The Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies (CERMES) at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies has benefitted from a substantial grant aimed at bolstering the department’s scientific endeavours and graduate-level education in natural resource and environmental management. This includes student support, funds for research and the purchase of a new drone funded through the Robert L Jones, Harris Paints Environmental Grant.
The annual grant was created to mark Harris Paints’ 50th anniversary, which was celebrated in November 2022, and looked back on an outstanding history of promoting the more sustainable benefits of quality paints and emulsion technology. It was named in honour of the then Chairman Robert L Jones, an avid environmentalist, who in turn matched the contribution to provide a total award of BBD $40,000.
Director of CERMES, Dr. David Yawson explained that one of the great benefits of this grant is the flexibility with which it is structured allowing support to be directed where there is greatest need.
“This is the first year to receive this grant and we were not only able to provide scholarships to three students, Kerstin Corbin and Dina Hinds, both with specialties in Tropical Coastal and Marine Resource Management and Shernise Mayers-Springer who is pursuing an interest in Climate Change, but importantly, it has allowed us also to put funds towards realizing students’ research projects which is a very vital part of the programme” explained the director.
Another addition to the department will be the purchase of a Mavic 3 (M) drone equipped with a multi-spectral camera that can produce an image based on a range of light beyond visible sight. This tool has many applications and can provide valuable insights – for example, to help farmers optimize crop health and water productivity; coastal zone managers to understand changes in coastal vegetation and wetlands, and planners to produce detailed maps of land use and cover to inform land management.
“We have a deep respect for the important regional work done at CERMES with the highest degree of professionalism,” noted Harris Paints’ Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Luke Ticknor, “so we are exceptionally happy to be able to lend some support to the programme and to assist Caribbean young people who will be tasked with solving the challenges our planet will face tomorrow.”
Harris Paints recently launched its own company-wide sustainability initiative and is developing plans and calculating its current baseline positions with respect to things such as carbon emissions, water and energy consumption, and lower VOC/ more sustainable products.
By July 2024, Harris intends to set some aggressive internal targets and they have begun the process of submitting for an EcoVadis rating, so their efforts can be measured by a third-party leader in sustainability assessment and compared against much larger international companies.
For the coming year 2024-25, the Robert L Jones Harris Paints Environmental Grant is open to applicants in the MSc Programme in Natural Resources and Environmental Management (NAREM) and the MPhil/ PhD programmes to students who are nationals from Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St Kitts & Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Maarten, St. Vincent & the Grenadines and Suriname.