Environmental Blog
Welcome to all first years, I hope that you are all settling into your new city. Welcome back for those of you who are returning this year. My name is Sarah Buck and I am your part-time Ethical and Environmental Officer for the 2018/19 academic year.
I am an Animal Welfare and Society BA student in my second year with a strong interest in environmental issues and conservation. Last February, I was elected as student union officer in student union elections and my role is to represent students in ensuring that the Student Union promotes sound ethical and environmental practices.This is an update on what I have been up to and the exciting events and initiatives that we have coming up on campus.
Go Green Week 15th-20th October 2018 is a sustainability action week run by the university environment team and the Student Union with daily events for students and staff to get involved with. This year on campus there is something for everyone, including: a student play, film screening, clothes swap, vegan and fairtrade bake sale, green quiz, green themed events, free food tastings, green social media challenge, NUS blackout and conservation volunteering!
The final timetable will be released soon so please keep track of the exciting events through the intranet and social media @WinchesterSU @Environment_UoW @WinchesterEnv
We have an allotment you can get involved with up on campus in Holm Lodge. A student group from the environment society currently take care of this allotment. If you would like to get involved please contact Jamie or Eryk from the Environmental Society on their Facebook group at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/394989804280982/
If you haven’t already, go and visit the new book garden, the relaxing sustainability hub in the stairwell of the library. You will find a comfy seating area, info board with freecycle swap and an unusual recycling collection point.
When you enrolled you should have received a Gum-tec cup, made out of recycled chewing gum. Remember to bring your reusable cups to the terrace bar when you buy coffee to avoid a 25p paper cup charge. This year we are focussing on reducing single use plastics on campus so please remember to bring a refillable bottle and fill up at water fountains around campus. At our main Student Union shop on campus you can pick up Chilly’s bottles in various designs that keep your liquids hot or cold for up to 24 hours!
If you missed the sign up for the NUS Student Switch Off, don’t worry. The switch off will run again in semester 2 with a chance to win £100 per person in the flat that uses the least energy per semester. You can also sign up to become a Student Switch Off Ambassador and complete a number of sustainability actions to gain a £100 sainsburys voucher. Find out more information about both NUS schemes here: http://studentswitchoff.org/blog/find-university/winchester/
Exciting things that are in the works:
● Reverse vending- pay a deposit on your plastic bottles that you get back when you return your bottle to the recycling machine
● Food compost bins soon to be rolled out to student halls
● Building swift nesting boxes on some of our university managed housing
● Increasing the number of water fountains on campus
My plans for semester 1:
● Forming an ‘Incredible Edible’ work party- Incredible Edible help build planters of edible plants https://www.incredibleedible.org.uk/
● Setting up a litter pick volunteer team
● Work with the estates team to improve biodiversity on campus
● Look into metering energy usage in University Managed Housing through smart meters so that all first year students can be included in the Student Switch Off challenges.
● Start designing our own greenhouse built out of recycled bottles at our student allotment
● Form the ethical and environmental student advisory group- If you are interested in having a say about ethical and environmental issues in your student union and on campus you can be part of the new advisory group who will meet a few times a semester to work on projects to ensure our green and ethical initiatives are student led. Please send me an email at SU_environment@winchester.ac.uk to express your interest.
I look forward to meeting you soon but if you have any questions, ideas or you want to get involved please contact me at SU _environment@winchester.ac.uk
If we all work together and do our part, all of our small actions will create big change.
Sarah Buck
Ethical and Environmental Officer
