Guys of SFC: Adam

This is part of a three-post series of blogs introducing the male members of the SFC general executive for 2020. We want you to know who we are, why sustainability is important to us and why we got involved in SFC. We also want to start a dialogue about male culture and why it might be a barrier for involvement in sustainability.

Hi, my name is Adam, and this is my second year with SFC! It has been an awesome experience, and I have met some fantastic people. I’m a 4th Year Engineering Student, and it wasn’t until I got to Uni that I fully got involved with sustainability. It had always been something I was aware of, but it took meeting some more sustainably-minded people to understand its full importance.

Sustainability for myself is pretty simple. We are lucky enough to have a beautiful natural environment around us, and I want to ensure that future generations also get to experience it. The sad reality is that right now; our current lifestyles are leading us down a different path, the consequences we are already seeing around us. That can be a pretty daunting thing to accept. And it's why many of us choose to ignore the problem rather than taking steps to help rectify it. It can be pretty scary to realise that the way many of us were raised (myself included) is unhealthy for our planet. Our goal as SFC is to get people engaged and make small, easy changes that lead them on their path to living a more sustainable life.

One area that we have chosen to focus on is men in sustainability. Men aren't as interested and engaged in sustainability as women, and if we want to make a difference, we need everyone to get involved! This is a really complex issue and we have tried to think of reasons why. Some of these problems, like societal expectations of men compared to women, aren't going to change overnight. However, by making the barrier of entry to sustainability as low as possible, we can help negate this issue.

It doesn’t take changing your whole life to make a difference, and no one is asking you to go vegan or give up your car. To take myself as an example, I am not vegan. I eat meat and use eggs and dairy in cooking. It doesn’t require giving these things up entirely to make an impact. However, when I can I try to substitute these out for other ingredients. I am a big fan of baking and cooking and trying new ways to make food is really fun. For instance, vegan mayo using the liquid from chickpea cans or lentil and mushroom burgers are a couple of the vegan recipes I have tried out. These aren’t necessarily meant to replace the real thing but they can have their own delicious flavour. If everyone went meatless for one day every week, it would have a massive impact.

It’s all about reducing your footprint, whether that be meat, taking your reusable cup instead of single-use for coffee. No action is too small! There are so many avenues to pursue, and there’s one, in particular, I would like to bring to your attention, VOTE! It’s an election year, and one of the most substantial impacts you can have as an individual is to vote. With that spiel out of the way I hope you take something away from this. When everyone pitches in we can change the world and that’s what needs to be done!

Vegan Chocolate Tart with Salted Oat Crust!