Walking Works Quiz

As mentioned on this blog before the University is involved in an initiative to encourage staff members to walk more, whether it is going to and from University, or getting up in lunchtime and having a stroll to stretch their legs and see the local scenery. Run by the charity Living Streets and supported by the Greater London Authority, Walking Works have been supplying the University with support and ideas to get more staff members walking.

The latest initiative is a walking quiz that can only be won by staff members getting out of the office during the lunchtime break and exploring the local area surrounding the campus. Questions require staff members to explore and pick up answers from local sites of interest. At Greenwich the questions will take you out to Ballast Wharf and up to the Royal Observatory and at Avery Hill you will need to explore the further reaches of the campus and walk across Avery Hill Park to find the answers. My advice to you is to get out there and explore - but before you do write down the questions and take a pad and pen with you - I managed to forget two of the answers before I got round to filling out the quiz!

On to of this there is a £50 voucher to be won, one for Avery Hill Campus and one for Greenwich Campus.

Take part in the quiz by clicking here (staff login required).

You will find Ballast Wharf by heading towards the Power Station at Greenwich

Look out for the first signs of Spring as you walk through Avery Hill Park

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

Green Cleaning Up at the Sustainable Food Awards

Guess what? It’s been very busy with the Sustainability Team again recently with a whole load of different goings on.

Firstly we are going to do a little self congratulating. Last week Kat was at the Good Food on the Public Plate Awards and picked up not one, not two, not three, not four, but FIVE awards for our efforts on sustainable food! Through ABM (the main caterers at the University) we have been awarded for ensuring:

- Only Marine Stewardship Council fish is purchased
- Only free range eggs are used
- Only organic milk is used
- Red tractor meat is purchased as a minimum
- Fairtrade and organic coffee is offered at all sites

The Good Food on the Public Plate Awards celebrate best practice of the public sector organisations who recognise their responsibility to spend money on food produced in a way that achieves environmental, social and economic benefits for London and further afield. Through the achievements we have been awarded for the University is ‘helping to sustain a market for farm assured products and birds kept in humane conditions, guarantee a fair price for farmers overseas and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.’ The University has a strong Sustainable food policy in the pipeline and continues to promote sustainable and Fairtrade delicacies across campus.

Kat enjoying the glamour and glitz of being in the Sustainability Team at Greenwich

Last week has also seen the introduction of 100% recycled toilet roll in the University. Recently we retendered our cleaning contract and wrote sustainability credentials into the process for tendering and into the contract itself. Along with the toilet roll we have seen ‘Green Planet Solutions’ cleaning products introduced, new energy efficient cleaning machinery and we are also about to start experimenting with the Eco-cube waterless urinal system.

A monumental effort on Kat’s behalf this week led to the draft version of the Carbon Management Plan being submitted to Anna and Mark from the Carbon Trust and we now start the process of getting the plan ready to go to the University Court in the new year. The plan aims to set out a succinct and detailed strategy for the University to cut its carbon emissions over the next five years and set out targets for the next ten years, once this whole process is complete we will post up a link so that you can have a peruse of it.

This week we also see the launch of Walking Works at the University with John from the Sustainability Team and Alison from Greenwich Campus FM offering a scenic walk through Greenwich Park on Wednesday for all those interested (meet 12:30 outside Dreadnought Library). Iain Metters is organising two walks at Avery Hill Campus on Tuesday and Thursday (from David Fussey at 12:15) and all of this is thanks to a great initiative by Living Streets to get more people to consider walking as a viable means of transport and as a good, accessible and very cheap way of exercising. You can also sign up to the Mice Pie Challenge and work out how many mince pies you are burning off with your walking efforts.

In other news we are still interviewing for the Fairtrade internship, looking forward to the LUEG Christmas lunch tomorrow and getting ourselves prepared for the Fairtrade and biodiversity meetings coming up later on in the week.