It’s a sad day for all the student interns at the Sustainability Team as our work placement has come to an end! Myself (Lisa Crossey), Hannah Howarth, Jonathan Kidd, Jennifer Lowery and Hannah Wright would like to say a big thank you to the team for all the support and encouragement they have shown us throughout the year.

Hannah Howarth had the following to say about her time with the team; “I’ve really enjoyed being part of the office and getting to know the members of the team because they are all really friendly. I’ve had an outrageous time! My favourite part of placement was carrying out the waste audit across the university it was really fun and interesting! Sometimes a lot of the things we study at university are quite theory based and so it is great to work on practical campaigns and do something hands-on.”

Jonathan Kidd and Jennifer Lowery also mentioned that the highlight of their placements was getting some real life work experience and working with a great team. When asked if they would recommend a placement with the Sustainability Team to other students they both replied “definitely!”

When asked what her favourite part of placement was, Hannah Wright said, “The free farewell lunch! [Laughs] No that was a joke, I really have enjoyed my time here. It was great gaining experience in a field related degree and working with professionals that are enthusiastic about their jobs.”

Overall it has been a great experience for all the student interns and again we would like to say another big thank you to the team! We hope that they have enjoyed the past year as much as we have and we wish everyone all the best in the future!

Lisa, Student Engagement Intern

Name: Lucy Latham
Job Title: Carbon Emissions Officer
Length in job: Nine months

Why did you join the Sustainability Team?
I heard about it through a friend who told me that the Sustainability Team were advertising a position for transport project work but at that time they were only looking for master students, however she gave me a reference and so I was allowed to apply for it. The job was for three different projects so they were going to employ three different people but it ended up that they didn’t actually require a master student and that then needed someone full time to do two of the projects so I got the job. My contract then got extended and I did the third project and then it got extended again so here I am.

Can you give me a brief description of your job role?
I support the Energy Manager and help with the foot-printing of various emissions from energy and transport and keep the records of fuel usage up to date. I’ve also assisted with the Carbon Management Plan and I help a lot with putting bills on to our system so that it can be used as a reporting tool and just other bits and bobs.

What previous experience did you have before joining the team?
Immediately after I graduated, I worked for a consultancy called “Future Transport Systems”. I worked there for five months being project support for electric vehicle development projects.

Which university did you study at?
I studied Environmental Science at Newcastle University.

What are the main aims and objectives of the Sustainability Team?
Basically to promote sustainability to the staff and students throughout the university estate. Part of what we do involves a people side and a practical estate side. We try to engage with people and try to change their attitudes and behaviours so that hopefully they will take that home and have a more sustainable lifestyle. We also want to improve the university estate by building measures such as waste reduction and energy reduction.

What have you gained most from working within the team?
What I have gained most is some real life experience by working in a job role which I would like to do as my career. I have also gained an understanding in how an estate as big and varied as Newcastle University goes about dealing with the complex issues of sustainability and energy management, that is what I have enjoyed the most and hopefully I can go and develop this experience.

What sustainability campaigns within Newcastle University are you most excited about?
I’ve only really been involved in “Switch Off 2010” but there are other campaigns such as the recycling campaign which is trying to get people to recycle more. Hopefully now as we going into the launch of “Switch Off”, the revamp of “Switch Off 2010”, I’m going to start becoming a bit more involved in the organisation so I am looking forward to that. Matt and Kay are also working on bring in a new technical dimension using our sub-metering system and also in conjunction with that we are carrying out a lab audit which is my way into “Switch Off” because that is what I am working on. Hopefully we will be able to get a clearer footprint of individual lab spaces and we will be able to look at the biggest energy users and take a more strict approach in trying to understand why their equipment is being used and if there is potential to reduce it.

Do you think student placements benefit the team as well as the student?
Yes, it’s has been absolutely fantastic having students working with us because everyone is producing really great work. Certainly Jenny Lowery, who I have been managing, has done a lot of really meaningful and I wouldn’t have been able to achieve a lot of things over the last few months without her assistance so it is definitely going to be very sad when you all go. It’s been great so we want to develop this work and take it forward.

What would you like to see the team or yourself achieve in the future?
I think the biggest achievement for me would be to retain my position here! I think a great achievement would be to see the team becoming a more integral part in the way the university operates and having more sway on what happens because at the end of the day we are the ones who understand how much the energy and the waste is costing the university. Also, in terms of the carbon that is related now to legalisation and also to our carbon reduction commitment. I would like to see us being really involved in procurement and in finance and having more sway on the decisions which are made the equipment which is bought.

Lisa, Student Engagement Intern

From London to Sydney, New York and Singapore, people across the world will be coming together to switch off their lights for 1 hour on 26th March at 8.30pm, as part of WWF’s Earth Hour. It’s a reminder to us all that we only have one planet Earth and that we need to reduce the impact our energy system has on our planet.

In celebration of WWF’s 50th anniversary, there is also a quiz night organised by Newcastle University students Emma Morrison and Team at The Lonsdale in Jesmond on Tuesday 22nd at 7.30 pm. There is a small entry fee of £1 and all proceeds will go towards WWF. It looks set to be a great night with prizes being awarded to the top three teams, so get down and show your support!

Earth Hour started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when 2.2 million individuals and more than 2,000 businesses turned their lights off for one hour to take a stand against climate change.

In 2010 a record 128 countries and territories joined the global display of climate action. Iconic buildings and landmarks from all over the world switched off. People across the world from all walks of life turned off their lights and came together in celebration and contemplation of the one thing we all have in common – our planet.

Earth Hour is organised by WWF, one of the world’s largest and most respected independent conservation organisations. Their mission is to stop the degradation of the Earth’s natural environment and build a future where people live in harmony with nature. Show you care about tackling climate change and protecting the natural world by getting involved and switching off your lights for 1 hour on 26th March at 8.30pm.

Check out their website here for information on registering and participating in Earth Hour 2011.

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

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

When I was a kid, I was a huge Blue Peter fan – I even own a Blue Peter badge, thanks to a runner’s up prize to design a stamp when I was 10. So it’s understandable that I’d grow up with a ‘here’s one I made earlier!’ attitude.

When Julia Robinson, Environmental Co-ordinator for Robinson Library, suggested a Recyclometer, I jumped at the chance to help create it. Just like the Blue Peter fund-raising thermometers, a recyclometer would be a great way to visually show people the recycling rate for their building.

After looking into making a home-made version, it was decided that, even with a Blue Peter badge, the guys at Character Signs ( http://www.characterssigns.com/index.php ) could do a better job of bringing my vision to life.

A large, heavy parcel arrived several weeks later, and no time was wasted in ripping the masses of packaging off (all recycled, obviously). Despite the fact it took over an hour to unpack, once put together, the recyclometer was a thing of beauty – even better than my version using double sided tape and loo roll could have looked! The green shiny backing, the bright white lettering, the clear plastic tube…. have we finally made recycling cool?

The aim of the recyclometer is to publicise to all building users that the University is considering sustainability, and to let everyone know how good they are at recycling. It also adds in an element of competition, complimenting the Recycling League Table, to bring out the primal urge to meet the neighbouring building’s recycling rate. And hey, if that means we recycle more, then we welcome that urge.

So how does it work, I hear you ask? Each building has a recycling rate (that’s the percentage of all the waste created that is recycled). The recyclometer displays that rate using the clear plastic tube; the tube is filled with materials (re-used waste of course – remember the waste hierarchy?!) to match the percentage of the recycling rate. As each building has a different recycling rate, we needed the recyclometer to be able to display any percentage.

The recyclometer has just started its grand tour of campus, stopping off at each building over the coming months, starting with the Robinson Library. Look out for it in your building.

And FYI; it was the earth in a greenhouse (representing global warming) that was my fantastic entry in the stamp design competition – I was destined to work in sustainability!

By Kay Gregory, EC Support Officer, Aged 26 and a half.

Degree: Environmental Science
Stage: 2
Placement role: Environmental Management Assistant

What did you expect to get out of your placement?
-As my placement role is an environmental management assistant, I expect to have a better understanding of how the environmental management system works in a big organisation like Newcastle University. What I’ve principally done before was a lot to do with agriculture, coming from a farm and having that sort of background, so I wanted to broaden my horizons and add another string to my bow. An Environmental Management System affects everyone and everybody has to be on board for it to work, it involves a lot of communication between different departments and hopefully everyone can work together.

What about your future career? Do you think this placement will benefit you?
-Yes I hope so. Personally I want to do something involving agriculture in the environment so this placement really benefits me because so far I have been doing things such as an environmental audit which you can apply to agriculture as well, like a pollution audit. If I don’t do something in agriculture then I want to do work for big organisation, like this. I suppose any experience is better than no experience.

What have you been working on so far?
-Well the first few weeks I was just getting an introduction to the environmental management system so I was just looking through different documents to gain an understanding of how everything worked. Over the last couple of weeks, I and two of the other placement students, Hannah Howarth and Hannah Wright, did an environmental audit of the university which checked bin storage, chemical storage, any elements of fly tipping. We then had to outline where all the bins and skips where so that we could put it on to a Google map and anyone across the system can look at it. This is one of the requirements for a stage in EcoCampus.

What exactly is EcoCampus?
-EcoCampus is an Environmental Management System and award scheme for the higher education sector, like universities.The scheme allows universities to be recognised for addressing key issues of environmental sustainability. The aims of the EcoCampus Scheme are to encourage, reward and provide tools to assist institutions in moving towards environmental sustainability through good operational and management practice.

Where are you going to put the map once it is finished? Can students access it?
-I think it’s more for academics to look through and for people across the different sectors in the university. For example one of the things we did was “Grot Spots” which is any instances where there is fly tipping so the people around the university can fill out a grot spot form and it then can be put on to the Google map and marked with a red marker and once it has been dealt with the marker will turn green. That’s one of the things they are talking about doing. We put some of the grot spots me, Hannah and Hannah found on the map but in the future it will be open to anyone and there will be an online form to fill in.

What do you think of it so far?
-Really interesting! I wasn’t sure what I would be doing when I first turned up but it’s a lot better than I first expected. Time flies when you’re here. It really feels like I achieved something when I’m working.

Have you faced any challenges since starting your placement?
-There is a lot to get your head around in terms of the legal requirements, that is what I am actually going to be doing today, looking at the legal register and all the legalisation attached to it. To complete one of the stages of EcoCampus you have to complete a lot of sub-sections so there is a lot to look through and to get to grips with. We just completed the Silver stage of EcoCampus in October and we are now working towards the Gold stage which will be hopefully achieved in April.

What do you think of the atmosphere in the Sustainability Team office?
-It’s really friendly and everyone is really nice. Everyone is really busy but I feel that I fit in well.

What future work will you be doing on your placement?
-Well because it is a work in progress I’m not sure what exactly what jobs I will be carrying out in the future but I look forward to the challenge.

Would you recommend other students take a placement as part of their degree, either with the Sustainability team or another company?
-I definitely think they should do it within the university because you get a better understanding of how the university works and how much work goes in behind the scenes. Before this placement I never knew the Sustainability Team existed, we had an idea that there were systems in place to ensure that everything works properly but I didn’t understand the amount of work that goes in, for example with control of energy use, there is someone there checking the heating all the time. It is really useful to do a placement and it also means that if you do it as part of your degree, you don’t have to do it during the summer.

Lisa, Student Engagement Intern

Our campus wide, year-long energy awareness campaign Switch Off 2010 launched last week with support from the Vice Chancellor, Professor Chris Brink and Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Portfolio Holder for Sustainable Development, Professor Tony Stevenson.

Switch Off 2010 is about switching off lighting and electrical equipment whenever it is not in use, in an attempt to reduce energy consumption on campus.

The campaign is part of the University’s 10:10 efforts, to reduce its CO2 emissions by 10% in 2010.

Throughout the year, Switch off 2010 will focus on one University building per week using various communications including email, display stands and banners. There will also be a drop in lunch session and roadshow in every building to encourage discussion about energy use. The launch last week was in the Agriculture Buiding and this week we are in the Robinson Library Building.

Look out for our banners appearing on campus to track the progress of Switch Off 2010!

Find out more about Switch Off 2010 at ncl.ac.uk/switchoff2010

If you haven’t been in touch with us and would like to arrange for Switch Off 2010 to be in your building for a specific week please let us know by emailing to saveit@ncl.ac.uk