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7 December 2010 |
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 News
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LSE academic and residential carbon footprint Oct 2010 |
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• Carbon Management Plan update
Following the recent spending review, the government's Carbon Reduction
Commitment (CRC) scheme has changed from being a repayment scheme to a tax.
It is also delayed by a year and the environmental agency is still
reviewing the implications of this.
The School, however, is on track to present its revised Carbon Management Plan (CMP)
for formal approval at the Environmental Management Review Group in February
2011. The CMP is part of LSE's overall strategy to reduce its carbon
emissions and will allow the School to meet the CRC's requirements. It
maps out a pathway to reducing carbon emissions in line with the Climate
Change Act, which requires the whole of the UK to reduce carbon emissions by
80 per cent by 2050.
A Carbon Reduction Manager has been appointed into the Estates Division and will be in place from
late January 2011 to take the CMP forward.
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• LSE
shortlisted for Sustainability Awards 2010
LSE was one of the finalists for the Sustainability Awards 2010, which recognise outstanding achievement in sustainability in the built
environment.
The awards are a key benchmark for achieving best practice in the
sector. As a major land owner and property developer in Central London, LSE
was shortlisted under the Sustainable Client/Developer 2010 category.
Julian Robinson, director of estates at LSE, said: 'Sustainability is a key
factor in the decisions we make across LSE's estate and we are honoured to
be shortlisted for this prestigious award.'
More
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• LSE Catering are making a difference
LSE Catering has received the ‘Good Food on the Public Plate Award’, presented
at City Hall by Rosie Boycott, chair of the London Food Board.
The award is made to public sector organisations who make great strides
in serving food that is more sustainable by ensuring it is local, seasonal,
Fairtrade or assured by an animal welfare scheme. It recognises a number of
our recent initiatives.
The Compassion In World Farming (CIWF) Awards in Oxford saw LSE Catering
presented with CIWF’s ‘Good Egg Award’ in recognition of the School's recent
move to using only UK free range eggs for the ¼ million shell eggs we use
annually. The annual award is made to all sectors – catering, supermarkets,
manufacturing etc - who change from using eggs from caged hens to those from
uncaged or free range hens.
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• London
Universities Environmental Group
LSE has chaired the London Universities Environmental Group (LUEG) for the
last two years. Twenty six of London's 39 HEFCE funded higher education
institutions (HEIs) are now members and the Christmas LUEG meeting will have
the highest attendance yet of over 60 people.
LUEG was originally set up as the Bloomsbury Environmental Group in 2004,
where university staff came together to progress the sustainability agenda
for all London universities and provide a support network for each other.
The group meets monthly to share best practice and participate in peer led
workshops. Topics range from HEFCE's Carbon Reduction Strategy and BREEAM
Excellent standards for new builds to setting up an environmental champions
network and putting 'good food on the public plate.' Within the last year,
the group has gone on to create specialist sub-groups to leverage collective
resources. These are: Carbon reduction; Environmental management systems;
Further education buddying scheme; and Sustainable procurement.
All HEIs are welcome to join the mailing list so if you know of anyone who
might be interested, please email
v.e.hands@lse.ac.uk For more on LUEG, click
here.
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• LSE's Zero Waste New Year's resolution
Earlier this year, the School approved a budget of £211k and placed an order for new recycling bins for campus and halls.
These allow the School to segregate food waste for composting, drain liquids,
and send zero waste to landfill - sweet wrappers, crisp packets and
polystyrene are sent to waste to energy plants with all other materials
being recycled. The new bins enable LSE to extend its resource use as
well as reduce CO2 emissions.
Following roll out, all users will be within reasonable distance of a
Communal Recycling Station. Special needs for waste disposal will be
catered for upon request.
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• Update on roof gardens
LSE's roof gardens have thrived
over term thanks to the care of staff and students across campus with recent harvests including red
peppers, a crop of delicious cherry tomatoes and potatoes. Let's hope they
brave the winter cold.
To stay up to date with the
roof gardens' progress, sign up
to LSE Gardens at
http://twitter.com/LSEGardens
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In 2009-10, LSE's recycling rate around campus was 39 per cent,
an increase of 4 per cent from 2008-09. As a result, 180 tonnes
of CO2e were avoided. By achieving the NAB recycling rate of 90
per cent across LSE, the campus could save an additional 144 tonnes of CO2e
per annum. |
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• Ten years of in-tend helping the environment
by Margaret Newson
LSE's Purchasing Department has been using an electronic tender system to
send out enquiries, receive tenders and store contract records.
Before its introduction five years ago, Purchasing sent everything out
and receive bids back in hard copy.. Purchasing worked out that for just one
competitive tender exercise when 28 companies responded the total distance
that their bids had travelled was 1,394 miles mainly by courier bike or van
to reach Aldwych House before the closing date. And that’s equivalent to
London to Kiev in air miles! At a rough calculation, to offset this carbon
emitted would result in the planting of 22 trees.
We have made a range of improvements including buying recycled paper,
instigating double sided printing, which all worked towards us gaining a
Bronze Green Impact Award. Our Introduction to Purchasing guide which was
launched in January 2010 also includes a Checklist for Green Procurement
Consideration and was included in a submission by the Russell Group to the
HM Treasury as an example of best practice for procurement in the sector. To
download our Introduction to Purchasing or for more on the School's
purchasing services, click
here. |
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Green
challenge
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• Help confine disposable cups to the dustbin of history
The Sustainable Futures Consultancy group at LSE is continuing to
spearhead a new initiative to their Smart Mug campaign. Started in 2009,
the Smart Mug campaign is an attempt to reduce a person’s daily
environmental impact through using one reusable travel mug instead of many
paper cups when purchasing hot beverages on campus.
The United Kingdom uses approximately 500 million paper cups per year and
Smart Mugs provide a means to cut down that astronomical figure. Smart Mugs
can be used at any outlet selling coffee on campus. These BPA-free mugs have
a sleek design, an insulated double wall to keep your drink warm, and a
three-year guarantee. They
cost only £4.70 and can be purchased at many outlets around campus.
Not only will you be saving trees, you will also be saving 10 pence off
your coffee purchase whenever you use your Smart Mug at the Students' Union
shop. If 5,000 people, just over half of LSE’s student population, used a
refillable mug three times a week for a year, 780,000 cups and lids would be
saved from the waste stream.
The SFC was founded five years ago by a small group of LSE students
committed to environmental change. The SFC
conducted an environmental audit of the university and, since then,
has been involved with many environmental campaigns on the campus including
Re-Love, double-sided printing, and environmental auditing. This year they
are supporting the roll out of Green Impact and establishing a Green Fund
open to all. For more on Green Impact, click
here. |
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Notices
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• Green
Impact -
Green Impact is an environmental accreditation scheme where
teams of staff across the School are recognised for implementing simple
environmental office procedures which often result in cost savings or more
efficient use of resources. It celebrates good practice and empowers staff
to make changes. Green Impact also enables departments to benchmark their
existing achievements and work to improve them year on year.
The Sustainability Team held a launch event in November to
mark the start of Green Impact's second year at LSE. So far there are 32
teams across LSE who are all doing their bit to green their work place.
Last year 20 teams were recognised with accreditation and are
now hoping to build on those achievements this year. All the teams that took
part now recycle printer cartridges and 60 per cent of teams switched to
reusable glasses. The Department of Mathematics, who achieved a Gold Award last
year, said that 'the whole experience was both positive and rewarding.'
Helen Craig, greener living assistant at LSE, coordinates the
Green Impact teams and runs regular support sessions. The introduction of an
online workbook has been an excellent improvement for this year and will
help teams to focus on the actions they can take.
Green Impact is run locally by the School but managed across
23 higher education institutions by The Environmental Association for
Universities and Colleges (EAUC) and the NUS as part of a DEFRA funded
Degrees Cooler Programme. For more information, see
www.degreescooler.org.uk or
watch the Degrees Cooler video.
For more information on the progress of Green Impact at LSE,
see
www.lse.ac.uk/sustainablelse
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• Reusable
envelopes
The Post Room has a mountain of internal envelopes which are
available upon request. Each envelope can be reused 40 times which saves the
School money and makes efficient use of resources.
Last year, individual departments ordered 30
boxes of reusable envelopes which has led to a large surplus, most of which
have plenty of life in them. Until further notice, Purchasing has placed a
block on departments ordering new internal envelopes from our
stationery
supplier. If your department needs internal reusable
envelopes, please email
postal.enquiries@lse.ac.uk
You can also reuse ordinary envelopes both internally and
externally by covering the frank mark and crossing out the previous
recipients address. When envelopes have been reused as much as possible,
please recycle in your office paper recycling bin.
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• Stock
furniture reuse
The
Sustainability Team in Estates has been running in furniture reuse scheme
now known as LSE stock. It has fantastic environmental and financial
benefits for the university - it keeps the majority of furniture items from
going to landfill, saves the university the cost of buying new furniture and
of paying for old furniture to be removed, and provides many staff with
high-quality furniture to suit their needs in a fraction of a time it takes
to place a new order.
The
furniture reuse project most recently tackled a large amount of furniture
from Tower One ahead of scheduled refurbishment works. Nine floors of
furniture were catalogued and redistributed over six weeks by LSE porters.
Around 233 items, or five tonnes of furniture, were reused internally,
saving around 13 tonnes of CO2 and around £15,000. Another seven tonnes were
taken for external reuse in the London area. For more, click
here.
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• Sustainability
Projects Fund
LSE Catering instituted a Water Bottle Tax in 2008 designed
to begin to curb LSE's consumption of water in plastic bottles, when water
fountains are widely available around campus. The tax - ten pence per
plastic bottle sold by LSE catering - has accrued for the past two years, a
total of around £16,000.
Sustainable Futures, a student run green group at LSE, has
recently gained approval from the Environmental Management and Review Group,
chaired by Howard Davies, to administer a Sustainability Projects Fund with
the revenue from this tax to allow staff and students to make sustainability
a reality on campus and in halls of residence.
The project's submission deadline is Thursday 20 January and
full details will be available from the Sustainable LSE website. Winners
will be announced during People and Planet's Go Green Week, 7-14 February
2011.
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• Towards Zero Waste on film
The Towards Zero Waste film is now available on the
Sustainable LSE video and audio webpage.
This 10 minute film demonstrates the business and
sustainability case for reuse and seeks to inspire action and leadership on
implementing or expanding reuse schemes and moving towards zero waste.
Interviews with Professor Lord
Stern of Brentford, on how zero waste projects contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions,
Peter Jones, on the waste industry in
London, and Richard Featherstone, who paints the picture of a vibrant reuse
community minimising CO2 emissions and reaching zero waste, can also be
viewed online.
http://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/
sustainableLSE/Home.aspx
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• Stay
up to date with sustainability action around campus
If you want to stay in touch with sustainability work going on around
campus, you can sign up to the Students' Union's newsletter. Emailed
fortnightly, the newsletter keeps subscribers up to date with all things environmental and
ethical going on around campus and beyond.
To sign up, email Hannah Williams, environment
and ethics officer for the LSESU, at
h.p.e.williams@lse.ac.uk
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Dressing your hot-water tank correctly is a cheap and easy way
to save on bills - the right jacket and pipe insulation could
save as much as £20 a year on heating. If every UK household
fitted a jacket to their tank tomorrow, over £150 million would
be saved every year.
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Green
calendar
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• January Food Co-op and ReLove stalls
Thursday 13 January and
Thursday 10 February 2011
10.30am-4pm
The Quad
The LSESU organic food
co-op is the perfect opportunity to get your hands on all different kinds of
dried goods without paying the earth for them - both environmentally and
financially!
Fruits, nuts and whole
grains like couscous, rice and oats are all available at cost price and
being organic and fair trade, they benefit the planet and the people who
grow them. Perfect for healthy snacking, cooking and baking, and sold at
cost price to LSE staff and students, this could be just the thing to
support those New Year resolutions.
ReLove stalls will also
provide you with the opportunity to give and take your unwanted, unloved or
unused items and watch out for something new to love and use.
Staff and students can
donate unwanted or unused items to collection points at hall of residence
receptions, or the Students' Union on campus all year round, so have a sort
out before Christmas.
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• What's going on in the world
Want to stay up to
date with sustainable events both around campus and globally? The
Sustainability Team have compiled a spreadsheet which can be downloaded
from the Sustainable LSE website.
The database
includes dates of LSE's Environmental
Management Working Group meetings and sustainability events at the
School. It also highlights dates and wider events that might be of
interest, for example the dates for Go Green Week 2011, and gives links
to groups and websites that might also be of interest.
To download the
calendar, click
here.
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Residences
round-up
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• Eco-power
rangers
Over 300 students signed up as Eco-Power Rangers during Freshers' week as
part of the Student Switch Off campaign.
Last year's results were positive, with a 7.8 per cent reduction in
energy use overall in October, November and February compared with previous
years – saving of 94 tonnes of CO2. This is the equivalent to the amount of
energy used to:
- Power a 15 watt energy saving light bulb for 1,318 years
- Make 5.5 million cups of tea
- Fly 1,000 times from London to Manchester
This year's results will be posted online when known, but the number and
percentage of students who signed up last year as Eco-Power Rangers in the
different halls is as follows:
Hall
No of rangers 2009 No of rangers 2010 Butler’s Wharf
30
10
Northumberland 35
10
Rosebery
32
28
High Holborn
43
21
Bankside
52
125
Passfield
13
19
Carr Saunders
8
15
Grosvenor
8
5
Sydney Webb 20
1
Lillian Knowles
0
15
Total
320
249
For more on the Student
Switch Off campaign see
http://www.studentswitchoff.org/unis/lse
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• Electronic notice boards being installed
Thanks to a donation from the Annual Fund, a project is underway in
Residential Services to install electronic notice boards in eight of the
halls of residence.
The halls being fitted with these boards are: Bankside House, Butler's
Wharf Residence, Carr-Saunders Hall, Grosvenor House, Northumberland House,
Passfield Hall and Rosebery Hall. High Holborn already uses electronic
notice boards although the software is currently being replaced. The project
should be completed by the end of January 2011
The electronic notice boards will be used to provide clear and accurate
information to students and commercial guests.
This will mean that the number of flip charts and paper notices stuck to the walls will be
reduced.
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• Buy
Better@Bankside a success
Buy Better@Bankside was the latest success for ReLove in the form of a three
day 'pop-up reuse shop'.
Over 200 students benefited and £700 was raised for the charities involved.
Almost 1.2 tonnes of reuse items found new homes saving 10.5 tonnes of CO2e.
In other ReLove news...
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Halls of residence end-of-term reuse increased donations by 9 per cent
from 2009 figures. This resulted in almost 10 tonnes being collected,
avoiding 87 tonnes of CO2e.
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Internal furniture reuse increased by 88 per cent over 2008-09 figures.
This resulted in over 7 tonnes of furniture reused and saving
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• It's a bees-y business
The two hives at Passfield Hall, which were installed in July, are
thriving under the care and supervision of professional beekeeper Dr
Luke Dixon and a small amount of honey was harvested with the intention
of extracting more in subsequent years.
A pot of Passfield Honey was presented at a public lecture this term to
Dr Michael O'Malley, who spoke about his new book
The Wisdom of Bees: what the hive
can teach business about leadership, efficiency and growth. In the
lecture, Dr O'Malley identified the similarities between business
organisations and hives and highlighted the lessons that business
leaders could learn from the beehives.
The hives at
Passfield Hall are now bedded down for winter but the School hopes to
sell future harvests of honey with the proceeds going towards various
sustainability projects in halls of residence. For more on Passfield
Hall Honey, click
here.
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• LSE Orchards at Passfield and Rosebery halls
LSE will be planting over 30 fruit trees in Rosebery Avenue and Passfield
Halls of Residence during the first weekend in Marchas we
enter into the
International Year of Forests.
A collaborative initiative between Estates and Residences, part funded by
Capital Growth, the orchards will feature a range of fruit trees
including apples, pears, figs, blueberries, grapes, quinces, plums and
peaches!
This is not only a beautiful and tasty reward for staff, students and
vacation guests alike for years to come, but also the bees at Passfield Hall can
look forward to a blossom filled spring which should reward the School
with a bountiful second honey harvest next autumn. The orchards are also a
small way of contributing to the achievement of Camden and Islington's
biodiversity goals which the School supports.
If you are green fingered or new to gardening, you can get involved and
help us to build on the success of the urban food growing on LSE rooftops
this summer (see
www.twitter.com/LSEgardens), also funded by Capital Growth.
Those interested in finding out more and getting involved with the LSE
orchards can contact the co-ordinators directly: Rosa Gil (Rosebery),
Katarina Selmoun (Passfield). For information on LSE biodiversity
initiatives, click
here
PLANTS
Passfield Trees:
Apples - Bramley, Discovery; Pear – Concorde, Comice; Quince – Meeches;
Grape – Black Hamburg; Nectarine – Nectarella; Medlar – Nottingham; Cherry –
Stella, Merton glory.
Rosebery Trees:
Apples – Herefordshire russet, Discovery; Grape – Muscatel; Pear – Hamburg;
Asian pear - Kumoi; Medlar – Nottingham; Quince – Champion; Peach – Garden
Lady, Rochester, Peregrine, Brown Turkey; Blueberry – Bluecrop, Darrow;
Kiwifruit – Solo; Plum – Cambridge gage, Laxton’s, Blaisdon, Early rivers, Victoria; Cherry –
Stella, Merton glory, Sunburst, Merchant; Fig – Brown
turkey. |
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Direct
view
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• Val Straw,
building liaison manager in the Library
Like most people I am interested in environmental matters and keen to do
my bit to reduce LSE's carbon footprint. As the Library's building liaison
manager I am fortunate in being able to make a difference through my work.
When LSE's sustainability team got in touch with me earlier this year
about LSE's Communal Recycling Stations, and the push to zero waste at LSE,
I knew that Library staff would be keen to be involved in the pilot. Many
staff have started their own green initiatives and some have already binned
their bins.
As part of the pilot to introduce the new recycling scheme in the
Library, staff in the Technical Services Department donated back 40 bins to
the School, which were replaced by new Communal Recycling Stations. Staff
from the Sustainability Team explained how to use them and Technical
Services staff supplied valuable feedback on the signage and the bins
resulting in improvements over the first few weeks.
As Technical Services is a large and busy department receiving new books
and journals for the Library, staff found that they needed more bins for
packaging materials and food waste, as many staff bring their own lunches
from home. These additions have since been put in place and we are very
happy with the tailored service which will ensure we are recycling at
optimum levels. New staff will be shown how to use the system and we are all
very happy to know that we are doing our bit to minimise environmental
impact at work.
We now have a very good chance of matching the impressive recycling rates
in the New Academic Building which are nearly 90 per cent, and are looking
forward to the results of the first waste audits to show us how we have
improved. We shall continue to work with the Sustainability Team to roll out
this provision across the Library for staff and students. |
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60
Second Interview
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• with..... Professor Teddy Brett
I grew up in Johannesburg, South
Africa, took my first degrees at
Witwatersrand University and then
taught my first university course
there in 1960. I was active in
liberal politics but left in 1961 to
do a PhD at LSE on colonialism in
East Africa which took me on to
teach at Makerere University in the
1960s and 70s and watch its tragic
collapse into a failed state under Idi Amin. I also taught at Sussex
University, retired (early) in 1987
and came to the Development Studies
Institute on a temporary contract
(subsequently renewed many times)
where I now teach Development
Management. I work on theories of
international development and on the
political economy of Africa.
What was the biggest challenge
you faced in improving
sustainability at home?
Sustainability has been more of
an opportunity than a challenge. I
have now done all the small things -
insulation, low energy lights and
minimising appliance use, and also
installed roof panels for hot water
and electricity generation. The
latter involved a large outlay, but
new feed-in tariffs actually
bring us net economic gains that
exceed the costs of borrowing the
money needed to install them. I have
still to convince my wife of the
need to shift to a condensing boiler
because of the environmental costs
of getting rid of the old one, and
see double glazing as unaffordable.
I have had a lot of help on this
from my son who is a trustee of the Ashenden Trust that gives awards for
environmental sustainability
projects in the UK and abroad.
I find it hard to understand why
LSE is so far behind the curve on
most of these issues. The green team
initiative is impressive and
important but it fails to address
the need for large-scale investments
in carbon footprint reduction. I
spent four years in Tower Two where
I was forced to breathe expensive
air-conditioned air instead of being
allowed to open my window: with
current feed-in tariffs LSE would
make money by installing
photovoltaic panels on many roofs
and could cut its water heating
bills, by installing panels, or an
underground heat exchange system.
I have recently put sedum gardens
on my garage and garden shed. These
are low maintenance, cut run-off and
improve air-quality. They could be
planted across the LSE estate and
would turn LSE into a green oasis in
the centre of a pretty bleak city-scape.
At present, what is the most
important part of securing the
future in the UK? Finding a
credible way to balance our need to
reduce poverty and exclusion with
the reduction of energy use needed
to prevent a more and more likely
environmental catastrophe.
Most people, including many public
figures who should know better, are
in denial on this issue. Most of
those, including me,
who recognise the problem are only
prepared to take actions that don't
significantly impact on their
lifestyles. Policy-makers place
heavy reliance on markets to
increase growth, but uncontrolled
markets usually force producers to
adopt least-cost technologies that
rarely take environmental impact
into account. Hence only governments
are in a position to introduce the
controls needed to solve the
problem, but they are elected by
voters who force them to place
growth first and sustainability a
very distant second.
And perhaps, the
most depressing of all, this problem
can only be addressed at the global
level, and the failure of the
Copenhagen Conference demonstrates
just how difficult it is going to be
to generate a viable long-term
response to what is undoubtedly the
greatest threat to the survival of
our civilisation.
Which country
has so far made the most interesting
advances in sustainability?
Probably China,
which, on the one hand, is
generating the greatest increase in
emissions as it industrialises at an
unprecedented rate, but is also
investing actively in the production
and diffusion of emission reducing
technologies, and in the research
needed to take them forward.
If you had to
cook a three course meal for four
guests, what would you serve them?
The three best
dishes I have managed over my (very
limited) cooking career would be
thick eight vegetable soup followed
by gluten free mushroom/cheese
soufflé made with rice and potato
flour and homemade ice cream made
with garden fresh raspberries.
Do you prefer
the town or the country and why?
Neither since I have
arranged to live on the edge of
Brighton, the most congenial town in
Britain, a short walk from the South
Downs and a short drive from
Ardingly reservoir where I am
learning to scull.
Do you use
Facebook?
I am an active
non-user of Facebook and was
surprised and flattered to be told
that I did actually have a virtual
identity courtesy of some of my
students. While LSE has given me
extraordinary intellectual
opportunities, my greatest enjoyment
has always been derived from
life-enhancing contacts with our
extraordinary students and I derive
my greatest rewards from their
extraordinary achievements. We are
organising a 20th Anniversary
Alumnus Reunion next year, where I
hope we will all be able to revisit
old memories and make new contacts.
Where in the
world have you always wanted to go,
but never quite made it...yet?
I would like to
climb the Ruwenzori mountains in
Western Uganda before the snow
finally melts. I may try it but I
suspect that I could get up but
would not be able to get down again.
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Advice
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• Want
to know more?
If you have any questions about the sustainability work going on
around campus or would like to become involved, why not contact one of
the many Sustainability Champions who take active rolls in the School's
work in this area? A list of staff Sustainability Champions is online
here. |
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