OUR BACKGROUND
SOS-UK is a charity set up by students and staff at NUS in 2019 in response to the climate emergency and ecological crisis. Being small and nimble allows us to go much further and faster with our vital student-led sustainability work. SOS-UK has separate governance from NUS and is financially independent, although we are proud to remain part of the NUS family, alongside Endsleigh Insurance and OneVoice Digital. The NUS President is also the SOS-UK President.

 

WHAT WE DO
SOS-UK exists to support students to be the change that society urgently needs to get us out of the climate emergency and ecological crisis, and to deliver climate justice. All the campaigns and programmes we front are led by students, encouraged, supported and mentored by the permanent staff team at SOS-UK. We are the support crew, doing whatever we can to help ensure the students are successful in their projects and campaigns.

 

WHAT WE WANT TO CHANGE
We believe that the education system is the root-cause of societal unsustainability. It makes young people think that the climate emergency and ecological crisis is something for geographers and scientists. Much of what is taught reinforces unsustainable and unjust thinking and values, whereas through our work we provide students with the opportunity to develop the attributes that lead to a more just and sustainable society. Universities are measured by how much their graduates earn, not the good they go on to do. We are working to repurpose all forms of the formal education system around the climate emergency and ecological crisis, whilst mass-engaging students in sustainability as a stop-gap measure. We want to break the cycle of well-educated people making bad decisions for the planet. Our ultimate outcome is to change society’s fixation from self-interest and short-term profit to altruism and long-term prosperity. We feel our work is critical to making this happen.

 

OUR WORKSTREAMS

1. Getting more students leading on, and learning for, sustainability.
2. Repurposing the education system around the climate emergency and ecological crisis.
3. Making sustainability more inclusive, so it is for everyone.

We work across all four nations of the UK and cover all forms of formal education. We work to green campuses, curricula and communities.

 

Find out more about our programme and campaigns here.

Learn more about SOS-UK in our introduction document here.

Read more about the sustainability attributes we want to see all students have the chance to develop here.

If you are a student with a campaign that fits into one of our work-streams, contact us here.