Understanding the name of this project is an important part of understanding the Kaupapa (purpose). When the New Zealand Climate Change Commission provided advise to government about the action required to meet our commitments to the Paris accord, they described the implications of meeting head wind condition that would slow our progress (such as slower development of technology or behaviour change). They also spoke about tail wind conditions that would accelerate us towards our targets earlier (rather then let us ease off our effects and still get there on the same schedule). The phrase “Pūhau ana te rā” relates to traveling with your sails full of wind. In particular we associate it with a specific sail, that is an example of traditional knowledge that has almost been lost in time.

We see that undergraduates and emergent researchers are capable of generating significant tail wind conditions that will accelerate us towards a thriving future. However, there are limited opportunities to develop those capabilities, apply them to wicked problems, and share the learnings. That is the purpose of the initiative.

This initiative has evolved, to some extent organically, over a period of four years. The initial seed idea came from funding allocated through a collaboration with the local city council which offered funding for a summer scholarship. The scholarship was to be targeted to addressing a specific sustainability issue in a manner that would lead to real impact.

Summer scholarships are a common occurrence in academic areas, and usually enable a student to support a more senior researcher by contributing to a larger project. Pūhau ana te Rā is different in that it is hosted by Toitū te Taiao (the Sustainability Office) which is part of the operations division, it aims to allow the student to undertake an independent research project with outcomes that stand in their own right, and places extra emphasis on broader graduate attributes more than on discipline specific knowledge.

To be eligible students must have a recommendation from an academic, be an undergrad (or on a taught masters programme), and be continuing study in the following academic year. A list of project themes are publicised and students apply in writing and by interview. They stipulate the areas they are most interested in and an agreed project is established that matched the their current capabilities to the requirements of the project.

The story so far:

2019/20: the city council supported two scholarships to look at student sustainability issues.

• In collaboration with Otago Polytechnic looking at food waste composting on campus with the follow evidence of outputs
  • A funded and ongoing campus composting project
  • A publication exploring the decision making and values behind the project
• Another looking at sustainable flatting with the following evidence of output
  • The Sustainability Sussed website
  • The sustainability Sussed posted which was distributed to several hundred student flats and included as a A3 pull our student association flatting guide (pages 15-16)

2020/21: 8 students undertaking summer taking summer scholarships in a range of areas including Mapping organisations engaging with the SDGs across Otago (in collaboration with the UNRCE – Te Whaiao), Mapping formal Education for sustainability activity across Otago region. Based on the promise this project demonstrated the sustainability office moved to a new location with collaboration space for scaling Pūhau ana te rā in future years.

2021/22: 13 students received summer scholarship and undertook research into areas such as reducing food waste in flats, actionable recycling through the supply chain, establishing a GRI reporting regime for the University, mapping the university policy ecosystem to see sub systems of policies that relate to sustainability, evaluating opportunities for offsetting in native forest regeneration, mapping the organisations engaged in SDGs across Otago, and the inclusivity of student focussed sustainability initiatives from a disability perspective. The proceedings of the end of summer seminar, which we collaborated with students from other academic areas is available through this link. One of the most notable outcomes from this summer was the initial planning for what became Te Oraka (Student Engagement GGA winner 2022)

2022/23: Around 20 students engaged in summer scholarship activities. This is the first year that we captured the outputs in our journal. This journal is free open access and is targeting Diamond Standard Open Access, which in itself is a sustainability and equity action. You can read more about the journal here, but in essence, it is there to support undergraduates and emerging researchers. To do so we have established a diverse editorial board. We have also deliberated templated the review process to ensure a developmental approach to review feedback, and pair experienced academics with doctoral candidates to create an opportunity support those who are less experienced. We have paired with a research group in the Centre for sustainable Agriculture, Food, Energy, and Environment  (CSAFE) to support the ethics application process, which was one of the challenges as an office which is within an operational division.

Themes that we addressed in 2022/23 included transport, native forest regeneration, food waste, incontinence waste, green labs, e-waste, developed a model for climate related cultural risk from a kaupapa Māori perspective, air travel emissions and conference planning, campus heating, green hydrogen, alternative proteins, and place-based wilderness journeys. The Proceedings of the end of summer seminar are available at this link, and the recordings of the presentations are available at this link.

We now have well established partners to fund these summer scholarships for the coming years. Partners who have realised great value from the work undertaken by the students, and are also interested in recruiting them into their organisations as graduates. We are now integrating the inclusion of summer scholarhsips as an option within procurement processes. For example, Waste Management New Zealand provide funding for two summer scholars each year as part of their waste contract with the University. We are also seeing internal interest in these opportunities. For example, the procurement team want a summer intern to produce report on our major suppliers to inform our next steps in managing the risk of modern slavery in our supply chain.

We have successfully established a hub for living labs. In our context we see lving labs ac situations where there is an operational challenge (related to sustainability) which is informed by research and invoves students in finding the resolution. It also has reasearchers working looking at our operations, and supervising scholarship students in the projects. From the student’s perspective, they are developing research skills as well as capabilities for a range of workplaces. As illustrated below, it’s a triad that generates more benefit that the individual parts can separately.