Meliora: a podcast from the Sustainability & Resilience Institute
Welcome to the Green Gown Award winning Meliora Podcast from the Sustainability and Resilience Institute at the University of Southampton!
This podcast explores the greatest and most wicked problem that is sustainability, whilst looking at how we are collectively addressing this critical global challenge.
Sustainability needs to be addressed by understanding how the economy, society, culture, politics and environment intersect, and this is the focus that informs each episode of the Meliora podcast.
In each episode, host Professor Simon Kemp and guest hosts are joined by a variety of guests, including academics, students, staff, researchers, alumni, community groups and business leaders.
The aim of the podcast is to shine a light on the vast range of topics surrounding sustainability and to allow listeners to learn about the critical challenges we face, as well as how they can be part of the solution. We also ensure our fantastic students have the opportunity to share their brilliant work with the world.
Podcast host: Professor Simon Kemp, Deputy Director of the Sustainability & Resilience Institute, University of Southampton
Podcast editors: Jack Dinham, Ellie Howell, Mya Harvey, Lily Killner, Sophie Green, Libby Kale, School of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Southampton
Podcast communications: Tyler Domone-Hollands, Hannah Parish, Alexander Ayerst, Maya Stevens, University of Southampton
Please do get in touch to discuss this podcast and any of the issues we raise by emailing sri@soton.ac.uk
Follow us on instagram and X: @meliorapodcast
Meliora: a podcast from the Sustainability & Resilience Institute
Jess Cook: Power to the people - exploring the potential of community energy
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Jess Cook (BSc Environmental Science) joins us to discuss her independent research project "Power to the People: exploring the potential of community energy".
In this Student Symposium episode, we explore renewable community energy projects from the people's perspective and how they shape up as a feasible decarbonisation solution. We explore whether the challenges that communities face from policy and funding limitations outweigh the benefits successful projects find. we look at the people and places that get involved with projects like these and what makes a project more likely to succeed than others.
The synergistic benefits these projects offer within sustainability are examined and the glimmer of hope they provide in these ever more extreme times is discussed. Sit down as we look at the future of community energy with the Government's release of the Local Power Plan and ask, is this a realistic solution to decarbonise our grid and reduce the cost of energy?
Guest: Jess Cook, BSc Environmental Science
Host: Prof Simon Kemp
Editor: Jack Dinham
The Meliora Podcast Student Research Symposium is part of the 2026 Student Takeover Season where we celebrate the fantastic sustainability research work of our Undergraduate Students.
