It is one of the first days of spring, the clocks have changed, the daffs are out and Geordies are swapping their winter “t-short” for their summer one. I am riding down to the Centre for Life downhill from the campus with the wind in my barnet and a massive grin on my face . I am riding on one of the lime green chunky Scratch Bikes that have been a feature of the Newcastle University campus for 6 months.

Funky and being green do not always go together- so we are lucky this is Newcastle and people are open minded and are used to stylish icons.

Bicycle sharing systems are schemes in which bicycles are made available for shared use by individuals who do not own them.

The bike share movement has some major benefits- Cycling is also promoted as a viable means of transport with the subsequent health benefit and reduced emissions. As people sharing a resource it means there is less consumption, less waste and less costs.

Newcastle has a newish bicycle sharing system called Scratch Bikes, it has been running since last summer/autumn and it has been set up by two of our very own students on a shoestring budget. No mean feat in these hard economic times.

Inspired by the cycle schemes they had seen across Europe, Robert Grisdale, 24 and Jack Payne, 23, realised the potential to translate the idea into something more suited to students. After graduating from Newcastle University with degrees in Civil Engineering, they decided that university self-service bike hire was an opportunity too good to ignore.

Scratch Bikes have received a few awards already

Bike share schemes are all the rage with most cities currently considering one. But it is not cheap- London and Leeds have had millions pumped into their schemes. And they are not without their problems- the Paris one found that users would leave bikes at the bottom of hills- and there are the obvious theft issues.

The boys said “With a more modest budget than any other scheme of its kind, Scratch Bikes were forced to take a fresh look at the self-service bike hire concept and use their creativity to find a solution that would work. They have stripped away some of the complexities and focussed on user experience. Their objective is to try to create the perfect journey for students. Focussing on getting from A to B in the easiest, and most fun way.”

Scratch Bikes HQ actually got their office furniture from our furniture reuse scheme

Review of the service

I suggested my department at work, Estate Support Service could use scratch bikes to get around campus to save time and promote health and well being. We would also be helping to support Scratch Bikes and so increase the use.

The following is a positive review with a few recommendations for improvement. My main recommendation is that this is somethign that all organisations who have city mobile staff could use this scheme and get numerous benefits. I personally support it wholeheartedly

Scratch Bikes offered me a free trial and I have been using scratch bikes for a month. I have to travel around the campus and to outlying sites regularly. The bikes are robust and sturdy with chunky tyres suitable for the mean streets and pavements of the campus and Newcastle environs.

The seat is super comfortable with plenty of padding for bottoms and adjustable in height. There is also a cute little bell- which I am surprised has not become a target for little magpies. Each bike comes complete with a sturdy lock which you take with you. This fits conveniently around the frame.

The bikes are easy and comfortable to cycle and surprisingly, not having any gears, the hills are not too bad. I have travelled to the far flung reaches of my waste manager galaxy taking in meetings at Campus for Ageing and Vitality and Centre for Life and have arrived at meetings early with no sweat (taking it easy), fresh, bright eyed and bushy tailed with a clear mind. I have never been splashed or got muddy and have avoided getting wet (planning required).

The time savings add up. It takes 30 minutes to walk to the hospital usually. On Scratch Bikes that is halved. Which means I can fit more in my day.

I now use the bikes for short trips as well. Even just going from Kensington Terrace down to Culture Lab saves 15 minutes in total on the round trip.

There are only a few down sides with operation. The possibility of wet seats, a requirement for a satchel for paper work and the locks can be stiff – all easy to overcome obstacles.

Rob has told me ” The existing seats will be replaced with seamless seats in the near future. This will stop moisture seeping into the padding and causing wet bums on rainy days.” and ” Sometimes the locks can be a bit stiff which is why we are stepping up our lubing efforts and replacing locks which are past their best.”

The system of booking in your time on the bike works in the main. There are some improvements that could be made- but remember this is just the start. Great ideas do not just appear they develop out of a number of different ideas.

A critical mass of participation is needed if Scratch Bikes is going to take off. To get a critical mass you need easy participation. Easy participation comes down to being user friendly in the extreme.

At the moment it is not really easy to participate. I think this is mainly down to the technology scratch bikes are using and this has a knock on effect to the rest of the service. However this has something to do with the budget i suppose!

The text message service is not 100%, on two occasions I did not receive my reply text with the lock code- I waited but in the end had to walk the distance. All other journeys were fine though. This is not the end of the world but people expect a service to work.

However Rob did say ” We plan to introduce a back-up system for when the code is not received within 30 seconds. The format of this is not yet certain but we’re working on it.”

The main message of this review is scratch bikes have made a great start- there is a great framework there for community leaders to look at and support and roll out Version 2 across Newcastle. But Scratch Bikes need to make the service more accessible by improving the technology used (Smartphone and social media integration), improving the communications and offering wider variety of payment plans.

Rob has mentioned “A free sign up option (casual use) and a subscription option (full membership). Casual users will be able to start using ScratchBikes for nothing but pay a bit more per rental. Alternatively, users will be able to sign up to a full membership. For an annual subscription fee, full users will be able to use the bikes for a nominal fee.”

Bike schemes are actually struggling in other large cities, there are reportedly only 70 trips a day being made on Melbourne’s brand spanking new public bike hire facility and Boris bikes in London do not seem to have taken off either.

I think this is a great service which belongs to us all. It is a commonly owned system which is very useful. I think we have to get behind this scheme to support it. I think all large city based organisations should use the system for getting about the city- even for short trips. When it reaches a critical mass of users it will take off and become a permanent feature of the city.

Attracting some big attention

Bigger picture observations

The biggest positive for me about the scheme is that it shows that people’s attitude to ownership is changing. You don’t need to buy a bike any more- you can share one. This has massive environmental implications which are increased as people learn to share and change their ownership attitude.

This is a movement which is gathering pace. Collaborative Consumption describes the rapid explosion in traditional sharing, bartering, lending, trading, renting, gifting, and swapping reinvented through network technologies on a scale and in ways never possible before. From enormous marketplaces such as eBay and Craigslist, to emerging sectors such as social lending (Zopa), peer-to-peer travel (Airbnb) and car sharing (Zipcar or peer-to-peer RelayRides), swap trading, time banks, local exchange trading systems (LETS), bartering, social lending, peer-to-peer currencies, tool exchanges, land share, clothing swaps, toy sharing, shared workspaces, cohousing, coworking, CouchSurfing, car sharing, crowd funding, bike sharing, ride sharing, food co-ops, walking school buses are all examples of collaborative consumption which is changing traditional consumerist business models.

Newcastle is the most sustainable city in the UK and needs a citywide cycle scheme. Everyone else has one or is looking at one. Scratch bikes is a great start towards that aim- the system needs refinement but we have the basics for the city. If the right support is given I think these bikes will grow to become part of the city.

A local artist Theodore Harper-Davis, has used some of our surplus polystyrene for an art project.

This is the second blog post about this project. For more infor see previous blog entry.

I asked Theodore what it was all about and he said

“My work investigates ideas of suffocation and isolation through material, surface and form. I attempt to challenge the familiar with the unfamiliar, creating contradictions that through my language work in harmony by constantly questioning one another.”

Theodore went on to emphasise how his work engages with the audience. “I seek to reveal the world we live in providing new perspectives on our human relationship with our contemporary environment through the medium of sculpture/installation.”

Drawing attention to the fact that he is taking waste resources and putting them to another use he went on to explain his interpretation of resource use, consumerism and recycling:

“The materials I use are mainly sourced/recovered from our natural/urban surrounding that have either lost their use or no longer have any place. The material is often in a raw state, and has no form prior to my investigation. Because of this, the work always holds on to a strong sense of origin.”

I think what Theodore is doing is a commentary on how waste is not really waste, but something that is useful (an asset , a resource) but in the wrong place.

Theodore is still at the initial stages in this project and so i am looking forward to further developments

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

To mark Climate week (21st – 27th March 2011), Newcastle University’s Sustainability Team have a number of exciting new energy schemes launching;

Traffic light stickers for labs

Although turning things off saves energy, it is not always safe to do so. To avoid unsafe situations in laboratories on campus, the traffic light scheme for switch off stickers was developed, to clearly tell people if they can or cannot turn off the equipment. The stickers are being distributed to all Laboratory Managers on campus this week, and will be implemented by a knowledgeable Laboratory Technician in the near future. Look out for these stickers in a lab near you.

Re-launch of the Switch Off campaign

Switch Off 2010 was a year long communication campaign, educating staff and students on energy use across campus. The aim was to raise awareness of the amount of energy the University wastes, and encourage staff and students to turn off any unnecessary electrical items, such as lights / computers.

The success of this awareness campaign showed just how important individual building users are to energy use on campus. From this campaign, a follow up campaign was developed. This new campaign will visit university buildings, and focus upon the technical aspect of energy. The new sub-metering system has enabled access to building specific energy figures, meaning we can provide a tailor made service to help building users reduce their energy consumption / waste.

It is hoped that this new campaign will bring a shared understanding of the importance of both behavioural change and technical methods in the reduction of the University’s baseload of electricity.

During Climate Week, the Switch Off! campaign is working with the building users in the Herschel building. Keep a look out for Switch Off in a building near you!

Lab audits

As part of the new Switch Off! campaign, lab audits will be undertaken in order to gain a better understanding of the energy use in labs. The audits will identify key areas of unnecessary electrical consumption, such as equipment left on overnight etc. By identifying this activity, it can be highlighted where savings can be made in the two main areas to reduce energy use; behavioural change and technical alterations.

If you would like to know more about any of these initiatives, please email saveit@ncl.ac.uk

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.

Ever wondered about the processes behind composting our food waste?
Well now you can find out.

Siobhan Sherry is a Masters student, studying for her MSc in Environmental Consultancy. She is currently working as the Staff Engagement Intern for the Sustainability Team. One of her many jobs has been to design an educational sign for communicating the processes behind our composting. Siobhan designed the large sign to go on the side of the wooden shed covering the composter. This new sign is now in place and looks fab! The simple storyboard shows interested staff and students the path of an apple core deposited into the food waste bins located in kitchen, to the compost end product.

If you have any ideas of others ways the Sustainability Team can engage staff and students with environmental sustainability, please email us at saveit@ncl.ac.uk

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!