Swell 6 February 2015

Six

th E

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W elcome to the special new year’s edition of

Swell, the Sustainability Team’s newsletter about

sustainability and

associated wellbeing in the University! This edition features a flashback of all the 2014 sustainability highlights, announces the sustainability champions of the season and provide you with many more milestone updates including results of the Christmas Blackout. Enjoy your read and feel free to contact us at sustainability@swansea.ac.uk or drop by our office on the ground floor of the Digital Technium in room 6.

www.swan .ac .uk/susta inab i l i ty/

Milestones

Last October the University underwent an external audit and has been

accredited with ISO 14001 and EcoCampus Platinum the second year

in a row now.

Thanks to all the hard work and collaboration from departments across

the University sustainability procedures are being further embedded and

continue to improve operations.

Great news! Swansea University has scored a 1st again in this year’s People

& Planet University League results. All the hard work of the last year has

manifested itself by Swansea University climbing 18 places up to 21st rank.

The University has scored full marks in

the following categories: Environmental policy, Environmental staff, Auditing and

EMS system and Education.

This is a fantastic achievement that gives

the University even greater impetus to tackle some of the still outstanding challenges as waste and carbon

reduction and improving our ethical investment record.

For a full breakdown of the scores view the People & Planet University League table.

More good news!

Abbey Finance Haldane Keir Hardie Richard Price Vivian Tower Library

Switch off rate The switch off rate reflects energy conservation behaviour and is calculated as percentage off all electrical appliances recorded and switched off by building users.

The Big XMAS Blackout Results

19%

4%

63%

2% 8%

1%

12%

78%

53%

33%

56%

On 5th December 4 staff and 11 students volunteered for the Big XMAS Blackout as part of the University’s ongoing effort to improve energy conservation behaviour.

The volunteers did a fabulous job recording unnecessarily left on appliances, switching off where possible and rewarding staff who conserved energy with humbugs. This event would have been impossible without the diligence and tremendous support of our volunteers and Campus Catering providing delicious, fresh pizzas for all participants!

While our auditors try to capture as much information as possible it is not always an easy task. A few buildings opted out of the audit but took part in the Blackout on an independent basis and the metered energy reduction results have been included in the graph below. The gathered information are a cautious representation of energy conservation behaviour and the energy saving potential for various buildings on campus.

The Blackout auditors meticulously recorded

unnecessarily left on lights, computers, monitors, printers, chargers, etc. to determine the percentage of energy that could be saved if unnecessary appliances were turned off regularly.

The audit results show that there is great capacity for improvement.

Richard Price performed the best with staff turning off 78% of all audited appliances. The metering data from the Abbey show that if unnecessarily left on

appliances were consequently switched off, the Abbey could reduce energy consumption by a whopping 63%. The graph below details the widely varying results for the audited and metered buildings.

According to the Carbon Trust putting simple energy efficiency measures in place (i.e. switching things off amongst other things) can reduce energy bills by up to 20%. The Carbon Trust office guide provides useful guidance on how to decrease energy consumption and save money.

Based on an average energy reduction potential of 5% the University could save around £26,000 on its annual electricity bill simply through switching off unnecessary appliances in academic buildings and offices. With the conscious effort of all staff we could achieve even higher savings!

Energy reduction rate The energy reduction rate is based

on the metered consumption of energy on the Blackout weekend

in comparison to the averaged benchmark consumption of two

prior weekends.

Achieving together

Every edition we recognize staff for their efforts in

making their workplace, life and community more

sustainable. We want to thank these

Sustainability Champions for their special

contributions and initiatives.

In this SWELL edition we would like to THANK Les

Carmichael (Catering Manager) for his

back bending tree planting initiative on Kilvey Hill

last October. A native of the St. Thomas community

Les has taken it upon himself to conserve and

revive a good chunk of the Kilvey Hill area.

With the help of his business partner, Discovery

and the Sustainability Team Les spearheaded the

planting of 130 trees. The pine and spruce saplings

were kindly donated by Professor Tariq Butt

marking a fantastic cross-departmental

collaboration within the University.

A special THANK YOU also goes out to these two

pro-active powerhouses: Claudio Donofrio

(ASTUTE) and Dr Natascha Kljun

(Geography) for initiating the ‘Computers for

Africa project’. Thus far around 650 items of

reusable IT equipment have been donated to the

UK-based charity IT Schools Africa, which

refurbishes old computers and distributes them to

African schools.

Over the last two years Claudio and Natasha have

been key in organizing, supporting and promoting

these collections saving the University money in

disposal costs. The great level of collaboration,

delivery support from Carillion and successful

demand for more donations from departments and

individual staff, have prompted the Sustainability

Team to look into designating collection points for

surplus IT equipment to allow staff to make

donations year round.

Do you know or work with someone in the

University you think should be recognised for their

sustainable contributions? Let us know!

We’d love to hear about your friend or colleague

and thank them for their initiative. Just submit

their name and short description to the

Sustainability Team.

Looking forward to receiving your nominations!

S u s t a i n a b i l i t y C h a m p i o n s o f t h e S e a s o n

Feeling good at work matters

Over the la s t months the Sustainability Team conducted a wellbeing survey of staff in the University to gauge the state of wellbeing at work. The wellbeing survey has seen a good response with about 550 staff answering. Your responses are now being analysed corporately and by colleges/departments anonymously and a report will be sent to all managers on issues relevant to their area and the University.

A sincere thank you to all the staff who have filled out the survey. Your feedback is much appreciated and will contribute to creating a motivational work environment for you and your colleagues. For more food for thought about what makes us feel good about our work watch this amusing TED talk by behavioural economist Dan Ariely.

Coming up

Are you an avid birdwatcher or have an eye for spotting things? Then this is a challenge for you!

The Biosciences Department is currently recruiting new students and staff to beat their last year’s 1st place record of 113

sighted bird species on University property! Record bird species seen in or around the Singleton Campus and also Crymlyn burrows and win prizes in several

categories (individually and as a university).

This a fantastic opportunity to develop taxonomic skills, learn important surveying techniques, contribute to a nationwide citizen data collection scheme aiding the conservation of certain species AND be surprised by the number of bird species

that can be found on campus!

No matter what your discipline—your input is welcome! It’s easy to record what birds you see and you can enter regardless of your bird identification ability.

The Biosciences Department will happily help you with your identification skills.

To get involved with the challenge contact Emma Cole

or Dr Dan Foreman.

S P OT

T H E O W L

Find your own

Did you know? You can save up to £1000

a year by car sharing. Find a travel buddy

and start saving now. It’s easy... just use

the newly launched Swansea University

Travel BUDi Scheme. Log on to the

revamped Liftshare website to find the

perfect travel buddy for carsharing,

cycling or walking.

It’s Fairtrade Fortnight time! This year’s focus is on highlighting the stories of those who produce so many Fairtrade products that we buy on a daily basis including tea, sugar and cocoa. To raise awareness about these Fairtrade producers Campus Catering will put on a number of special offers and initiatives including:

> Eros Fairtrade Coffee tasting at various catering outlets > Free Fairtrade fruits with every purchased salad (The Venue) > Fairtrade Wine raffle (The Venue) > Screening of ‘Black Gold’ (Fusion Café)

There is still a long way to go though to make all trade fair – just 1.2% of cocoa and less than 10% of tea globally is traded on Fairtrade terms. Help us get there!

“78% of the UK public recognise the FAIRTRADE Mark.”

February is Heart Month, the perfect opportunity for you and your colleagues to show some love for your hearts and take on the

Heart Month 10 Minute Challenge.

Get active or make simple food swaps - small changes that can pave

the way to a healthier lifestyle and greater wellbeing at work.

The British Heart Foundation have created a toolkit with all the support you need to challenge everyone in your workplace to make a small change every

day for 10 days.

The ‘Best photo’ and ‘Best Case Study’

received by the 6th March 2015 can win £20 Love2Shop Vouchers!

Sign up for the challenge and receive your support pack.

HE RT MONTH 10 MINUTE CHALLENGE

16-27 February 2015

The results for the winners of

the Travel Survey are now out!

You will be notified if you won a

Carvey Meal for two, one of our

solid bicycle locks or a book of

‘10 All day rider tickets’ for First

Cymru Bus Travel

(worth £50).

WINNERS

Sign up to the Sustainable

Travel Champion Training

with Jayne Cornelius!

FREE TRAINING OFFER