Engineers Without Borders' Wind Turbine

Greeener Living Assistant, Tim Allen, has been doing a fantasic job at bringing staff and students together to promote sustainable living at The University of Sheffield. Here, he details the successes of the universities’ recent Ethical and Environmental Knowledge (EEK)Week:

 EEK Week 2010 was a great success at the University of Sheffield. While occasionally knocked by the looming May exams, turnout was solid for the week’s events with around 300 people attending the Big Green Fair and Travel Roadshow alone. There were events with a serious message such as film showings about Peak Oil and a debate between FairTrade and the Rainforest Alliance. These allied with more light-hearted activites like bike-powered smoothie making and a giveaway of fresh rhubarb on Monday which led to a lot of students sporting them as very organic-looking umbrellas! Such resourcefulness is to be applauded!

 This year’s EEK Week was on a bigger scale than ever before, thanks in large part to Degrees Cooler’s focus on bringing together students and staff towards a common goal. As Greener Living Assistant I was in a position to liaise effectively between the Ethical and Environmental student committee and the Energy and Environment Team of staff, which led to increased coordination between the two groups. The Travel Roadshow, RecFest (summer festival in halls with a recycling message) and Engineers Without Borders wind turbine (the group built an impressive five-foot wind turbine and aim to use it to generate power on campus) were all great but separate projects which, thanks to the uniting factor of Degrees Cooler, came together for the first time in EEK Week.

 So, looking back, we’ve had a fun week, learned some lessons for next year, and most importantly have used EEK Week to unite a wide coalition of like-minded students and staff. I very much hope the the effects of this to prove powerful and long-lasting.

Sharing good practice within and between univerisites

Making a Difference through Peer to Peer Persuasion
The Student Switch Off energy saving competition has been going from strength to strength and through recruiting students in halls of residence as so called Eco-Power Rangers – who pledge to use their energy more carefully and encourage their peers to do the same – and through various through film screenings, quizzes and photo competitions, the project has really engaged with a wide range of students. Definitely not just the usual suspects.

People often argue that small individual changes don’t make a significant different when it comes to tackling climate change, but with over 15% of all students in participating halls signed up as Eco Power Rangers, and average energy savings of over 9.3% to date, the Student Switch Off proves that if done collectively, every little does help.

Creativity for Sustainable Living

Creative awareness raising

Local People and Planet groups have been busy raising awareness around the four Degrees Cooler behaviours, by organising creative engagement activities during Go Green Week. From recycled fashion shows, to swap shops, to “Meat Free Mondays”, green graffiti installations and carbon speed dating events, Going Greener has provided staff and students with an amazing variety of ways to get involved.

Greening Departments from the Bottom Up
The EAUC’s Green Impact project provides the important link for staff to get involved in Degrees Cooler. Green Impact is based on the tried and tested Sound Impact Awards which has been adapted to get university staff to work together in teams to green their departments from the bottom up. Over 10,000 staff in over 250 departments are taking part in Green Impact this year, helping universities to lead by example and make the more sustainable option the easy and desirable option.

Since the Degrees Cooler programme began at the start of the academic year, students and staff at 20 universities across England have really thrown themselves into NUS’s exciting 2 year behaviour change programme.

The success of the project and enthusiasm with which staff and students have engaged in promoting behaviour change through peer to peer communication is highlighted in this inspiring short film that the Degrees Cooler team have recently produced. The film was showcased at the EAUC (Environmental Association of Universities and Colleges) Annual Conference last week, where behaviour change was the hot topic of the day, with delegates really keen to learn from each other and share good practice.

Click here, to see the film and how the 3 interrelated behaviour change projects (Student Switch Off, Going Greener, and Green Impact) which make up Degrees Cooler have all been making impressive progress across the four behaviours that the programme aims to positively impact upon; recycling more, saving energy, eating local sustainable food and reducing flying.

The campaign is working with both staff and students to help increase recycling awareness by bringing a fun yet serious message to Go Green Week.

The Can Film Festival was launched at London South Bank University and has subsequently been held across the country at other Degrees Cooler participating universities.

Rick Hindley of Every Can Counts said: “Of the eight billion drink cans sold in the UK each year, around half still end up in landfill. We can still dramatically improve on these figures if we focus on recycling outside of the home. Degrees Cooler offers us a fantastic opportunity to expand Every Can Counts and engage with a very important audience.

Mervyn Jones, manufacturing programme manager at WRAP, added: “Today’s students are very much the leaders of tomorrow. Awareness of importance of recycling amongst this demographic is gradually increasing and programmes like Degrees Cooler and Every Can Counts help to turn this awareness into action.”

You can view the video here.