My name is Meda and I am a second year Environmental Management student here in Manchester. I came to study to the UK from a small country in the North East of Europe called Lithuania with a plan to bring back acquired knowledge and apply it back home. I chose environmental studies to follow my passion for sustainability as well as to learn more about bigger surrounding socioeconomic aspects of pollution, climate and biodiversity crises.

During the second year of my studies, I am taking a module called “Environment and Development Field trip” which is an actual fieldtrip with my course. Originally, the plan was to visit Portugal, but the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic made overseas travelling difficult to predict and most of us were rather disappointed about that. Instead, we took a coach to York and then boarded a train, the most eco-friendly transportation option, to Inverness! After a very scenic trip we reached Scottish Highlands and had some time to explore the town of Inverness, see the landmarks and enjoy bagpipe sounds in the unexpectedly hot sun.

Ness Walk Aberdeen

Footbridge in Aberdeen

From the environmental management side of the trip, we visited Cairngorms National Park and its most successful rewilded sites. Rewilding defines how the reintroduction of predators in the landscape could help to regenerate the long-lost forests of Britain. This conservation tactic could make popular Manchester hiking destinations such as the Peak District National Park greener and more attractive to its visitors. Another topic we addressed was organic farming and sustainable business models. We visited a carbon neutral local brewery called “Black Isle Brewery Co” which produces beer from organic barley and hops. The brewery is established in an old farm that now uses the no-dig method to protect the degrading soil and provides plenty of wildflower patches for rare bird and pollinator species to enjoy.

One thing that I love about my course is the interdisciplinary approach. We share many lectures with the Planning and Real Estate students to learn collaboration with different stakeholders because in real life we will be working with a variety of specialists. This fieldtrip was no exception and I heavily benefitted from the planning side of the trip. We had a chance to visit an energy park that adapted its storage facilities for the national energy transition from oil and gas to renewable wind energy. Seeing the deconstruction of old oil platforms and new towers for wind warms sparked hope to successfully achieve carbon neutrality. Moreover, discussing new road and housing developments opened our eyes on how to accommodate increasing urbanisation and housing needs whilst trying to balance them with environmental values.

Black Isle Brewery

One thing that I love about my course is the interdisciplinary approach. We share many lectures with the Planning and Real Estate students to learn collaboration with different stakeholders because in real life we will be working with a variety of specialists. This fieldtrip was no exception and I heavily benefitted from the planning side of the trip. We had a chance to visit an energy park that adapted its storage facilities for the national energy transition from oil and gas to renewable wind energy. Seeing the deconstruction of old oil platforms and new towers for wind warms sparked hope to successfully achieve carbon neutrality. Moreover, discussing new road and housing developments opened our eyes on how to accommodate increasing urbanisation and housing needs whilst trying to balance them with environmental values.

This weeklong field trip taught me so much, reinforced my love for the environment and sustainable development and again, proved how on-site education always beats textbook pages… Overall, the field trip was packed with relevant examples, knowledgeable guest speakers, heated discussions among peers, bonding moments and, obviously, unpredictable Scottish snowstorms!

Wind Farm – Aberdeen

Zsófi Kutasi

I’m Zsófi, a second-year BSc Environmental Management student from Hungary!

As a second-year student in this course, we have a planned field trip in the middle of the second semester to experience what we have learned so far in practice. It is a week-long trip with all second-year Environmental Management, Planning and Real Estate students and some of our lecturers.  Usually, they would take us to Portugal, but due to the pandemic, the faculty decided to have the field trip within the UK. Therefore, this year we went to Scotland, Inverness, a city in the Highlands up north of the country.

They choose this place because it revolves perfectly around the main themes this trip is trying to explore and present us to think more deeply about. These themes are all connected to my course in many senses and include energy, tourism, environmental stewardship and transportation as well. According to this, during the trip, we visited many different places within the area by coach to get a better understanding of these themes in the context of the Highland and comprehend what each means and what practices are in place to better perform them.

For example, one of the destinations was the Cairngorms National Park, which is the biggest National Park in the UK! Here the main topic was environmental stewardship and conservation, especially this approach called rewilding. The main aim is to bring nature back to this area and they showed what they are doing to achieve that, but also some of the issues which are causing more debate about this subject matter, such as land ownership.

Each day was heavily packed with programs and usually started at 8 am with breakfast and ended at around 6 pm when we got back to our accommodation. However, after heading back to Inverness, we had free time to explore the city and everything it has to offer. Also, for our first day we had a whole day to do that but with a little fun exercise involving taking selfies with the main attractions. Additionally, on the last day, we had to prepare a group presentation demonstrating 3 case studies from the trip and explain the main challenges and opportunities in groups. Lastly, the field trip concluded with a dinner together with the lecturers and students before we travelled back to Manchester the next day with a 6-hour long train journey.

All in all, I found the trip extremely interesting and instructive. It was great to have an understanding of how each theme is performed in Scotland and I learned various new things about the landscape, the city and the Highlands overall. Another fantastic part of the trip was that it gave us the chance to get to know each other better from the same and other courses as well. I am glad I had the opportunity to travel and see such beautiful areas with the advantage of also gaining practical knowledge which will help me during and after my studies!

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