Blog

from Jasmine Brook tanker, Master, International Development

Lucy Hurford and Tegan Kemp from the Bristol office of Six Degrees recently shared an insight into the exciting opportunities for University of Bristol students with a passion for sustainability.

Six Degrees has a central focus and passion for sustainability and offers their advisory services free of charge to promote and advocate new and effective ways to achieve sustainability. Six Degrees works with Russell Group university students across the country and acts as “the UK’s multi-university, student-run environmental think tank”.

Epigram recently spoke with members of Six Degrees to discuss the regular counseling internships offered and opportunities for Bristol University students in the new academic year.

The consulting organization started in Oxford in 2018 and used students from the University of Oxford to pilot their first projects. Six Degrees has since advised “a wide variety of organizations, nonprofits, research institutes, SMEs and larger corporations” by providing “tailored advice on environmental impact mitigation, long-term value creation and environmental policy”.

Some of the goals of Six Degrees Sustainable Development | Six Degrees Bristol

This summer, Six Degrees Bristol is running two summer internship projects in partnership with the student-run counseling organization COVID-19 Student Response Network (CSRN). These projects work with the Green Party in Lebanon, which is concerned with their sustainable agricultural development, and with FROZ, a Lebanese eco-friendly e-commerce platform. Six Degrees and CSRN want to help develop their systems that track the environmental impact of their products.

For eight weeks, these groups work in teams of four to five students, receive briefings and work together from there and create their projects. Although Six Degrees offers training and resources, Kemp told Epigram that “they have a lot of freedom and space to develop the project and make it their own”.

At the end of the internship, the groups prepare a final report and present their projects at symposia. Kemp has been with the company for less than a year, emphasizing the special opportunity for individuals to get involved in the burgeoning organization and have an impact on the early development of the Bristol branch of Six Degrees.

Six Degrees Bristol encourages its consultants to refer to the Sustainable Development Goals throughout the project to help them explore the assignment while maintaining a sustainable perspective.

Six Degrees acts as “UK’s cross-university, student-run environmental think tank”

Kemp emphasized that they have welcomed students with diverse academic backgrounds and skills beyond typical environmental disciplines, and welcome anyone who shows a personal passion for sustainability. Applicants don’t need any prior consulting experience to apply, just the enthusiasm to learn new skills and adopt the Six Degrees environmental ethos.

Former consultants found the program “really rewarding, interesting and creative” so that they could learn “a lot about climate protection tools and counseling”. They also found the work “more interesting, interesting and collaborative” than they expected. Kemp noted how consultants truly appreciated “developing customer communication skills and business awareness” for their own professional development.

These internships are particularly suitable for students to pursue projects that match their professional career as well as their personal interests.

Bristol became the first company in the world to receive 100% Green Lab certificationNavigating sustainability as a student

Applications for the consulting projects start in September, but you can support Six Degrees now by keeping up to date with their work via their Instagram @sixdegreesbristol. Six Degrees Bristol regularly creates new opportunities and works with students from the University of Bristol and companies like BUST (Bristol University Sustainability Team). You can also support Six Degrees and the counselors by watching the symposia at the end of the summer internship projects.

Featured Image: Six Degrees and Unsplash / Mikey Harris (created with Canva)

Would you like to get involved with Six Degrees Bristol?