Sustainability@Bangor newsletter summer 2015

Sustainability@Bangor Newsletter Summer 2015 The Bangor University Sustainability LAB How many of you have noticed that 'The Sustainability Laboratory' is popping up across the university? Well, here's an introduction to the new venture.

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Develop a globally recognised sustainable reporting framework

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Ensure clear, concise audience-appropriate messages on sustainability

In the University’s Strategic plan for 2015-2020 'Sustainability' is identified as one of the 'strategic enablers'. We aim to become, in all aspects, ‘the Sustainable University’. Our ambition embraces not only the infrastructure and operation of University sites and operations, but also how the University plans for growth as well as our role for Wales and beyond.

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SBBS, formerly part of the Welsh Institute for Natural Resources has been working behind the scenes for years, but now, in response to the University's Strategic plan we will re launch as the 'Sustainability Laboratory' to act as a high-profile corporate focal-point and the face of sustainable development at the University. In the months and years ahead we will work with as wide a range of people and interests as possible in order to :  Co-develop a sustainability action plan  Embed sustainability across our functions to integrate all aspects of sustainability into our daily operations  Conduct a programme of sustainability reviews across all Colleges and Service Departments

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Engage with businesses and other organisations on sustainable business development and resource efficiency Reduce the University’s carbon footprint

The activities, websites and so on will continue with new branding taking place in phases.

From a teaching and learning and student experience perspective the University is committed to " Ensure the development of our curriculum reflects our commitment to sustainable development and global citizenship”.

In terms of research we aim to "foster a culture that values and promotes sustainability alongside business and enterprise activities. An interesting way of doing this and will be to enhance student, staff and community experience of sustainability in its widest sense through Action Research (“learning by doing”) In the meantime, we are looking for enthusiastic people who want to be part of the Laboratory from across the University academic background or whatever your support department.

Please get in touch! Perhaps we can include your story in the next issue.

www.bangor.ac.uk/sustainability

Ugandan University signs Sustainable Development Deal with Bangor University Bangor University sustainable development experts visited Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda in February 14-19 to sign a five-year collaboration deal.

Bangor University will contribute expertise putting sustainable development into action.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Bangor and Makerere Universities will work as a platform for collaboration under the recently commissioned EC programmes Joint EuropeanAfrican Research and Innovation Agenda on Waste Management, to boost collaborative research and innovation. The partnership could also attract Ugandan and east African students, coming to the UK for extended study and research, to choose Bangor.

The visit explored ways to collaborate over technical assistance to Makerere University’s implementation of resource efficiency and the wider` network of the Innovations Systems `Cluster Programme, (part of the East African and Continental Pan African Competitiveness Forums). Makerere University also plans to work with Bangor University to embed sustainability in all its work, through teaching, research and developing practical solutions for businesses in Uganda.

Leader of the visiting team, Dr Einir Young, Bangor University’s Director of Sustainability said, “Sustainability and the environment are moving to the top of the international agenda, and our expertise as a University enables us to offer businesses and institutions the knowledge and technical means to put sustainable alternatives into practice, helping them lower costs, increase productivity and be more environmentally and socially responsible.”

Dr Young added, “As a consequence of our continued commitment to sustainability, Bangor University is now rated among the top 10% of the world’s greenest Universities, according to an international league table of environmentally friendly institutions.

“We are developing an international reputation for expertise in sustainable development, not just for large corporations and public bodies but for small businesses where every penny lost or won is crucial.

We hope that the relationship with Makerere will flourish and that the many students who travel to the UK for further study and research will deepen the link by coming to Bangor.”

The academic delegation who visited Uganda to lay the foundations for the collaboration and discover the extent of the potential were from Bangor University’s Synnwyr Busnes Business Sense (SBBS) and Bio-Composites groups.

SBBS under Dr Young has specialised in embedding sustainability within institutions and has emerged as the corporate focal point for the sustainability agenda within Bangor University.

BioComposites uses biomaterials including waste and plants, to make bio-products for industry as a way of reducing negative effects on the environment.

Professor John Ddumba Ssentamu, Vice Chancellor Makerere University said, “The collaboration with Bangor University will enable us to offer our students and business partners access to their teaching and practical expertise. As one of the world’s leading universities in applying effective solutions to issues such as energy efficiency, waste management, sustainable recycling and reuse of materials, they are ideal partners.”

The Ugly Foods Shop pop up success A breath of new life came to an empty store in the Deiniol Shopping Centre in March with the student enterprise project ‘The Ugly Foods Shop’ which sold food deemed to ugly for supermarkets, and the good new is it will return in September due to popular demand.

Bangor University said the Ugly Foods Shop which sold irregular looking fruit and veg in the Deiniol Shopping Centre throughout the month of March was a great success and had a “very positive” response from the community.

Gwyn Hughes, Town Clerk, Bangor City Council said “the store helped ensure Bangor offered a different experience to what shoppers can get elsewhere.”

Dan Taylor, a student from the University's School of Psychology who managed the shop, said: “The ugly foods shop has taught me of the potential to become an entrepreneur in the future.

“It has been a really worthwhile experience and great to be able to be involved in a venture which seems to have been able to meet a need in the community.”

A university spokesperson said: “The shop brought a new lease of life to Bangor’s Deiniol Shopping Centre as well as allowing students to develop vital enterprise and employability skills The university’s B-Enterprising team, who helped to coordinate the venture, thanked that will be invaluable in the world of work.

Bangor City Council for working with the “The response from customers of the shop was students of Bangor University and to the Welsh Government for helping to fund it. very positive and due to popular demand it is planned for the shop to re-open its doors in September 2015 with students looking forward to developing the Ugly Foods brand even further.”

The shop, managed by Bangor University students, sold fruit and vegetables which do not meet the conventional beauty standards set by supermarkets before they can be stacked on shelves, usually because of their size or irregular appearance.

The shop offered customers the chance to save the ugly produce from landfill and buy at a cheaper price than from conventional retailers.

Goods on offer included Soup in a Sack and freshly made smoothies, as well as loose fruit and vegetables.

Bangor in top 10% of World’s Greenest Universities Bangor University’s commitment to sustainability has again earned it a commanding position in an international league table of environmentally friendly institutions. The league was first launched by Universitas Indonesia in 2010 to highlight sustainability and environmental management at universities across the world. Each year the number of Universities taking part increases; in the current league 360 Universities from 62 countries took part and Bangor has been placed in 28th position.

“I am delighted that Bangor continues to maintain its position as a sustainability leader within the international higher education sector. This latest announcement demonstrates our ongoing commitment to taking positive action in promoting sustainability and achieving continual environmental improvement,” said Vice Chancellor Professor John G Hughes.

Ricky Carter, Environmental Manager in the Estates and Facilities Department added: “We are continuing to make significant progress not only at home but globally, as shown by our recent achievement of the internationally recognised ISO14001 Environmental Standard. In addition we have held the Welsh Green Dragon environmental certification since 2009”.

Head of Sustainable Development at Bangor University, Dr Einir Young responded to the announcement saying: “Our efforts in driving environmental improvements and resource efficiencies throughout the organisation continue to show dividends. We recognise that the environment is just one aspect of the sustainable development agenda, and we are focusing our efforts on integrating sustainable practice into everything we do, through our research, our teaching and our own supply chain”.

Sustainability ThinkTanks We’ve had another successful year of Sustainability ThinkTanks. Bringing Sustainability to life by promoting ideas and discussion around Sustainability@Bangor.

There have been discussions on behaviour change and sustainability, mindfulness, sustainable procurement and buying green, reducing environmental impact on food packaging, the Love Bangor Partnership and much more.

If you have any ideas around sustainability why not bring them along to one of the monthly Think Tank sessions, or if you’d like to take a session yourself contact Mair at sustainability@bangor.ac.uk

Image: Ishaq Madan

University supports Fairtrade Fortnight 2015 Bangor University invited staff, students and the local community to celebrate Fairtrade Fortnight 2015 in February.

“Bangor University is committed to Fairtrade, we have Fairtrade status and a Fairtrade Policy which commits to making Fairtrade goods available for purchase in all campus This year the University and the Bangor shops and food outlets and to expand the Community Fairtrade Group joined forces to availability of Fairtrade products whenever put a series of events on during the fortnight possible. Being a Fairtrade University and to remind everyone of the dramatic difference promoting Fairtrade is important to our Fairtrade makes around the world and the commitment to become the Sustainable positive impact it has.

University.

Many successful event were held such as Fairtrade Rugby, Fairtrade Fair a Bake Off competition, a Quiz and a Movie night and there were also some Fairtrade products available at the Bangor St David’s day Parade and service at the Cathedral on the 1st of March.

Dr Einir Young, Head of Sustainable Development said:

Buying Fairtrade products is one of the least difficult choices we as individuals can make. It sends an important message to business that we won’t put up with unfairness; that we don’t want people or the environment to be treated badly just so that we can buy cheap goods.

Join with Bangor University to make Fairtrade a choice whenever possible for the benefit of developing countries across the globe.”

Bangor University’s Annual Environmental Management Report 2014 was a significant year in our journey to become sector leaders in sustainability. We not only achieved certification to ISO14001:2004, the globally recognised standard for Environmental Management Systems, we also featured in the top 10% of over 300 Universities worldwide for our commitment to environmental sustainability. This builds upon the Welsh “Green Dragon” environmental certification that we have held since 2009.

Bangor’s achievements are a clear demonstration to our staff, students and stakeholders at a national and global level that our University is taking its environmental responsibilities very seriously indeed.

Read the Environmental Annual Report

Bangor University celebrate Earth Hour Bangor University helped to build a brighter future by supporting WWF’s 2015 Earth Hour.

A spectacular and symbolic lights out event that focuses the world’s attention on our planet, and the need to protect it.

On 28th March, at 8.30pm, Bangor University joined forces with thousands of iconic landmarks globally, from The Sydney Harbour Bridge to Times Square in New York, as they showed their support. Earth Hour’s unique display of darkness has become a global phenomenon with hundreds of millions of individuals coming together each year. In 2014, a record-breaking 162 countries and 7000 towns and cities joined the world’s biggest celebration for our planet.

Last year in Wales, it’s estimated that over 400,000 people took part, sending out a united message of support. Participating Welsh landmarks included the Senedd in

Cardiff Bay, Caernarfon Castle, The National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth and Newport Transporter Bridge. They were among 200 of the UK’s most iconic landmarks to plunge into darkness, alongside Big Ben and Edinburgh Castle. 235 Welsh schools signed up and Welsh Assembly Members from all parties showed their support.

To celebrate Earth Hour 2015, Bangor University switched off the floodlighting on our iconic Main University Building for the hour, and encouraged staff and students to join in by taking what action they could.

“We were proud to take part in Earth Hour and to be involved with such a great and inspiring event. Everyone can make a difference to help protect our planet and we all have a key role to play,” said Ricky Carter, Bangor University’s Environmental Manager.

Travel The World The University is partaking in the “Travel the World” challenge again where the cumulative distances travelled by staff powers the University virtually across the globe. When Bangor University took part 2 years ago collectively in 90 days we managed to travel over 67,000 miles.

Once again Aberystwyth University are also running the Challenge and we are having a friendly competition against their staff to see which Institution can go the greatest distance during the 60 days.

Bangor Healthy Living Week 2015 Bangor University and Bangor Students’ Union recently hosted a successful Healthy Living Week and there were plenty of opportunities for students and staff to learn about maintaining healthy lifestyles.

Throughout the week various themed sessions were held from learning some basic self-defence moves, to Dr Bike maintenance sessions, tai chi and even some taster rowing sessions.

The highlight of the week was the Healthy Living Fair with over 20 stands from many internal staff and student departments as well as external agencies and companies like Lidl, Coppafeel, Always Aim High Events, British Liver Trust, Dimensions Health Store, Motiv8 and the NHS Blood Transfusion service. The Sustrans SMOOTHIE BIKE giving away free smoothies was also a big hit across campus.

The Big Give project 2015 The project is running between 15th May and 5th of June The Big Give is a volunteering project run annually by Student Volunteering Bangor where volunteers work with residents in the university halls and enable them to donate items that they don’t wish to take home with them.

Blue collection boxes are placed in each hall building and collections are then made regularly over a period of a month as students move out. Each year, the aim is to divert as much waste as possible from landfill and students work throughout the year to identify new homes for the thousands of items that will be donated.

A Big Give spokesperson said “Obviously, the main aim of the project is to stop what would be a huge amount of waste going into landfill. Without having a team of people to collect and then sort the items, it would not be possible to divert and recycle this waste. Donating the items on to other charities in the area is a hugely positive thing because it offers a real helping hand to these organisations and those who benefit from their services.”

Student Halls of Residence Recycling Strategy The Halls of Residence Recycling Strategy is a collaborative project between an appointed BEA intern, the Halls Department and SBBS. The project commenced earlier this year in midApril and will span over a 10 week period.

The team are currently monitoring and conducting waste composition analysis, looking at the volume of food waste and dry recyclables in student halls and the level of recyclables that are still making their way into the refuse bins. The work that is currently being conducted aims to give the baseline data needed to be able to develop a recycling strategy and an effective campaign to communicate this strategy to students.

To date, the team have measured and analysed food waste and dry recyclables in 10 flats in different halls of residents over the past 5 weeks, whilst also conducting a waste audit from two of the flats that are being monitored. The team are therefore half way through the study, and look forward to sharing the results in the next newsletter.

Student Switch Off Cefn y Coed Hall has won the Student Switch Off competition this year, they saved the most energy in their residence and have been involved with the campaign on the facebook page. As a celebration the students were awarded with a Pizza Party at Bar Uno for their efforts.

It’s been a really good campaign at Bangor with students winning Ben&Jerry’s ice cream, NUS extra cards as well as BarUno vouchers and saving loads of energy! It wouldn’t have been possible without the Student Switch Off Ambassadors and the students taking part!

Envirotrek Clean Up North Wales, Llanberis On the May Bank Holiday Weekend 24th May, local residents and children came together to have a fun day clearing up & learning about their local environment in Llanberis and the opportunity to take part in some adventurous activities in the afternoon.

other trash from the surroundings of Llanberis at the first Envirotrek event of season 2015!

Local partners were: Padarn Adventures, Chartered Institute of Waste Management, Cyngor Gwynedd Council, Wise Network, RAW Adventures, Heart of Adventure ‘Calon Antur’, Sixty-eight people gathered 450 kgs of litter and Outdoor Wales and The Heights.

Bangor’s Greenhouses in the Pink You may have noticed a pink glow from roof of the Memorial Building recently. Far from being an alternative location for student discos, it is in fact down to the new eco-friendly horticultural LED lighting system installed in the 3 greenhouses on the building! Senior CNS Technician, Gordon Turner first came up with the idea, which he presented to the University’s Sustainability Task Group. From there the proposal was taken to the Estates Energy Management Group, who implemented the scheme as part of their annual “Invest to Save” programme. environmental impacts as well as our energy costs, and this project is an excellent example of Gordon explains, “The previous lighting system how we are achieving this. Gordon’s scheme has was inefficient and unreliable, costing the now been extended to one of the Henfaes University around £25 each day in electricity and glasshouses, and the installations will make a maintenance costs. The new energy efficient valuable contribution to the energy and carbon Phytolux LED arrays provide an optimum targets set out in our Environmental Management selection of wavelengths for photosynthesis System”. (hence the pink glow) that will almost half these costs. The arrays will pay for themselves over a 3 If you have any “Invest to Save” ideas like year period, as well as reducing our carbon Gordon’s, and can show a payback period of 5 footprint by up to 20 tonnes”. years or less, why not bring them along to one of the monthly Sustainability Think Tank sessions, or Ricky Carter, Environmental Manager, send them to Ricky at environment@bangor.ac.uk commented; “We are committed to reducing our

Love Bangor Hate Waste Bangor Students’ Union and Gwynedd Council are launching the Love Bangor, Hate Waste campaign, to make sure we all get it out for Bangor. On Saturday 6th of June, and Friday 19 of June, these streets will get extra bulky collections to keep Bangor tidy with students being asked to put out their extra rubbish on these specially designated days when clearing out of their accommodation Partners will work together to tackle the annual problem of end of term waste of rubbish spilling on to the streets and other public places. On these days, all students

need to do is put out their household waste and recycling as they normally would, including any bulky items.

Updates and more information can be found on the campaign by joining the Facebook event and by heading to the Love Bangor Hub. There’s also an opportunity for students to enter themselves into a prize draw. By taking a picture alongside waste and the funniest picture will win. Tweet @bangorstudents or post it in the Love Bangor Hate Waste event page. The three best photos will win a £50, £30 or £20 Amazon Gift Voucher.

Help make Bangor tidy!

Cowspiracy:The Sustainability Secret Film Screening In March the Sustainability team helped organise a successful screening of the ‘COWSIPRACY’ film for the local Bangor & Anglesey Friends of the Earth group and the public. A groundbreaking feature-length environmental documentary following intrepid filmmaker Kip Andersen as he uncovers the most destructive industry facing the planet today – and investigates why the world’s leading environmental organizations are too afraid to talk about it.

This shocking yet humorous documentary reveals the absolutely devastating environmental impact large-scale factory farming has on our planet, and offers a path to global sustainability for a growing population.

From the Director’s Chair “Hed amser meddi, na; erys amser, dyn a” - the words of wisdom on the sun dial in the quad observes that although we think that time flies, time stands still and it is we travel. Either way another year has ‘flown’ by and there are an abundance of activities that have contributed to the ‘sustainability’ of the University.

I’ve got two topics on my mind for this issue – politics and well -being.

Politics: I’d like to start by congratulating Mair Rowlands who has, since November, been a member of the Gwynedd Council cabinet and is responsible for Recreation, Children and Young People including child and youth health.

As a local authority member she counts amongst her successes the establishment of Menter Iaith Bangor (the Bangor Welsh Language Enterprise) and the first North Wales Park Run. She was nominated and shortlisted for the "Young Councillor of the Year” award and was a runner up at an awards ceremony in March this year. We are all very proud of her.

Participation in the democratic process is crucial. We’ve just survived a UK general election; Welsh elections for Assembly Members and Local Authority members are coming up in May 2016 and between now and the end of 2017 we will be asked whether the UK should remain in the European Union or not. Mair is a great role model for taking politics seriously.

Well-being (how familiar are we with this word?)

On April 29th the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 entered the statute books. It is an innovative law that places 'well-being' at the heart of decision making with the aim of ensuring that decisions made today will not have a negative impact on the choices available to our children and our children's children. Does it really matter? It seems a no-brainer but I was surprised that there is a view out there that it’s 'boring' and for 'old people'. What do you think?

The #Ecoamgueddfa (Llŷn Ecomuseum) is a collaborative digital marketing campaign between seven heritage sites on the Llŷn Peninsula (Pen Llŷn). The #Ecoamgueddfa uses digital platforms to promote this unique area’s rich cultural heritage to local and worldwide audiences. The vision is to see an increase in cultural tourism in the area, leading to a year round sustainable tourist industry, which will see economic, environmental and social benefits.

The festival is a celebration of the success of the #Ecoamgueddfa. Events will be held at each site over the course of a week from the 6th of June until the 14th. Plenty of fun and exciting events fro all the family.

Here's the #Ecoamgueddfa Festival Event Booklet

Last year we held a workshop to discuss “The Wales we want / University we want” and we’re planning to follow up with a session or two on how the Well-being of future generations act relates to us at Bangor University. I hope you will be able to join us.

It would be very interesting to challenge each of the political parties in the coming months to explain how their proposed policies will address the Cynaliadwyedd Prifysgol Well-being Goals described in the Act. Bangor University Sustainability

I look forward to the interesting times ahead.

www.bangor.ac.uk/sustainability

@planedPBUplanet