Thing 10: Doing Sustainable Research

For this Thing, we hear from two members of the Climate Action Research Institute (CARI) PGR Forum at Swansea University, who reflect on the importance of sustainability in research and what sustainable research practice might look like for different types of researcher.

What is the Climate Action Research Institute (CARI) PGR Forum?

CARI PGR Forum is an interdisciplinary, student-led group, which provides a space for the whole PGR community to explore working together at a time of climate and nature emergencies. CARI PGR Forum’s goal is to create opportunities for students to build knowledge, develop skills, access resources, and work together, to critically engage with and respond to the climate and nature emergencies, collectively and in their individual research.

Sustainability can take on different meanings across different fields of research, and the CARI PGR Forum seeks to address that through its emphasis on interdisciplinarity. For example, the upcoming second annual conference with the theme 'Research and Action in a Climate Crisis', will showcase the research of PGR students across the university to highlight different approaches, ideas or solutions. Collective understanding of and attitudes towards sustainability requires collaborative action and research from the natural sciences, social sciences and beyond. This is particularly important when communicating research to experts from other fields or the general public in order to influence change. Therefore, it is important for researchers to challenge their own perceptions of sustainability in their respective fields of research. We encourage you to reflect on this while reading this Thing.

Jessica and Emily, members of the CARI PGR committee reflect on sustainability in research, based on their own experiences as researchers.

Jessica Schwittay, PhD student in Tourism, on social sustainability in Nepal

Social sustainability is one of the three pillars of sustainability, alongside environmental and economic. While there are no agreed upon definitions in existing literature examining the concept, it can broadly be defined as “formal and informal processes, systems, structures and relationships [that] actively support the capacity of current and future generations to create healthy and liveable communities.” (McKenzie, 2004, p.18). Put very simply, social sustainability concerns itself with the wellbeing of communities. This is particularly important to consider for researchers going out into the field, regardless of whether or not their research is directly linked to the topic of sustainability. Even if the local communities may not be at the centre of or directly part of their research, researchers have a responsibility toward the host communities. Beyond adhering to research ethics dictated by our institutions, social sustainability principles should be considered by researchers before, during and after time spent in the field.

Drawing on my own experience from my PhD fieldwork in Nepal, specifically the Everest region, social sustainability was an important consideration for me prior to travelling there. Even though the focus of my research is the paying climbers that travel to the Everest region to climb various high peaks, the local mountain communities played a big role in my time there. I was living in their teahouses, sharing meals and stories with them, and making use of their expertise for almost a month. Nepal’s remote mountain communities are quite vulnerable, for example due to the devasting impacts frequent earthquakes can have and their lack of access. It was therefore really important to me to have a net positive impact on the local communities I would be living in and travelling amongst, even though my research was not directly involving them.

Photos from the Sir Edmund Hillary Visitor Centre, Khumjung Secondary School, that encourage visitors to think about social and environmental impacts by showcasing students’ work, among other things

Achieving this started when planning my travels. I made sure that the guide and porter I hired to help were paid fairly by their agency, including insurance coverage. I was initially debating whether or not to even hire a porter in the first place, as I was quite confident in my ability to be able to carry my own gear. However, after thorough consideration, I concluded that hiring a porter would provide additional economic benefits, and that the porter would have a lower than usual load to carry, as I was travelling by myself. Even seemingly small gestures like always making sure to check that they were also eating proper meals, and sharing my snacks with them throughout the days, was an important part of the journey for me. Although some of the aforementioned actions may seem like common sense, having extensively researched the state of the mountaineering and trekking industry in Nepal as part of my literature review prior to my fieldwork there, I had a solid understanding of just how harsh the realities of Sherpas, porters, and other local workers can be. I talked to other researchers who had been to the region or had an in-depth understanding of it, to gain further insights into how I could contribute to a more positive experience while there.

I also researched local initiatives I could take part in while I was there. For example, as pictured on the right, I took part in the Carry Me Back programme run by Sagarmatha Next, which meant I was able to add an extra 2kg to my backpack weight on the way down by carrying two bags of waste down the mountain to be processed at proper recycling facilities. Most of the waste is a byproduct of the tourism industry and directly impacts the mountain communities. For various reasons, I had to plan my fieldwork trip in a relatively short amount of time, so I was by no means as savvy as I could have been, but I hope this inspires some ideas to think about before heading out into the field, regardless of whether that is local or abroad.

Emily Holmes, PhD student in human geography, discusses environmental sustainability in Wales

Increasing global temperatures pose multiple risks to ecosystems and humans, demanding urgent societal changes (IPCC, 2023). In recognition of these challenges, Wales became the world’s first parliament to declare a climate emergency in 2019, later declaring a nature emergency in 2021. Framing climate and nature as emergencies creates space for hope by implying that there is still time to act, if we act now (Anderson, 2017). Climate researchers have been challenged for not ‘walking the talk’ when it comes to climate change (Attari, Krantz, and Weber, 2016), and so to truly acknowledge we are in a climate and nature emergency requires re-thinking both research outcomes and research processes (Furlan, 2021). Reflecting on this, I have asked myself what incorporating environmental sustainability might mean in my research. What might ‘acting now,’ and ‘re-thinking research processes’ look like for me?

Roads I walked down to get to interview locations

As a Human Geography PhD student researching environmental change in Wales, I seek to understand how creeping climate and nature crises are experienced by land-based workers through their everyday lives. My data collection included conducting twenty-one walking interviews with land-based workers in various locations throughout Southwest Wales. As I did not own a car, I was going to need to buy or borrow one to travel to various rural locations. If I was to ‘act now’ - and consider my research processes environmental impact – acquiring a car to collect data felt wrong, and so I decided to use public transport. This decision raised practical challenges; several buses simply did not turn up, and journeys were 100 – 400% longer than if I had travelled by car. But it was not all negative - travelling by public transport also reduced my emissions and enriched my research. Based on a (very) rough calculation, it reduced my travel emissions by approximately 45 kg CO2 over the course of my interviews. To put that in context, 45 kg CO2 equates to 750 days of carbon consumed by one tree, or 10,440 charges of a smartphone. Furthermore, the ‘slow’ travel of public transport expanded my research experience. I became acutely aware of the challenges of rural transport, I had quiet time to reflect on interviews while looking out at the landscape, and through conversations on the bus with fellow passengers and drivers I learned more about local areas and their stories. Further embracing ‘the slow’ I sought a location after each interview – often a cafe or pub – to write down my thoughts. This enabled a richer thick-description, sharper reflections, and an opportunity to log down my initial thoughts before they dissipated . These examples hopefully illustrate that while incorporating sustainability principles can raise challenges - it can also create unexpected opportunities to enrich research.

Now you’ve read about Jessica and Emily’s experiences, we invite you to reflect on your own research practices:

What might sustainability mean in the context of your own research/field of study?
How might you reduce the carbon footprint of your research? For example, could you travel to a conference by train instead of flying?
How can you make your research accessible to the communities that you engage with?
How does your field of research relate to sustainability concepts? For example, does it influence sustainability, or is it impacted by sustainable development in other fields?