for an important cause, and had significantly raised the profile of this issue on campus.