Vishal Vijay Kumar

Hi,

My name is Vishal and I'm a third-year medical student running to be your Ethics & Environment Officer.

If you elect me, I have a wide variety of ideas & campaigns I'd like to implement to encourage more ethical and sustainable practice across Imperial.

Sustainable Foods Across Campus

• Plant-based food options in campus outlets are often limited in choice and unappetising. I will push for increasing the availibility of appetising plant-based foods (such as traditional foods from a variety of cultures that are already plant-based). This would make plant-based foods more attractive, increasing uptake and also make more foods available for our growing vegan and vegetarian community (which includes myself).
• Investigating sources of ingredients and pushing for usage of cruelty-free/sustainably farmed ingredients
• Collaboration with our very own newly-launched Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein to see how it can be incorporated across Taste Imperial outlets

Increasing recycling & reducing waste

• Explore the implementation of small discounts for bringing your own container/cups when buying food/drinks (an incentive rather than a tax)
• Conduct a feasibility study on implementing something similar to the Pfand system in Germany - A small deposit on drinks in plastic bottles sold on campus which can be returned to get the deposit back

Ethical and Sustainable Investing

• Gather student opinions on Imperial College's current investments to help guide the official union stance
• Encourage divestment from corporations who engage in unethical or unsustainable practices

Thank you for reading my manifesto and I hope you'll vote for me!