footprintThe sustainability newsletter from the University of Central Lancashire ISSUE 6 SUMMER 2012

UCLan has moved two places up thePeople & Planet Green League,published in The Guardian newspaper,coming sixth out of 145 universities,based on our environmental and ethicalperformance in 2012. As part of theleague, universities are also awardeddegree style classifications with UCLan’stotal score of 52 out of a possible 70helping it to achieve a ‘first’.

This year, we achieved particularly highscores in the performance section of theleague table where points wereawarded for advancements inrenewable energy (we purchase 95% ofour electricity from renewable sources);waste and recycling (80% of our wasteis recycled, bringing down the totalamount of waste produced per head)and carbon reduction (carbon emissionsper head fell, and emissions since 2005have decreased by 0.51%).

Initiatives such as the availability of afour minute shower timer for everystudent, our annual Green Week event,

‘FIRST’ CLASS DEGREE AWARDED FORENVIRONMENTAL AND ETHICAL PERFORMANCE

Green TeamGreenTeam@uclan.ac.uk

Christine Edwards and Clair Challenreceiving UCLan’s First Class degreeaward from Caroline Lucas, MP.

our Energy Dashboard and the plantingof 60 trees to attract wildlife to campushave contributed to our impressiveleague ranking.

Clair Challen, Environment andSustainability Manager said:

“The announcement of theresults of the new People &Planet Green League isfantastic for the University.Moving up the league tosixth is testament to ourapproach to sustainabledevelopment and theinitiatives we’ve put in placeto ensure staff and studentsalike are playing their part.This is the fifth year we’veremained in the top 10 (oneof only three universities) soit seems the University isgetting it right in terms ofour commitment tosustainability .”

• Know who your School/Service Sustainability Champion is? Contact GreenTeam@uclan.ac.uk •

UCLan’s Energy Dashboard February 2012 saw the launch of UCLan’s Energy Dashboard,allowing everyone, including staff & students to be fully informedof our energy consumption.

The dashboard not only allows users to explore our energy & water consumption indepth, enabling them to see the impact of their good work and how well eachbuilding is performing, but also provides two way communication between usersand UCLan’s Green Team.

The dashboard homepage graphically displays the last 7 days consumption, cost andemissions data for the Preston campus as well as an overview map with an option todrill down into the data for individual buildings using real time consumption, basedon AMR (automatic meter reading) data from our utility meters.

The dashboard features details of UCLan’s Green Team and twitter feed enablingthe Team to convey energy saving messages and report on the success of currentprojects to encourage interaction with building users and to highlight best practiceand/or issues.

A desktop gadget has also been created which can be installed on computers acrossthe UCLan network. The gadget displays the last 7 days gas and electricityconsumption in kWh for individual buildings. The background colour of the dialindicates if energy consumption has risen above a certain level compared to theprevious year to alert staff and students to increased consumption.

We hope our dashboard will demonstrate the University’s commitment tosustainability and create awareness of energy consumption amongst building users,challenging them to make their building Go Green.

Green TeamGreenTeam@uclan.ac.uk

• Over 60% of Staff have now completed the mandatory Environmental Management at UCLan: An Introduction. To book go to https://staff.uclan.ac.uk/13323.htm •

• Got an environmental suggestion? Send to GreenTeam@uclan.ac.uk for the chance to win a Kindle •

Green Week 2012The University’s annual Green Week gets better year-on-year. In 2011/12 the focus wason encouraging sustainable behaviours by demonstrating how being green is both easyand affordable. It was also an opportunity to promote the University’s environmentalachievements and elicit environmental suggestions from the University communitydemonstrating that we practice what we preach. The NUS Environmental BehavioursResearch Package delivered at UCLan in 2010 indicated that the majority of the studentbody at UCLan is primed to respond positively to environmental leadership within theUniversity, although time, hassle, disruption and cost were cited rationales for notbehaving accordingly. Green Week therefore wanted to dispels these myths byproviding a range of information, advice and freebies to encourage green behaviours.

Green week themed days on energy, transport, water, food and waste were organised 6th-10th February to coincide with People and Planet’s Go Green week. The week recruited 16student volunteers to help promote events and increase participation. Highlights of theweek included a prize draw with stamps issued for visiting our Green Yurt where staff,volunteers and external organisations were on hand to give expert advice andinformation. Freebies including the 4 minute shower timer, bio-degradable water bottles,water hippos, eco-buttons, seeds and fair trade snacks proved popular. The yurt proved tobe a great venue for drawing in staff and students and we had 188 entrants into the prizedraw and received over 60 environmental suggestions. Throughout the week studentstook advantage of the free rickshaw rides to transport them around campus and promotethe enjoyment of cycling and sustainable travel. The University teamed up with UnitedUtilities to highlight ways to limit water usage by bringing the “Big Bog” six foot tall toiletto the campus. Lancashire Wildlife Trust also provided free seeds and compost toencourage growing your own and our Grounds team recruited children from the localprimary school to help plant fruit trees on campus. Other attractions included a popularFarmers’ Market, a guided campus green walk, free bike checks, a pedal powered soupmaker, free facials and massages with LUSH and a trial of bio-degradable packaging in ourrefectories. An exhibition from nationally renowned artist Jac Scott investigatingconsumption, materialism and climate change also began during Green Week.

The great work and enthusiasm of Green Week is set to continue as our GreenWeek volunteers make preparations to set up a People and Planet society here atUCLan and a UCLan student company develop a sustainability film to deliversustainability training to students from 2012.

Green TeamGreenTeam@uclan.ac.uk

• More information on sustainability can be found at www.uclan.ac.uk/sustainabledevelopment or on the staff intranet at https://staff.uclan.ac.uk/13317.htm •

Waste and RecyclingSource separation of recycle material from waste streams is still the main aim of theFM Waste and Recycling team. This currently accounts for around 45% of the wastegenerated at UCLan. The remaining waste is further separated by our wastecontractor at their material recovery facility meaning that the combined total ofmaterials recycled this academic year is now over 80%.

The Rocket catering food waste composter has finally gone on line after a longdelay for a filter to be retrofitted. A mixture of food waste and wood chips are nowbeing fed in the composter daily and the microbial communities are hard at workconverting our organic waste into compost. This means that catering food waste isnow being diverted from landfill providing our FM Grounds team with valuablecompost for use on campus flower beds.

The end of year halls of residence re-use scheme, Donate Don’t Dump, inpartnership with the British Heart Foundation, has been delivered for the third yearrunning. This initiative raises valuable income for the charity and diverts waste fromlandfill by re-using unwanted items that students would normally discard ondeparture. Last year three tonnes of donations were collected across the campus andparticipating private halls. Look out for the red donation banks which have beenplaced at student residences across the campus; collection bags and informationflyers were also distributed to residential areas with large student populations toencourage them to donate and reduce waste.

For further information about UCLan’ssustainability initiatives contactClair Challen on ext: 2628

or email cchallen@uclan.ac.uk

Green TeamFMWasteandRecycling@uclan.ac.uk

• A date for your diary - Green Week 4-8 February 2013 •

* Sustainable Procurement isconstantly being reviewed forefficiency. We have recentlyupdated our Contract Reviewquestionnaire to reflect a deepermeaning to People, Profit andPlanet. The questionnaire nowconsiders internal, external andcommunity factors for each highspend supplier.

* All new projects created havesustainable considerations withinthem. Utilising a scoring system,more points can now be gainedfor suppliers who have anEnvironmental ManagementSystem or a more thoroughenvironmental policy whichcovers sustainability in-depth.

* UCLan Purchasing staff haverecently worked with TUCOPurchasing Ltd (CateringConsortium) to help themdevelop and update theirSustainable Procurement Policy.

* UCLan Purchasing staff arecurrently working with NWUPCon the Cleaning Materialsframework agreement and havebeen able to ensureenvironmental considerationsrelevant to UCLan were includedwithin both the selection andevaluation process. Suppliershave been asked to submittenders prohibiting damagingingredients such asformaldehyde, Titanium dioxide,paradichlorobenzene etc. andconcentrate more onenvironmentally friendlycleaning products.

PurchasingDepartmentEnvironmentalNewsletterConsiderations

Green TeamGreenTeam@uclan.ac.uk

Biodiversity on campusThe University Grounds team have been hard atwork ensuring that the campus continues to beboth habitat and species rich by providing a varietyof food sources to support biodiversity on campus.

The team have been adding to the stock of fruit trees on campus whichwill, in the next few years, provide fruit for the University community aswell as for our bird species. These have included the planting of 25 apple,plum and pear trees along a wildlife corridor at the rear of WhitendaleHall, improving a previous unsightly and inaccessible area. As part of GreenWeek 2012 the team enlisted the help of English Martyrs Catholic PrimarySchool’s Gardening Club to help plant the fruit trees on what was a verycold and wet day in February. Three edible cherry trees and a variety ofnectar plants have also been planted at the entrance to JB Firth in 2012 toimprove an area of campus somewhat lacking in green space followingnew building projects. These trees add to the 33 fruit trees which werealready planted in 2010/11 providing us with over 60 fruit trees on our citycentre campus.

In preparation for developing a Biodiversity ActionPlan (BAP) for the Preston City Campus a baselinebiodiversity survey was conducted in August 2011.The results of this Phase 1 survey together withresults from the Lancashire Biological Heritage SiteSurvey, detailing important habitats and specieswithin a 2km zone of campus, will guide thepriorities identified within the BAP.

• Download the Energy Gadget: Start-All Programs- Install a Program from the Network-UCLan Energy Gadget •

UCLan Go The Extra MileThis year the final year students on themotor sport engineering course areshowing their green side. They areembarking on a project to develop anultra-efficient Eco Car. The car will bedesigned and built from scratch by thestudents using the workshop in Wharfbuilding. It will draw on all theknowledge they have gained from thecourse to build a car that creates littledrag and is as light as possible.

Taking a different slant on high-performance engineering, Shell®

EcoMarathon focuses solely on fueleconomy. The competition is run by ShellFuels and sees teams from all over theworld competing to see who can go thefurthest with a given amount of fuel.This year the team from UCLan hopes toimprove on its previous EcoMarathonresults, by achieving upwards of 2,000miles per gallon. This high profile, annualevent took place on the closed citystreets of Rotterdam between the 17thand 19 of May 2012.

For more information on the projectplease contact Dave Garrnett onDSGarrnett@uclan.ac.uk

Putting Fairtrade fashion in the spotlightFashion students have proved thatFairtrade can be fashionable as well asethical by creating their own collectionsfor a competition.

The second year Fashion Design studentshave each designed a six piece cottoncollection for Fairtrade company PeopleTree after the University teamed up withthe Preston and South Ribble FairtradeGroup for the competition.

Targeting the 18-25 market, the bestthree designs were judged by Head ofDesign at People Tree Tracy Mulligan andwell-known fashion book author MartinDawber also provided feedback.

Alice Houghton’s 1950s inspiredcollection was awarded the first prize of£100 whilst Rachel Walkden and JayneActon were crowned joint runners-upand shared the £50 prize.

Alice will also choose her favourite designto be made and modelled at the GuildFairtrade Fashion Show on Thursday, 4 October, at 53 Degrees in Preston.

She said:

“I’m thrilled to win thiscompetition and am lookingforward to seeing my designworn on the catwalk laterthis year. This competitionhas opened my eyes toFairtrade fashion and I’velearnt a lot about the industrythrough my research.”

Anne Garsed, the Chair of Preston andSouth Ribble Fairtrade Group, said: “I’m very impressed with the work thestudents have produced. It’s a fantasticway to raise awareness of the plight ofcotton farmers and show that Fairtradecan be fashionable.”

Student Projects

Green Teamgreenteam@uclan.ac.uk

Students - get active by joining the SU People & Planet Society at

www.facebook.com/groups/uclanpnp/