Go Green Week 2011 proved to be roaring success this year at Newcastle University with People & Planet putting on a whole range of events and activities for students to get involved with.

Monday 7th February saw People & Planet team up with local green event’s organiser ‘Green Scene’ to put on a night of Carbon Speed Dating! It was fun evening a great way of making students aware of their carbon footprint.

It was also an early start for some People & Planet members on Monday 7th February as they made their way down to Grainger Market at 8am to pick up suitcases full of fruit and vegetables. These fruit and vegetables were destined to end up in the rubbish bin, as they were last week’s stock, but People & Planet swooped in to save the day and decided to put the fruit to good use and make delicious free smoothies for students.

People and Planet set up a stall outside the Robinson Library on Tuesday 8th February to hand out their free smoothies and raise awareness about the unnecessary waste in the food industry. This was a great way to launch People and Planet’s food campaign around campus and the afternoon was enjoyed by all, especially by those who managed to bag themselves a free drink! In keeping with the spirit of Go Green Week, all the smoothies and fresh orange juice were prepare manually using a smoothie bike and some old fashioned elbow grease! Some students were even allowed a go at pedalling their own smoothie!

In keeping with the food theme, Wednesday 9th February was used to show the Oscar-nominated documentary ‘Food Inc’ at the Salsa Cafe in Newcastle. The film delves into the world of American corporate farming and exposes the ways in which these methods of farming are environmentally and economically unsustainable. Film viewers were able to sit back and enjoy the show whilst munching on some the finest cheesy nachos the Salsa Cafe had to offer!

To round up Go Green Week 2011, People and Planet set up stalls outside the Robinson Library to hand out information and to promote the launch of their up and coming food campaign. A North East Organic Growers (NEOG) representative also came down to hand out information and photos about their ‘organic veg box’ schemes. Available at a different stall was Newcastle University ‘Lug A Mugs’ each costing just £1.50 and as an extra bonus for using your travel mug at outlets on campus you get 10p off your tea or coffee. These handy mugs are still available (in limited numbers) to buy from The Bistro, The Courtyard, The Forum, Bites at the Dental School, Campus Coffee and the cafe in the Robinson Library. Go get yours today!

Finally, working with other People and Planet universities from around the UK, Newcastle’s own P&P were required to create the letter ‘N’ as part of a nationwide visual stunt to spell out ‘Cut the Carbon, Not Education.’ This happened in Exhibition Park using a tree and a lot of red fabric!

For more information about Green Week 2011 or People and Planet, check out their website here and get involved!

Lisa, student engagement intern

Our A900 composter has started to tweet about life being a composter. Rodney wanted to tweet about his life because he has a lot of fans, from within the University and throughout the UK, who are interested in what he does. So he wants everyone to understand the intricacies of how to process food waste to produce compost. You can keep up with his adventures here: http://twitter.com/ColinComposter

What do most coffee drinkers think about when drinking a cup of coffee? For a group of Newcastle University students, it’s the environmental impact of their coffee cup.

As an alternative to the single use cups the students suggested encouraging the use of reusable thermal coffee mugs on Newcastle University Campus.

Available in a variety of eye catching colours, each costs just £1.50 and as an extra bonus for using your travel mug at outlets on campus you get 10p off your tea or coffee.

In April last year, a group of MSc Clean Technology students conducted a waste audit across the campus in collaboration with Newcastle University’s Sustainability Team. They investigated the composition of waste being disposed of on campus and found a repeat offender was the disposable coffee cup, which were present in large quantities in the waste destined for landfill.

Disposable coffee cups not only damage the environment through the requirement of raw materials for manufacture (paper, plastic and energy). But, also once used are generally disposed of as general waste that goes straight into a landfill, despite the fact that they could be recycled.

A study conducted by Sustainability Engineer Pablo Paster shows that a stainless steel mug will ‘break even’ in environmental impact with a paper cup after 24 uses. Considering that most stainless steel mugs are designed to last for 3000 uses, the positive effect of reusables is clear.

Tony Stevenson PVC for Planning and Resources at Newcastle University said: “Never wanting to pass up the opportunity to reduce waste on campus, the Sustainability Team in partnership with Accommodation and Hospitality services are now offering thermally insulated travel mugs.”

The mugs are available in limited numbers from The Bistro, The Courtyard, The Forum, Bites at the Dental School, Campus Coffee and the cafe in the Robinson Library.

Available in a variety of eye catching colours, each costs just £1.50 and as an extra bonus for using your travel mug at outlets on campus you get 10p off your tea or coffee. This saves you money, reduces waste production and ensures you always have your favourite mug and a warm drink with you at all times.

Introducing a new group to Newcastle University and the wider community – Cinema Politica Newcastle will be bringing you an engaging series of evening documentaries covering a host of socio-political and environmental issues.

Cinema Politica is a grassroots media arts organization committed to disseminating cinema that explores stories of under-represented issues and oppressed people of the world. The Newcastle branch was started by Newcastle University students and staff and awarded and initial start up grant by ncl+. The films and events will be screened on campus, in our very own Culture Lab, who very kindly donated their facilities in support of our project. There will be talks by experts on the topic following each film facilitating debate and providing both an informative and stimulating evening.

As members, we all enjoyed the public lectures put on by the University and other local community groups so we decided that we wanted to organize our own film nights with the focus on independent documentaries coupled with participative discussion. After some internet browsing Cinema Politica was discovered and we realised that it was the perfect platform to present these events. We think this venture is particularly significant as very few of these films have been publicly screened in the UK hence creating a very exciting opportunity.

At our first event we will be showing the fantastic yet tragic documentary H2Oil, a film about the Canadian Tar Sands. “H2Oil follows a voyage of discovery, heartbreak and politicization in the stories of those attempting to defend water in Alberta against tar sands expansion.” See the trailer here http://www.h2oildoc.com.

When: 24/02/2011 18.30-20.30
Where: Culture Lab, King’s Walk, Newcastle University, NE1 7RU.
Our events are free to all.

Next month we will be showing a documentary about water wars in order to mark world water day.

For more information on the group, see www.cinemapolitica.org/newcastle and click join to receive further news. Otherwise send an email to sympa@ncl.ac.uk with the text “SUBSCRIBE cinemapolitica [your name]” or join us on Facebook!

Go Green Week 2011 is well underway and the organised events have been well received by students. I managed to attend Carbon Speed Dating at Kaffeccinos on Monday 7th February and although my friends and I were a tad nervous before hand, we actually ended up having a really good night!

As we arrived at Kaffeccinos the organisers of the event, Green Scene and People and Planet, made everyone feel very welcome and even treated us to some free wine as we entered (always a good way to calm the nerves). After an initial half hour mingling session, everyone was then given a sticker displaying their individual carbon footprint. Mine was a shocking 12.86 tonnes of carbon! Shameful indeed, but as I originate from Northern Ireland it’s a bit of a long walk to Newcastle on foot and unfortunately my large number of flights has bumped my score up. I’ll have to recycle extra hard in the future to make up for it!

Once everyone had a while to settle in, it was then time for the actual speed dating. Every boy I had a speed date with was lovely although there were some eccentric individuals! One boy gave me a pen and asked me to draw on his face so naturally gave him a lovely new pair of glasses. It was the most inventive ice-breaker I’ve ever experienced!

There were eighteen boys and eighteen girls in total and you had approximately 2-3 minutes with each person. After the 2 minutes you then had to rate your date out of 10 and once all the scores were added up at the end your carbon footprint was then subtracted. The top boy and top girl then received a fun golden foot trophy each to signify their charming personality and environmentally friendly ways.

Overall, a great evening was had by all. I didn’t manage to find love but I did get some free wine and new friends and that was good enough for me! Keep an eye out for the next organised event by Green Scene, “Non-Electric Open Mic Night”, it looks set to be another great night out!

Lisa, Student Engagement Intern

The University’s Sustainability Team are looking to create a series of educational films to showcase the recycling processes – i.e., what happens after you put the recycling in the appropriate bin – with the aims of providing knowledge, raising awareness and doing so in a fun manner (not a long boring guidance document). We are looking for keen film makers to create these films, based on our scopes (below). The films are aimed at University staff / students with no prior technical knowledge of the processes, and will go on the Sustainability Team’s website, and here on the blog, as well as being publicised to all staff.

The film makers can have full creative licence, providing the below scope is met in the film, and any ideas meet the target audience / educational expectations (Ideas of film style should be reviewed by the Sustainability Team prior to filming). Some projects will require UK travel – We would reimburse / pay expenses for any travel / hotel costs (UK travel projects only), subsistence, and film making consumables (tapes / dvds etc). The film projects can be undertaken by an individual, or by a team, although only the expenses for 2 people will be paid for UK travel (i.e. additional team members for editing etc are expected to remain at home / university). As a duty of care, a member of the Sustainability Team will need to visit the aforementioned sites across the UK, regardless of these projects. Therefore, the filming can be undertaken with a Sustainability Team member present for assistance. The Sustainability Team is happy to provide a reference for the work.

If you would like to be involved, please email Kay Gregory, on kay.gregory@ncl.ac.uk

We have a number of projects we’d like film students to help us create;

The Life Cycle of an Apple Core / Orange Peel; Food to Garden (campus based).
Short educational film about the lifecycle of the orange peel / apple core etc that staff put in the food waste bins on campus, detailing the process we go through in order to get the compost we then give back to staff for free, as well as include the technical aspects of how the composter works (micro-organisms, varying temperatures, carbon sources etc) and reasons we compost (saves on disposal costs, creates free, local compost, reduces waste to landfill, reduces the University’s environmental impact etc). The full process includes eating, disposal into food waste bin, collection of waste by cleaners, transport of waste by porters to Building Science Yard Rocket Composter, loading of composter with food waste and wooden chips, outcome of immature compost, storage and turning of compost to mature it, staff receive free compost, compost goes on garden, grows pretty flowers. For reference, there is an educational sign to be displayed on the side of the composter shed, to educate staff / students. The film is intended to be of similar content, but with more detail.

The Life Cycle of a Plastic Bottle; a journey through the recycling process of plastic waste (UK travel involved).
Short educational film about the lifecycle of our plastic waste, from the moment a student puts a plastic bottle into the recycling, detailing the journey via the North Tyneside sorting centre for O’Briens (our waste contractor), to the plastic mill in Derby, and potentially afterwards (sale of plastic polymers as a commodity, to be used in manufacturing another product). Including why we recycle, why we ask staff to segregate plastic bottles and other plastic (different polymers), legal compliance etc. Possibly include plastic waste reduction tips (have a packed lunch using Tupperware instead of buying lunch in plastic containers etc) and plastic waste reuse tips (reuse of plastic bottles etc).

The Life Cycle of Paper; a journey through the recycling process of paper waste (UK travel involved).
Short educational film about the lifecycle of our paper waste, from the disposal of paper in the office, detailing the journey via the North Tyneside sorting centre for O’Briens (our waste contractor), to the paper mill in Kent, and potentially afterwards (sale of paper as a commodity, to be used in manufacturing another product). Including why we recycle, types of paper we can recycle (e.g. nothing laminated), contamination issues (staples etc), legal compliance etc. Possibly include paper waste reduction tips (do you really need to print that email?, print on both sides, etc) and paper waste reuse tips (use scrap paper for making notes etc).

The Life Cycle of a Computer; a journey through the recycling process of WEEE waste (UK travel involved).
Short educational film about the lifecycle of our electrical waste (WEEE – Waste electrical and electronic equipment). When the university has old computers, lights, fans etc, the ‘waste’ is collected by Second Byte, a charity in Doncaster who mend / take apart and reuse bots of, the ‘waste’ to create working appliances. The charity employees people who have been terminally unemployed, and they have a shop from which they sell the appliances to keep the charity going. The journey should include the decision to get rid of the (for example) laptop, via the forms filled in to arrange a collection, the collection, the charity, the shop and then in a new home. Also need to include legal issues (data protection etc), why we recycle our WEEE, legal compliance etc.

For more information on Newcastle University’s recycling, please visit www.ncl.ac.uk/recycle

Go Green Week is People & Planet’s annual national week of action on climate change in schools, colleges and universities. This year at Newcastle University, students will be holding a week of activities to raise awareness and launch their “Going Greener” projects.

Local company Green Scene have teamed up with Newcastle University’s People & Planet in order to provide environmentally themed, alternative nights out and first on the agenda is Carbon Speed Dating (just in time for Valentine’s Day!). This fun and relaxed evening is taking place on Monday 7th February at Kaffeccinos and it is a great opportunity to get out and meet new people. And who knows, as well as finding a few tips on how to reduce your carbon footprint, you may even find love!

So if you fancy a night out with a bit of a difference check out their facebook page here for more information on tickets.

To highlight unnecessary amount of waste in the food industry, People & Planet members will also be outside the Robinson Library handing out FREE SMOOTHIES on Tuesday 8th February made from fruit which would have otherwise been thrown out by local supermarkets and markets. So thirsty passer-by’s, keep a look out!

Continuing on with the food theme, you can catch a showing of Food Inc. on Wednesday 9th February at the Salsa Cafe, with the film kicking off at 8.30pm. Food Inc. is an Oscar nominated eye-opening documentary which examines America’s corporate controlled food industry – a must see for keen movie and food fans. More details about the event can be found on their facebook page here

To round up Go Green Week, People & Planet and other local Green Initiatives will be setting up some stalls outside the Robinson Library on Friday 9th February. So pop down and have a look if you fancy getting involved with future activities, there may even be some freebies handed out from us here at the Sustainability Team!

Lisa, Student Engagement Intern