Meliora: a podcast from the Sustainability & Resilience Institute

We are joined by Heléna Pūce, one of the up and coming Sustainability stars in the South of England, on the Meliora Podcast from The Sustainability and Resilience Institute at the University of Southampton to discuss her journey from her undergraduate studies, masters degree, her first role with Siemens and her current position of Senior Environmental Advisor at DP World Southampton. We also address the exciting sustainability work being undertaken across DP World and  assess the current and future positive impact.  

Episode guest: Helena Puce

Episode host: Prof Simon Kemp

Episode editor: Jack Dinham

Episode communications: Hannah Parish, Maya Stevens

Connect with us @MelioraPodcast on Instagram, X and Blue Sky

We are joined for this episode of the Meliora podcast by Samuel Inkster, Grace Cheung, Mohammad Idrus and Adchaya Apputhurai, four University of Southampton undergraduate students from Enactus Southampton to discuss their inspiring 'Seeds for Thought' programme where they are applying innovative approaches in tackling childhood obesity.

In this episode Samuel, Grace, Mohammad and Adchaya talk about the inspiring work of Enactus along with the origins, successes and future plans for their brilliant Seed for Thought programme.

Episode guests: Samuel Inkster, Grace Cheung, Mohammad Idrus and Adchaya Apputhurai

Episode host: Prof Simon Kemp

Episode producer: Jack Dinham

Episode editor: Libby Kale

Episode communications: Hannah Parish and Maya Stevens

One of the leading Sustainability practitioners in the South of England, Jason Light joins us on the Meliora Podcast from The Sustainability and Resilience Institute at the University of Southampton where we chat about how he developed his high impact sustainability career across local authorities and the NHS, his wonderful approach to 'nudging' senior leaders to sustainability change, his plans for the future, and his ideas around dogs, owners and climate education. 

Listen to learn about developing a career as a sustainability leader, stay for Jason's idea around dogs, owners, trainers, and the climate emergency!  We hope you enjoy the episode!

Episode guest: Jason Light

Episode host: Prof Simon Kemp

Episode producer and editor: Jack Dinham

Episode communications: Hannah Parish, Maya Stevens, Alex Ayerst

There are many exciting ways to learn about sustainability, so we thought we would attempt a rather different episode of the Meliora podcast.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Summit is a two-hour class as part of the UOSM2043 Global Sustainability Challenges module at the University of Southampton where students work in groups to represent different parts of the world and reach agreement on what SDGs should be prioritised at an international level.  I could go into lots of waffly detail about the summit preparation, operation, negotiation, voting and the pedagogies behind this learning tool, but it's a far better idea to just listen to the episode and enjoy......

Episode Host: Prof Simon Kemp, USOM2043 Module Lead and Deputy Director of the Sustainability & Resilience Institute , University of Southampton

Episode Guests: The UOSM2043 students, Alex Ayerst, Rebecca Collins

Episode Producer: Alex Ayerst

Episode Comms: Hannah Parish

Episode Editor (who worked for 10 hours to somehow stitch all of the 2 hours of chaos together): Libby Kale

Engage with us on Instagram: @MelioraPodcast

In this episode of the Meliora Podcast from The Sustainability and Resilience Institute at the University of Southampton we chat with the brilliant Dr Keiron Roberts about how he developed his career as an academic, his work on decarbonisation in the Port of Portsmouth and microplastics, and how he was lucky enough to go and work in Antarctica! 

This is a great episode where we get to chat to one of our most impactful alumni and hear about all the different dimensions of his inspirational work and the creativity behind it.  We hope you enjoy the episode!

Episode guest: Dr Keiron Roberts

Episode host: Prof Simon Kemp

Episode editor: Libby Kale

Episode communications: Hannah Parish

In this episode of the Meliora Podcast from the Sustainability & Resilience Institute at the University of Southampton we embark on a wide-ranging discussion around climate anxiety and the challenges of multigenerational sustainability with our SRI Director Prof Craig Hutton, and our Communications Interns Alex Ayerst and Hannah Parish.

This is a thought provoking episode and we recognise that there may be some points you disagree with, yet also support some others.  That is the purpose of academia.  To challenge and debate is crucial in the sustainability sphere, and in this episode we looked to get the perspectives of different generations. 

We hope you enjoy this episode, and if you have any thoughts you'd like to share please email us at [email protected].  Also, we're keen to hear from anyone who would like to join us on the podcast to continue this debate! 

Episode guests: Alex Ayerst, Craig Hutton, Hannah Parish 
Episode host: Simon Kemp
Episode editor: Libby Kale
Communications editors: Hannah Parish, Alexander Ayerst, Maya Stevens

Engage with us on instagram and X: @meliorapodcast 

In this episode of the Meliora Podcast from the Sustainability & Resilience Institute at the University of Southampton we welcome not just one, but two of our brilliant academics Dr Vicky Dominguez Almela and Dr Sien Van Der Plank to discuss their fascinating work investigating how Sargassum is affecting coastal communities in West Africa and the Caribbean. You will be thinking 'I never knew seaweed could be so interesting!'

Our chat covers Sien and Vicky's careers to date, how they became interested in sustainability, their fascinating research, links to the SRI, and how their work is having an impact across the world.

Vicky and Sien are two of our best early career academics, conducting great research and inspiring our students with their teaching. They are fantastic examples of the crucial work conducted by early-career researchers, and will be  important academics working in sustainability through their careers - hopefully here with us at Southampton! We hope you enjoy this episode!

Further reading:

Victoria Dominguez Almela, Kwasi Appeaning Addo, Jack Corbett, Janice Cumberbatch, Jadu Dash, Robert Marsh, Hazel Oxenford, Thierry Tonon, Sien Van Der Plank, Mona Webber and Emma L Tompkins. 2023. Science and policy lessons learned from a decade of adaptation to the emergent risk of sargassum proliferation across the tropical Atlantic - https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7620/acd493 https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2515-7620/acd493 

Episode guests: Dr Vicky Dominguez Almela and Dr Sien Van Der Plank 
Episode host: Prof Simon Kemp
Episode editors: Jack Dinham and Libby Kale
Communications editors: Hannah Parish, Alexander Ayerst, Maya Stevens

Engage with us on instagram and X: @meliorapodcast 

In this episode of the Meliora Podcast from the Sustainability & Resilience Institute at the University of Southampton we welcome the brilliant academic Dr Ellie Atayee-Bennett to discuss her work on the links between faith, veganism and sustainable behaviours.

Our chat covers Ellie's whole journey, how and why she became interested in sustainability, her fascinating research, her links to the SRI, and the plans for her academic career and future research.  

Ellie is an all-round wonderful person, provides a great example of the crucial work  conducted by early-career researchers, and will be an important academic working in sustainability through her career. We hope you enjoy this episode!

Further reading:

Atayee-Bennett, E. (2024). Purity and pollution: faith vegans’ categorizations of plant-based foods as pure and animal-derived foods as polluting. Food Culture & Society, pp.1–18. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/15528014.2024.2406079. 

Episode guest: Dr Ellie Atayee-Bennett
Episode host: Prof Simon Kemp
Episode editors: Jack Dinham and Libby Kale
Communications editors: Hannah Parish and Alexander Ayerst

Engage with us on instagram and X: @meliorapodcast

In this episode of the Meliora Podcast from the Sustainability & Resilience Institute at the University of Southampton we have a great chat with two leading lights in the growing field of sustainability in sport - Caroline Carlin and Cece Liu.

Our relaxed chat covers Caroline and Cece's backgrounds, how and why they became interested in sustainability, their work at Southampton FC and university respectively, and their current work at leading sustainability in sport company e-novation consulting

Caroline is someone I've always greatly enjoyed working with from her time at the mighty Saints, and it was great to meet Cece and learn about her work as she begins what will be an important career in sustainability. We hope you enjoy this episode!

Episode guests: Caroline Carlin & Cece Liu
Episode host: Prof Simon Kemp
Episode editor: Libby Kale

Engage with us on instagram and X: @meliorapodcast

In this episode of the Meliora Podcast from the Sustainability & Resilience Institute at the University of Southampton we have a lovely, fascinating chat with another of our most wonderful and high-impact alumni - the amazing Stephanie Todd, Strategic Operational Lead for Sustainability at Kingston University.

Our relaxed chat covers Stephanie's background, how and why she became dedicated to sustainability, her ridiculously impressive impact as a young college student, her excellent university contributions, and why it's so important to grab every opportunity that happens to come your way. We then move to discuss her time at Qinetiq, followed by her exceptional work leading operational sustainability at Kingston University and how she approaches collaborative sustainability work with her excellent education colleagues.

Stephanie is a total star, someone I have always enjoyed working with, spending time with, and look forward to continuing to collaborate with. We hope you enjoy this episode!

Episode guest: Stephanie Todd
Episode host: Prof Simon Kemp
Episode editor: Libby Kale

Engage with us on instagram and X: @meliorapodcast