November 2010 - University of the West of England

NEWS
Sort It stand at the Sustainability Fair, Frenchay Campus
Bioblitz: reviewing the biodiversity on campus
Sustainability week at UWE
Many thanks to everyone who contributed to and attended events throughout Sustainability Week. The various
events running throughout the week were well attended, from the Sustainability Fair and R block tours to a day
of Bioblitzing the campus. Local and seasonal food was served at catering outlets and various events were run
on Bower Ashton Campus from film screenings to clothes swaps. St.Matthias and Glenside held Sustainability
Quizzes in their SU bars and a Ulink user survey was conducted at the main bus stop.
There was information up on main screens, the web and e-mails, as well as displays in the Library, Blackwells,
the Enterprise zone and the Student Union shop, posters in the cafeterias and around campuses. We had
5,500 hits on the SU events listing, 460 on the website and 360 on the environment page, and verbal feedback
that people have been aware that the week is going on.
Battle of the Buildings
During Sustainability Week UWE
Facilities held a ‘battle of the buildings’
in a campaign to raise awareness about
energy costs and to encourage staff to
be proactive and conserve energy.
The building with the biggest reduction
was Felixstowe Court saving 14.8 per
cent, the following were the top five:
2. Emerson’s Green (Printing and
Stationary) - 6.9 per cent
3. Building 435 (Wallscourt House) - 6.3
per cent
4. D Block Frenchay - 5.6 per cent
5. J Block Frenchay - 4.3 per cent
If these buildings saved the same
amount of energy every week for a year,
this would be enough energy to make
1,480,000 cups of tea and would save a
total 36,972kg of CO2!
Two big issues to come out of the week
for ongoing action are:
1. Identifying people who are usually
last in the office and encouraging
them to switch off equipment and
lights when they leave.
2. Switching off computer screens
throughout the day when you take a
break from PC work.
Waste Sort
Last year UWE recycled 42 per cent of its
waste, yet in the bin sort it was found
that 35 per cent of waste in bins could
have been recycled at UWE. Plastic
bottles and paper made up 29 per cent
of the weight of the bin; these are items
that are easily recycled at UWE. Paper
can be recycled for free, but when it
goes in the general waste we have to
pay for it to go to landfill. The cost of
not recycling this paper, if this data was
replicated across UWE is around £1,000 a
month, which we are literally throwing
away.
We are looking to learn from this year’s
sustainability week so any feedback you
have please just drop us an e-mail or call.
Thanks very much again for your support.
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