News / 19 Mar 2025
Students present at the Student Sustainability Research Conference 2025
Sustainability
Students across three courses presented their sustainability focused projects at the Student Sustainability Research Conference 2025.
The Student Sustainability Research Conference is an annual event where impactful student research is presented from across a diverse range of disciplines and perspectives. This year's conference was hosted at the University of Leeds.
Through partnership with Yorkshire Universities, a number of Leeds Arts University students got involved this year from across our BA (Hons) Fashion Design, BA (Hons) Visual Communication and MA Creative Practice degree courses. Students showcased their work through poster submissions, exhibitions and presentations.
Students involved were:
Rylee Shafer - MA Creative Practice
Cara Burton - MA Creative Practice
Jess Watson - MA Creative Practice
Flora Houldsworth - BA (Hons) Visual Communication
Isali Nanayakkara - BA (Hons) Fashion Design
Lily Robinson BA - (Hons) Fashion Design
Gracie Chadwick - BA (Hons) Fashion Design
“Working with the other Yorkshire Universities on the steering group for this fantastic annual event, we worked hard to encourage submissions from a diverse range of disciplines and a range of formats to showcase the role of the arts and creativity in exploring sustainability and tackling the climate crisis. It was brilliant to see participating Leeds Arts students consider a range of issues from environmental and social perspectives so effectively through their presentations, exhibited film and ceramics pieces”
Claire Booth, Sustainability Manager
Rylee Shafer entered two projects, an individual project called Re-greening Urban Areas, and a group project.
Rylee's individual project, Re-greening Urban Areas is about bringing nature back into urban environments. The idea is to utilize ceramics to grow epiphyte or hemi-epiphyte plants onto and mount that into the built environment as a kind of green wall. The intent is that these plants will be self-sustaining and live through the year so it will be low to no maintenance.
"By improving the available green space in cities people are more likely to think positively about the environment and feel more motivated to take care of nature. I want to use art to adapt the urban environment for micro and macro organisms. This can help our cities become more resilient to the effects of climate change and possibly combat carbon emissions. If humans are able to adapt the built environment to reduce carbon outputs and promote the growth of nature in cities it is possible that our world could shift from an anthropocentric society to a symbiocentric society where all living things have representation. It is important to look at how you want the world to look and find a way of bringing that view to life, that is what my work centers on. At the core of it I aim to bring humans and nature closer together and thereby improve positive connections, respect, and care for our non-human counterparts."
Rylee Shafer, MA Creative Practice student
Rylee produced a group project called Empty Bowls with fellow MA Creative Practice students Cara Burton and Jess Watson.
Empty Bowls is a worldwide grassroots movement to help fight food insecurity and nutrition insecurity as well as raise awareness of these issues aligning with the fight for zero hunger. The Empty Bowls event will have handmade bowls for sale at a low price and when the bowl is purchased the person can fill it with soup or other food at no extra charge. customers then keep the bowl as a reminder of how many bowls go empty around the world. The actual event will take place in September/October 2025 with all proceeds being donated to local food pantries and charity Rainbow Junktion.
"We came together as a group because we are all studying creative practice and wanted to give back to our community in a meaningful way. Cara recently developed an AI dream interpretation tool, and is a co-founder of a female lead generative art platform that explores intersections of art, nature, and code. [...] Rylee has a background in environmental science with a focus on sustainability, politics, and peace in conflict. [...] Jess is passionate about reconnecting with her creative identity and is exploring issues related to diversity, inclusion, and sustainability. We became interested in our project after learning about Rylee's experience with Empty Bowls last year and the impact it had on the local community. After discussing the topic further we decided to bring Empty Bowls to Leeds with the hope of improving food and nutrition insecurity in the area."
Rylee Shafer, Jess Watson and Cara Burton, MA Creative Practice students
BA (Hons) Visual Communication student Flora Houldsworth submitted a video project called We Share a World to the conference.
Her project presents the Sustainability Conference Theme, Nature Reforestation as a campaign video that focuses on the concept that 'We Share a world' and must learn to live with the world rather than seek to dominate it. Flora's emphasis is on the importance of nature and encouraging people to consider a more-than-human world, a future of symbiosis with plants, not technology and artificial intelligence.
"In our current society, nature is now being reflected as a dispensable, recreational and aesthetic amenity. This increasing disconnect highlights the fundamental beliefs of a technology-driven, sedentary society that views time spent in nature as outdated and regressive. Directly comparing the two, nature taking over vs. technology taking over, the aim for this 2 minute 30 second video is to make audiences stop and consider the importance of trees and nature as we "must protect the systems that keep us alive" (quoted from the video itself). Based in the same white room, I designed and constructed two contrasting set designs along with a range of accessories, using the different materials. I maintained sustainability by collecting natural materials myself, which were then later composted and additionally, all the cables, devices and tech materials were donated from my local village citizens as discarded and obsolete. I used music from artist, Natural Symphony who uses the natural bio rythms of plants to create music and puts his profits for reforesting, further supporting my message."
Flora Houldsworth, BA (Hons) Visual Communication student
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We Share a World by Flora Houldsworth, BA (Hons) Visual Communication
BA (Hons) Fashion Design students Isali Nanayakkara, Lily Robinson and Gracie Chadwick each gave live presentatons at the conference.
The work they presented came from a live competition brief called Circular Fashion - Innovative design ideas. The brief was part of a sustainable fashion module on their course. They took part in five masterclasses on circular fashion developed by Graduate Fashion Foundation and Zalando, and provided up to date research on current global issues surrounding the fashion industry, production processes and innovative developments. The students used the learnings from these masterclasses to develop a range of bags to address Sustainable Development goals.
Gracie, Isali and Lily addressed these goals through the materials, design processes and construction methods they used:
Gracie’s project re-used damaged garments destined for landfill, her approach was weaving mono fabrics (sourcing and organising fabrics into the same properties - eg cotton, poly) to ensure that the bags could be re-cycled after the bags end of life.
Isali's project, 'Entangled', used plastics that often end up in landfill/oceans to design bold, colourful designs. Using fruit/veg plastic net packaging and contemporary weaving techniques to create her vibrant bags, she also explored melting the netting to create buttons.
Lily addressed waste in the car industry to create stunning designs that use car wiring to weave modern bag designs, to tackle environment landfill.
"My experience at the sustainability conference talk was incredibly rewarding, as it allowed me to express my passion for sustainability. I was grateful to have a fantastic platform to share my journey of transforming unwanted clothes into a stylish and sustainable collection of bags. This opportunity has been truly meaningful, and I’m thankful for the chance to contribute to a more sustainable future.”
Gracie Chadwick, BA (Hons) Fashion Design student
"Presenting at the conference was an amazing opportunity to share my passion for sustainability, it was inspiring to showcase how repurposing everyday waste like fruit and vegetable netting, can create innovative designs and spark conversations about sustainability."
Isali Nanayakkara, BA (Hons) Fine Art student