Health and Social Care Sustainability Day

On Wednesday the 30th January the sustainability team joined forces with the School of Health and Social Care for a community building and sustainability awareness event.

All new arrivals of the 2012/2013 academic year were invited to an afternoon of activities centred around meeting others from across the School’s different disciplines and finding out why the University is first in the People and Planet Green League.

Veronica Habgood, Director of Learning and Quality at the School of Health and Social Care, describes the background of the event.

“The aim of the New Arrivals Event was to develop a sense of community, enabling students to meet informally with staff and to mix with students other than those on their programme.  ‘Sustainability’ was chosen as a theme as it is something that is relevant to all students and staff.  An appreciation of the importance of behaving sustainably is an aspect of the Greenwich Graduate Attributes project, and, as a school, we find this aspect more challenging to meet within our programmes due to the need to ensure that we are also meeting the demands of professional, statutory and regulatory bodies.  Through this event, we hoped to raise the awareness of students (and staff).”

Students (and staff!) were challenged to complete 3 activities throughout the afternoon. The first was an icebreaker that asked each group to share three positive aspects of their first term at Greenwich. A few common themes emerged with the most popular answers being: The support and guidance they received from friendly University staff and students; the experience of being on placement and learning new skills in the working environment; and meeting other students and making friends.

Enjoying the sustainability day in the compost!

The second activity was to complete a sustainability activity sheet which took students on a sustainability trail around the campus taking in some of the projects and features of the Avery Hill campus such as the Brompton bike dock and the community garden. The activities and questions tested their knowledge of many sustainability themes and prompted them to research current University targets such our carbon reduction commitment. The activity sheets along with answers can be found at http://tinyurl.com/abd7n9a which takes you to a Prezi presentation.

The third task was a photo competition. Each student group was asked to take a picture that they thought summed up sustainability at the university. These pictures went on display in Mary Seacole from the 11th Feb as part of Green Week and a winner was chosen by the sustainability team.

The winning photograph taken by Sarah Marling, Sairish Rashid, Rianne Williams, Violet Withanage, Shelly Law, Emer O'Hagan, Phoebe Ohwodo and Oluwatoyin Obigbesan of the School of Health and Social Care.

Staff and students commented after the event that they had enjoyed the experience and perhaps more importantly had learnt something about sustainability, from how much money the University spends on its electricity and gas bills to bringing in your own mug gets you 10p off tea and coffee at The Dome!

The sustainability team actively engages with staff through its champion network and the Green Impact project and is working hard to engage with as many students as possible. Over the course of the afternoon the team was able to talk with over 200 students about why sustainability is important to the University and how it will be important in their future careers.

The content of the afternoon’s activities were tailored to suit the department’s needs featuring questions and information on the NHS’s Sustainable Development Unit (SDU). Many of the School’s students will go on to work with the NHS so it was a good opportunity to show that sustainability features heavily in many of the UK’s large institutions which may be a part of their future careers.

The NHS SDU’s aim is to “help the NHS fulfil its potential as a leading sustainable and low carbon healthcare service.”

“The Sustainable Development Unit provides expert advice and support to the NHS to help it become a more sustainable organisation environmentally, financially and socially.  At an environmental level this includes addressing particular issues such as energy, travel, waste, procurement, water, infrastructure adaptation and buildings. Considering sustainability more broadly expands our work into the wider long term needs of the health service including adaptation of health service delivery, health promotion, tackling the wider determinants of health, corporate social responsibility and developing new sustainable models of care. We look to provide practical help to NHS colleagues in meeting carbon reduction targets and also engaging with individuals and organisations to change attitudes and behaviours to embrace a more sustainable lifestyle.”

To find out more about the NHS SDU please visit their website at http://www.sdu.nhs.uk/. The Sustainable Development Unit is running a consultation and engagement programme open to the public to produce a new Sustainable Development Strategy for the Health, Public health and Social Care System to 2020.  The consultation closes at 5.00pm on 31 May 2013 and you can find out more and have your say here.

If you would like more information about how the Sustainability Team can work with your department in delivering engagement activities please contact Emily Mason at e.mason@gre.ac.uk.

Forest Garden Plans

As the cold weather persists across London we are waiting for the sun and warmth before we get planting in the community garden again. Volunteers, members of the Sustainability Team and James Hallybone from Roundfield have been discussing what to do for when the springtime arrives.

With the addition of a polytunnel to the site late last year the growing season has been significantly extended for us, on top of this we can look forward to starting to plant some varieties that we would have previously been unable to in the local climate and get much better yield from plant like tomatoes and cucumbers that appreciate a little bit of extra warmth.

As we look to the start of 2013 though the first major project we will undertake is the planting of a ‘forest garden.’ Forest gardening is a method adapted from tropical regions in the 1960s for temperate climates whereby the garden is planted to mimic the ecosystem of a forest. The idea is that it creates a low-maintenance garden with yields of fruit, herbs, vegetables and nuts that can be harvested throughout the year.

Here we have the first designs created by Roundfield for the forest garden:

Forest garden Plans

The Forest Garden Plans at Avery Hill

Forest Garden Key

Forest Garden Key

The Sun is Shining on the University of Greenwich

With the weather being dark and windy these last few days you may have thought it an odd title for this week’s blog but I must tell you about our brand new solar array!

Last month the University of Greenwich installed an array of photovoltaic solar panels that will be powering some of the student residencies at the Avery Hill Campus. The panels have been installed in time to benefit from the higher rate of the feed-in-tariff before the incentive was reduced in December. They now have been generating electricity for four weeks (at a time with the shortest amount of daytime) and have so far generated: 1,106 kWh this has given the University a combined total saved/earned of £485. On top of this the electricity generated is enough to power five student flats for a week in Aragon Court, (electricity, heating, hot water, the lot!) and all in the gloomiest weeks of the year.

Panels being hoisted onto the rooves at Avery Hill

The completed array on Aragon Court

The panels have a lifespan of around 25-30 years and will be generating electricity for free as long as there is daylight. In fewer than ten years the panels will have paid for themselves and then after this point they will be generating an electrifying profit!

In fact the return on investment for solar is so good that we have seen a few people putting up arrays on their private property. Jon Hudson of the Building Services Team has a small array of 6.5 kW on his house and when John Bailey went back to the west country for Christmas he noticed his mum had popped five panels up on the roof there – not quite the 190 odd we have up on Avery Hill but enough to turn the meter backwards when all the lights are off.

Kevin Behn from Human Resources, who is currently looking forward to starting work on his new allotment and getting on with some D.I.Y, has recently installed some solar panels on his house – and just in time to receive the maximum feed-in-tariff rate. Kevin has managed to get eight panels on his roof, an array that should produce around 1700 kWh per year, and is expecting to see the panels pay for themselves in eight to nine years, after that he still gets the feed-in-tariff for a further 16-17 years and any electricity generated then will be producing a profit. Kevin added a cautious ‘wait and see’ on his estimations but said that he ‘is more than staisfied’ with the panels so far. Like Kevin we’ll be hoping for a sunny 2012 here in the Sustainability Office and hoping that everyone’s solar panels perform as well as we’re predicting!

For those who are interested in finding out more about solar power and generating electricity and energy from renewable sources, the School of Engineering has a solar array consisting of five varieties of panel at the Medway Campus. The School have been testing the panels to see which ones produce the best yields when harvesting the sun’s energy. You can see the panels when you wonder up to the Wolfson Centre and can find out which panels you should be choosing more by contacting Ian Cakebread at the School.

Solar Wall of different panels at Medway

Launching in the next academic year is a new course that covers solar power along with a whole host renewable and sustainable electrical energy generation with the BEng Hons: Sustainable Electrical Power Engineering. This course will give graduates the necessary skills and attributes to take key roles within industry as professional engineers and give them an advantage in the growing clean energy sector. If you would like to find out more head to: http://www2.gre.ac.uk/study/courses/ug/eleng/suseleceng