BRIEF
Spanning over two campuses and with over 30,000 students and 4,000 staff, Sheffield Hallam university has a responsibility to effectively manage and reduce its environmental impacts. This is achieved by working with all stakeholders across the organisation to help embed sustainability behaviours and continuously improve the organisations environment performance.

 

The Business, Sustainability and Compliance department implement behaviour change campaigns in order to engage the students and staff with environmental issues and educate them on how to be sustainable whilst on campus. Their current campaign ‘Think, Act, Reduce’, focuses on waste management and the reduction of single-use items such as coffee cups, and they wanted my group and I to produce an art installation that will help students and staff engage with the waste issue. They wanted the artwork to demonstrate the positive actions Sheffield Hallam is undertaking to promote waste reduction at the university whilst also conveying the key message.

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Concept

Between our group we decided to communicate our idea using the building we work within at Sheffield - “Sheffield Hallam Institute of Arts, Old Post Office”. As a group we decided to create a box that fills up gradually with sand which demonstrates the 800 tonnes of waste that is carried out through one year at Sheffield Hallam. The building will be etched onto clear acrylic, and a mirrored piece of acrylic on the back side of the box. The box will have a top on which has 3 holes in allowing 3 plastic cups of coffee to poor sand slowly into the box to illustrate our idea to the public.