At our AGM back in March, congress voted to add a new officer role onto our NSE — Sustainability Officer. After going through various candidates, it is our great pleasure to introduce Saoi O’Connor as our Sustainability Officer for this NSE term;

“Hi, i’M Saoi O’Connor and I’m a 16 year old climate activist from Skibbereen, Co Cork. I have been climate striking in Cork City for 37 weeks now. I am passionate about justice in all its forms, especially climate justice & sustainability. My work protesting the climate crisis has brought me into a network of like-minded friendships all over the world from Sweden to Uganda to Palestine. I first became involved with ISSU at the Regional Council last year and I’m incredibly excited for the coming year to work with the National Student Executive.”

Saoi will be liaising with Sustainable Development Goals and Climate Action orgs to promote equality and climate justice. They will run environmental campaigns throughout their term and promote the student voice in the midst of climate action.

The role of sustainability officer is one of great importance in this time of extreme lack of understanding of how severe the climate crisis is. It is evident through the strikes and many more campaigns coming through that young people are the only people taking this climate emergency seriously. Hopefully with Saoi and sustainability officers for years to come more of our leaders will step up and do what is necessary to save our future.

You can keep up to Saoi’s work on their twitter here.