I’m sure you’ve all recycled your Christmas trees by now or packed them safely away! If you have any spare Christmas cards still floating around the office, why not take them to M&S who promise to plant a tree for every 1,000 cards received: http://plana.marksandspencer.com/about/partnerships/woodland-trust.
Back at the University and spring term is a busy one for us all. In the coming weeks we have Green Week: 10th – 14th February, the University travel survey and the Green Impact awards submission (7th March) and review (18th March).
The 2014 Go Green Week promises to be one of the best yet. We have moved the week from November to February to coincide with the NUS Go Green Week. This means we have over 20 events crammed into the week, we hope there’s something for everyone. As an environmental champion, here’s a sneak peek of the draft schedule (please excuse the obvious mistake – the Frugal Fayre is in RUSU!). The final list of events will be live towards the end of next week on www.rdg.ac.uk/cleanandgreen/greenweek.
Business travel at the University is becoming an increasingly significant factor in our carbon emission accounting each year. It currently contributes approximately 10% of total carbon emissions and is the only increasing source of emissions. To get a better understanding of University travel patterns, we will be launching the Travel survey in the coming weeks. Please keep an eye out for this and help us gain a better understanding of our emissions. In the meantime, top tips include: taking standard class flights instead of business, this saves approximately 66% of the carbon; take a train rather than fly domestically and try taking the bus instead of a taxi if you need to travel from Campus to town – it’s both cheaper and better for the planet.
Finally, the eagle eyed of you may have noticed the Green Impact workshop during Green Week. This is open to all, but especially relevant to team leaders. Please let me know by reply if you would like to come so we can gauge numbers. It also seems like a good time to remind you that the submission date for Green Impact is 7th March this year, with audits planned to take place on 18th March.
Thanks for reading to the end of this long email. I hope to see you soon!
Tom
