Christmas Carols, Parties, Meals and Meetings

It has reached that time of year where everything seems to come with a Christmas theme, this evening is full of excitement as Kat will be singing in the Carol Concert at the beautiful Chapel of St. Peter and St. Paul in the Old Royal Naval College, Queen Mary building. Also this evening we have the Facilities Management Christmas party, so we can celebrate listening to Kat’s singing with a glass of mulled wine later on.

The Chapel of St. Peter and St. Paul at Greenwich

Tuesday was the London Universities Environmental Group (LUEG) Christmas special with workshops on Green IT and Environmental Legal Registers and a big get together with London based People & Planet members to work together on our preparations for Green Week. Green Week is set for February 7th – 14th and has a love theme as a result of coinciding with Valentine’s Day and the strap line ‘Love your Future, Love your Planet’ will be the message spread across the country by the various People & Planet groups.

Without a People & Planet group here at the University of Greenwich the Sustainability Team has decided to take up the reigns and organise some events for Green Week in February. Our Sustainability Champions have been set the task of getting their department to contribute and our champions are currently working away on their ideas for February. If you would like to get involved please email the Sustainability Team and we will help you run an event for it. If you want to find out more about Green Week and People & Planet have a look at their website. http://peopleandplanet.org/gogreenweek/go-green-week-2011

This week has also seen the launch of Walking Works at the University and three lunchtime walks this week, Iain has had great success with his two walks at Avery Hill, marching through the snow and taking in the fresh air. At Greenwich on Wednesday we managed to scale the hill up to the observatory and look at the breathtaking views of London, meet our bees in the Mausoleum and learn some fascinating nuggets of information from our resident expert Alison Lawrence. These walks of course all contributed to our efforts towards the walking challenge, and I can reveal as of 11:30am December 10th I have worked off the equivalent of 2.65 mince pies this week! The University’s partnership with Walking Works is for the following 12 months so expect to see a lot more walking taking place over the campus throughout 2011. To register and work out your mince pies earned through walking go to: http://www.gre.ac.uk/offices/fm/transport/walking-works

Sunset and Snow at Avery Hill

Walkers at Greenwich

Yesterday saw a meeting between Sodexo, SUUG, ABM and the Sustainability Team to draw up plans for Fairtrade Fortnight at the University. ABM as usual were full of bright ideas for the fortnight and still enjoying the wave of success from receiving all those awards at the Good Food on the Public Plate awards last week. Keep an ear to the ground and eye out for more Fairtrade promotion during 2011 and the Fairtrade Fortnight from February 28th – March 13th. Fairtrade Fortnight 2011

What have we been up to this week at The University of Greenwich?

Have you ever reached Friday afternoon and stopped to think what have I done this week? Well after about three seconds we hadn’t thought of anything after a few more we realised that we have done a fair bit!

This time of year is a big time of temptation on the Avery Hill Campus at the University, everywhere you walk you can see fruits looking bigger, juicier and more delicious than ever. Just this week I have spotted my second fig tree, several blackthorn bushes (sloes grow on these), our director of facilities has found a bounty of quince, elderflowers have been noted, a rogue tomato plant has popped up in a flower bed, and there are countless blackberries in almost every bush! This is all after only spending a few minutes wandering around the Southwood site, who knows what we’ll find when we go hunting on the Mansion site next week?

So my eyes have been searching for the fruits of our campus this week as we have been spending a lot of time thinking about biodiversity. 2010 has been declared the International Year of Biodiversity by the United Nations and this week has been the Unofficial Sustainability Team Week of Biodiversity. As well as spotting all the aforementioned treats on campus we have been thinking about growing wildflower meadows on campus and considering whether to plant some more fruit trees here too. Please send us your suggestions!

In all this research I have come across a few bits and pieces that will be of interest to anyone who likes going outdoors in the late summer and stocking up on nature’s treats. If you are a resident of East London you will probably be interested in Hackney Harvest who have their first harvesting this weekend and have been spending the last month or so creating fruit maps of Hackney and the East London area. The Hackney Harvest lot have been inspired by Abundance Sheffield who have put together this brilliant booklet documenting everything you need to know about rediscovering urban areas as orchards abundant with fruits. This time next year expect to find a University of Greenwich fruit map and plans for homemade jams, jellies, pies, ciders and gins if I get my way.

As well as getting excited about fruit we have been planning to get a lot more students involved in helping out with sustainability next year, the wheels are in motion to create the first University of Greenwich People & Planet Group and to have a regular stream of volunteers and interns coming in and out of the Sustainability Office. Find us at the Freshers’ Fairs in September to join the People & Planet Group and at the GET Opportunities Recruitment Fair on October 13th to become an intern with the Sustainability Team (of course if you want to talk about internships, or the People & Planet Group beforehand make sure you get in contact).

Whilst not wandering around the campus I have been wondering what the best methods are for training up our staff sustainability champions, and in the digital age instead of burying myself in books and papers I have been straining my eyes across a million and one websites pooling together the best little bits and pieces from here, there and everywhere for our champions to feast on. One of the highlights I have come across is The Big Energy Challenge slideshow put together by the Bath and North East Somerset Council for their main public sector bodies. If you have a few minutes to spare it’s certainly worth flicking through and passing on to your friends and colleagues who are interested in saving energy.

Kat has become the co-chair of the London Universities Environmental Group (LUEG) which is busy setting its agenda for the next year. LUEG is a collective of London university based sustainability motivated professionals determined to reduce the environmental impact of London universities by sharing best practice, ideas, workshops and advice on everything from reducing the energy bills to reducing waste, saving water to buying Fairtrade and creating compost right through to building bee hives. Which reminds me of another thing, on Monday Kat and I will be meeting a local bee keeper to discuss the possibility of having some University of Greenwich bees – honey and crumpets anyone?