Sustainability Intern 2011/2012: 6 Month Progress Report Lucy Arndt
ESTATES. UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS December 15, 2011
Sustainability Intern 2011/2012: 6 Month Progress Report Lucy Arndt About Lucy
Sustainability Intern 2011/2012: 6 Month Progress Report | 12/15/2011
I graduated from the Sustainable Development Programme at the University of St Andrews in June, 2011 with a First Class Undergraduate Degree as well as a Sustainable Development Service Award for my involvement in writing a successful ÂŁ90,000 bid to the Scottish Government and a Sustainable Development Academic Excellence Award for the work I did on my dissertation. I took up the Sustainability Intern position almost exactly a week after graduation and have been happily busy working on campus ever since!
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I loved my time as a student, but have been ready to start taking real action for a long time, instead of just talking about it. The Sustainability Intern position at the University has given me the perfect opportunity to start working on real-life issues and make an impact in a place that I know and care about. Through my time here I have been working on a wide range of projects that are teaching me about practical sustainability issues and helping me to develop valuable skills in this field. In this role, not only do I feel like I am making a real impact and undertaking worth-while work with visible effects, but I am having a great time doing it. In fact, I recently achieved my life-long career goal of being interviewed on the radio as a specialist in my field – I was interviewed on STAR, the student radio at St Andrews, about local food issues. The purpose of this report is to outline some of the main projects that I have been working on during my time so far as the Sustainability Intern at the University of St Andrews Estates Department. I am very grateful for the help given by Santander in developing this opportunity.
Awards, Reports and Funding Grants Green Tourism Business Scheme (G TBS) Award The first big project I undertook was to update the GTBS reports for New Hall and David Russell Apartments in preparation for the reassessment in August, 2011. These were extensive 40-page reports that detailed all of the environmental infrastructure and operations standards of these halls and from which I learnt in-depth information about all of the environmental workings of the University, from boiler refits and cleaning regimes to behaviour change projects. Both halls of residence have subsequently been awarded the Gold GTBS award and are in the running for the annual GTBS Best Performer Award.
Fife Council Carbon and Climate Change Report A report that I wrote up for Fife Council on the current actions that the University is taking to reduce its carbon emissions and respond to climate change gave me a good grip on the overall energy strategy of the University. Please find the report here: http://www.standrews.ac.uk/media/Sustainable%20Development%20Progress%20Report%202011pdf.pdf
Environmental Management System for the Estates Department Work is currently being done to create an Environmental Management System for Estates, and I have been collating this information. The University, Estates and the Environment Team are very progressive in terms of practical action for sustainability and environmental management, but not so great at advertising or documenting what they are doing. One of my main roles is to help fill this gap, both in a marketing and communications sense as well as more formally with documenting procedures in developing this Environmental Management System (EMS). This EMS is planned to be drafted by the beginning of 2011.
Climate Challenge Fund Bid In my role as the Chair of the Transition University of St Andrews (www.standrews.ac.uk/transition) Steering Group, I took on the responsibility of leading the Climate Challenge Fund Bid Working Group that submitted an application in December 2011 to the Scottish Government for funding to continue the work of Transition. I was the lead writer for this bid for £347,771 to cut 2,526.9 tonnes of CO2e through behaviour change projects from 20122015. Transition was awarded £90,000 in the last round of CCF funding which lasts until March 2012. The CCF Bid Working Group was a collaboration of students and staff that had to be coordinated to develop appropriate projects for submission and write an extensive application. This work with Transition is teaching me grant writing, group facilitation and project management skills.
Campaigns One of the big projects the Environment Team has been working on is an application for wind turbines to cut our carbon emissions (by over 18,000 tonnes) and rising energy costs. At the time of starting my position, the Kenly planning application was submitted to Fife Council for review and a process of letting the University body know about these exciting plans began. I have been leading to campaign in support of the application alongside the Students’ Association. This has entailed developing campaign materials, organising a launch event, maintaining a Facebook page which has gained nearly 300 ‘likes’ and at its peak over 4,500 active monthly users (www.facebook.com/ilovekenly) and encouraging individuals to express their opinions by submitting comments to Fife Council. This work has been instrumental in garnering needed support for the application and helping the voice of the University community be heard.
Staff Environmental Awareness Campaign The University of St Andrews has bought into the Carbon Management Awareness Campaign scheme from the Carbon Trust, along with 5 other Scottish Universities. This scheme assists universities in developing environmental awareness campaigns on campus. I have been developing the concept for a Staff Environmental Awareness Campaign at St Andrews, and have drawn up the strategy for this campaign. Preparation and laying the groundwork is currently on-going with the campaign launch planned for early February, 2012. Studies have shown that a noticeable decrease in energy use can be achieved through such efforts. My personal goal is to see a 5% reduction in energy use in Schools and Units across the University by the end of my internship in June.
Sustainability Intern 2011/2012: 6 Month Progress Report | 12/15/2011
‘I Love Kenly’ Campaign
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Training Carbon Conversations In August, I became trained as a Carbon Conversations Facilitator and am now qualified to facilitate six week Carbon Conversations courses, a discussion based, group-learning course on personal carbon footprints designed to examine the psychological and practical responses to climate change (http://transitionuniversityofstandrews.com/carbonconversations/). Co-facilitating with Transition staff, I have brought 14 people through the whole course so far and am currently in the middle of training another 7. Monitoring from our first round of courses has shown that participants on average have made behaviour changes that correlate to immediate carbon savings of 0.792 tonnes per participant and anticipated 4.966 tonnes of CO2 per participant over the next year!
Hall Environment Representatives
Sustainability Intern 2011/2012: 6 Month Progress Report | 12/15/2011
I have been assisting with the training and role development of the Hall Environment Representatives. Over the summer, I developed a job description for this role and disseminated it to Hall Committees. After elections, I helped develop and deliver training for the representatives, and am continuing to provide them with support. This work is helping to formalise and capitalise on the role, which has the potential to be an important point of contact and champion of environmental work in student halls of residence.
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Communications and Awareness Social Media and Communication I have been using social media to communicate the message of the Environment Team as well as disseminate information about what the University is already doing for sustainability. Membership for the Environment Team Facebook page, Twitter account and mailing list have all greatly increased since starting in my position in July.   
Facebook (www.facebook.com/EnvironmentStA): Membership increased 358%, with 531 active monthly users Twitter (www.twitter.com/EnvironmentStA): Membership increased 167% Environment Team Mailing List: 158 emails (built from scratch)
In addition, I have written several press releases (for example: http://www.standrews.ac.uk/600/news/archive/Title,75158,en.html), have responsibility for the Environment Team blog (http://environmentsta.wordpress.com/) and have written guest blog posts for other University blogs (for example: http://transitionuniversityofstandrews.com/2011/09/building-resilience-andcommunity-in-st-andrews/). I also have been trained in using
TerminalFour to edit our webpages and have been going through a process of updating the Environment Team website which is largely out of date (www.st-andrews.ac.uk/environment). Another communication project I undertook was developing signs for new recycling bins in a residence hall after assisting with choosing the new bin design. 40 of these A2 signs are in place in the
New Hall self-catered kitchens reaching over 500 students, and I am doing a review with the students on the use of the new recycling system to assess effectiveness. Other areas of communication that I have been working on include building up a stock of photos on the practical sustainability actions of the University, such as the Recycling Team and ‘Hamish’ the composter, as well as speaking on the St Andrews student radio, STAR as an ‘expert’ on local food.
In addition, I have been assisting a videographer in the development of a series of ‘Sustainability In Practice’ films discussing recycling, food waste and green builds at the University. I have been writing narratives and doing content research, as well as arranging and assisting with on-site filming days to capture elements of the process, from our own cleaning staff on campus to big Viridor recycling facilities. I have been coordinating an art competition with children from a local primary school to develop a green, renewable energy design. The winner of the competition will have his or her illustration branded on the side of the University Grounds staff electric vehicle, nicknamed ‘the Wee Green Machine’. This project aims to dually engage with local children around sustainability issues to raise their awareness and directly engage with the University, as well as develop a design which will showcase the green actions of the University and create a green symbol around town.
Events In my position as Sustainability Intern, I have assisted with the organization and delivery of several events, from a stall at the Freshers Fayre to second hand bike sales to the ‘Raisin Foam Fight’. Some of the highlights have included: -Kaleidoscope Festival, coordinated the Estates contribution to this local eco-festival and ran a stall at the event -Transition Open Forums, delivered an opening talk at the first forum, chaired the second forum and spoke at the third forum -Fife Futures Forum, sat as an ‘expert’ panellist representing the University of St Andrews at this sustainability forum: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwvXW8n2Fc0&feature=related
Future Projects In my next 6 months in the position of Sustainability Intern, I will be continuing to work on several long-term projects. I will continue to pull together the Environmental Management System for Estates and to facilitate Carbon Conversations courses. Our website is undergoing a re-development in the New Year and I will be writing all of the text for those pages. Another big project I will be working on is the launch and development of the Staff Environmental Awareness Campaign, with a goal of recruiting 20 Environment Champions by the end of my time. I wish to thank Santander for helping to create this opportunity, as being the Sustainability Intern at the University of St Andrews has been both a very positive and educational experience.
Sustainability Intern 2011/2012: 6 Month Progress Report | 12/15/2011
Outreach
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