November 2010 - University of the West of England

Focus on:
Sustainability Success for BBS
The BBS Sustainability Group has
worked hard over the past two years
to reduce wasteful use of resources in
an effort to help UWE become one of
the greenest Universities. BBS has made
many significant changes some of which
have been listed below:
More water coolers are fed from the
mains rather than depending on the
distribution of cumbersome big blue
bottles. BBS has increased the number
of recycling bins around the Business
School.BBS recycles as much as possible
of its old furniture within UWE. All new
upholstery is from recycled material.
The lights in BBS teaching rooms
operate automatically when the room is
occupied.
As a sign of their success, Felixstowe
Court won the Battle of the Buildings
during Sustainability week (October
18 to 22) by achieving a reduction in
energy consumption of some 15 per
cent compared with the previous week.
This was the largest reduction of any
of the buildings monitored across UWE.
http://www.uwe.ac.uk/estates/energy/
botb.shtml
Another important development has
been the promotion of sustainability
within the BBS curriculum. An
increasing number of modules deal with
sustainable development as a central
issue in business. Within these modules
tutors are encouraged to use Turning
Point technology to obtain immediate
statistics about student attitudes and
actions towards sustainability issues.
To cut down on foreign and domestic
travel the faculty has developed
video conferencing resources. A new
Tandberg Video Conferencing Unit is
now available and is being used for
meetings, interviews and real time
seminars to students in Malaysia.
The group will shortly be expanding to
include colleagues from Law and this
is a good opportunity for everybody
interested to make suggestions and
get involved. To get involved and
help BBS continue to lead the way in
sustainability in UWE please contact any
of the group members. Elena Blanco,
Charles Booth, Noel Burchell, Svetlana
Cicmil, Emma Coyle, Christian Dadomo,
Matt David, Andrew Mearman,
Anthony Plumridge, Benjamin Pontin,
Jona Razzaque. Further information (for
FBL staff) is on the SharePoint site.
UWE in line for Times Higher
Education awards
Two UWE projects, a community
Olympics legacy project and a learning
simulations initiative, have been
shortlisted for prestigious Times Higher
Education awards.
The RELAYS (Regional Educational
Legacy for Art and Youth Sport) project,
which aims to inspire and upskill young
people ahead of the London 2010
Olympic Games, was shortlisted for the
Outstanding Contribution to the Local
Community Award in the Times Higher
Education Supplement Awards 2010.
RELAYS business fellow
Kim Chang
UWE is working in collaboration with 10
other universities and cultural partners,
led by Universities South West, to help
run and support a variety of festivals,
events and activities designed to inspire
and engage young people across the
south west of England leading up to the 2012 Games and beyond.
Past RELAYS successes in which UWE has been instrumental include:
• Five London 2012 business and HE engagement events in the West of
England attended by 450 delegates from the private, public and third
sectors
• Local businesses helped to investigate ways in which they can benefit
from opportunities presented by 2012
• Business Fellows based at the University of Exeter and UWE
supporting businesses in making the most of these opportunities and
PhD students exploring ways in which sport and culture can have a
positive impact on local communities
Kim Chang, Sports Business Fellow at UWE, said, “Being shortlisted for the
THE Outstanding Contribution to the Local Community Award is fantastic
recognition for the project. It further highlights the importance of the
need to work together across every sector within communities, to ensure
that we take full advantage of London 2012 for the south west region.”
Seb Coe, Chair, London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games
and Paralympic Games said, “RELAYS is encouraging young people to
fulfil their potential. I am proud that, with the help of such partners, we
are delivering on our vision to use the power of the Olympic Games and
Paralympic Games to boost participation in the arts and youth sport across
the South West.”
The second shortlisted project, Simulations in Higher Education (SHE), is
led by Liz Falconer and Manuel Frutos-Perez and has been nominated for a
Times Higher Award for Outstanding ICT Initiative of the Year. SHE provides
students with learning opportunities in areas such as law or environmental
health, where they can put theory into practice in work areas that could
be difficult, dangerous or unethical to experience in classroom or on
placement. For more information on this project see the article on page 4
of the September Bulletin.
The winners of the Times Higher Education Awards 2010 were announced
at a ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London, on Thursday 25
November.
For more information on RELAYS visit
www.universitiessouthwest.ac.uk/RELAYS
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