Sustainability Lab Christmas Newsletter 2017

Sustainability @Bangor Newsletter

Christmas 2017

sustainability carnifal 2018

A First Class Sustainable University WAW 2017 And much, much more...

COMING SOON IN 2018 Month-long extravaganza of ordinary events

Have a say on matters that are important to you at our monthly ThinkTank. Visit our website www.planet.cymru for location and date.

Bangor creates a buzz with first ever Sustainability Week Sustainability Week was held at Bangor University during the second week of May this year. It was a first for the University and a wide range of activities were on offer to students, staff, members of the community and local businesses including a treasure hunt, photo booths, workshops, craft activities, displays, seminars and competitions. All related to economic, social and environmental sustainability and reminded us that discussing ideas and collaborating is the best way to achieve our ambitions of becoming ‘The Sustainable University’.

Bangor’s Director of Sustainability, and leader of The Sustainability Lab, Dr Einir Young said: “I was encouraged by the discussions throughout the week and to see evidence that considering sustainability and the well-being of future generations is filtering through all aspects of University life and functions. One session highlighted once again the relevance of the University’s research output to each and every one of Wales’ well-being goals and the importance of ensuring that this research is applied to solve local and global challenges.

We will be collaborating with the Office of the Future Generations Commissioner to discuss this further.

Wales was not our only focus. We discussed ‘Sustainability Across Continents’ with a lively group of our International Students. It was inspirational to see first-hand accounts of how Bangor University’s approach to sustainability is having direct impact on Universities in Uganda and Nigeria.

I hope that this week’s activities will be a catalyst for growing involvement in The Sustainability Lab’s work.”

The week was organised by The Sustainability Lab in partnership with a number of university departments including Undeb Bangor Students’ Union, Library Services, Human Resources, Treborth Botanic Garden, The Research and Enterprise Office (REO), The Graduate School, and the International Education Centre.

A Wave of Change for Single Use Plastic in the North of Wales

by Hannah Earp, School of Ocean Sciences, Bangor University The Bangor University hub of Capturing our Coast, a national citizen science project funded by Heritage Lottery Fund, in collaboration with Keep Wales Tidy, organised a screening of the award winning adventure documentary, ‘A Plastic Ocean’. The event was a huge success with over 300 people from all generations turning out to increase their understanding of the plastic pollution problem.

The screening was kick-started by a talk from local charity, Keep Wales Tidy, about campaigns aiming to combat plastic pollution in Wales. The documentary then took the audience on adventures across the world’s oceans, illustrating the vast scale of the issue, the plight of remote islands being swamped by plastic debris, and the impact of plastics on human health. The documentary also highlighted positive steps being made to combat plastic pollution alongside small changes every person could make to reduce their plastic footprint.

Attendees at the event were also given the opportunity to take part in activities to increase their awareness of marine plastic pollution. These included estimating how long day-to-day items, such as water bottles and polystyrene, take to break down in the ocean as well as competing on The

Sustainability Lab’s recycling game. Three other local organisations; Underwater Wales, The Snowdonia Society and the RSPB were on hand to share their experiences of local plastic pollution.

The evening’s message had a huge impact on the audience and inspired many to pledge to make changes to their daily plastic habits, recorded on the event’s “Wave of Change” wall. For example, one audience member pledged to “… buy fresh food not in plastic” and another to “… get a non-plastic toothbrush and cotton buds”. Furthermore, thirty people met up the next morning to collect 24 bags of litter from Dinas Dinlle beach.

Dr Siobhan Vye, Capturing our Coast North Wales Project Officer said: “The support and engagement we received for the documentary screening and beach clean was overwhelming and it really demonstrated the passion of people in the north of Wales to protect their marine environment.”

Contact Capturing our Coast North Wales cocoast@bangor.ac.uk 01248 388198

Students restore Brambell pond

by Daniel Roberts (Chairman of Bangor University Wetland Society) With tools and equipment borrowed from the University’s Botanic Garden at Treborth, Bangor University Wetland Society undertook the restoration of the neglected six-meter diameter walled pond behind Brambell building on Deiniol Road earlier this year.

Thirty years have passed since the pond was last attended to and it has since become overgrown with willow, flag iris and pheasant grass, not to mention the surrounding area being dominated solely Japanese knotweed and bamboo. It was therefore an intimidating situation to tackle between a few students.

After clearing a good portion of vegetation from around the pond the team were able to don the waders and jump in, discovering that the depth exceeded 1.2m in the centre with tapered sides. The willow was removed and the floating vegetative mat broken up to remove as much organic build up as possible and create open-water spaces.

As part of the wetland science department at Bangor University, water samples were taken to monitor the effects of the restoration.

Unfortunately, it was discovered that a hole had been knocked into the wall of one of the outer planters causing the water level to fall by approximately one foot. The team aim to block this outflow in the near future, which will simultaneously reduce the ability

of invasive species to colonise the tapered pond margins that are currently exposed.

Over seven full bin bags of vodka bottles and beer cans were unearthed during the process highlighting the need for regular maintenance.

Since the first work-day, the Japanese knotweed has returned with a vengeance and will require specialist treatment that the students cannot provide, and due to the dry conditions of May the water level has dropped further as well as buddleia starting to grow inside the pond. More recent visits have shown an increase in use of the pond by birds and insects however, while the water quality is visibly better in the areas that were managed (main image).

After concluding the majority of their courses, the students will be back to carry on with the hard work they have started to restore the pond and create not only a valuable learning resource and monitoring opportunity for future students of the School of Biological Sciences and the newly-founded Wetland Society, but a space for people and wildlife to visit and thrive.

A First Class Sustainable University University League First Class Degree badgeangor University is among the top 30 universities in the UK to receive a ‘First Class Honours’ degree style classification for the University’s sustainability credentials.

This latest table sees the University rising nine places, and going from a ‘2:1’ to a ‘First Class Honours degree’. The University achieved its highest score ever with an increase of nearly 8.5% and also scored a perfect 100% in 4 of the 13 categories. The University League is drawn up by People & Planet and is the UK’s only independent ranking of the sustainability of all public UK universities. It is assessed on a wide range of environmental, social and financial sustainability criteria.

The University is also currently ranked in the top 2% of the world’s greenest universities in the UI Green Metric as the 3rd greenest suburban university in the world and 5th greenest in the UK. Sustainability is a key driver at Bangor and is embedded in the University’s strategic plan. The University has pledged to become “The Sustainable University”, and has a long-standing commitment to improving the environmental, social, ethical, cultural and financial aspects of all its operations.

Bangor University Vice-Chancellor, Professor John G Hughes commented:

“We take immense pride in the quality of our environment at Bangor University, and are committed to its protection and enhancement. Our commitment to sustainability means thinking about the impacts of everything we do, and whether it can be done better. I’m delighted with the continued progress that we are making in managing our environmental and sustainability impacts at Bangor. As a University community, we take our responsibilities very seriously indeed.”

Einir Young, Bangor’s Director of Sustainability said: I’m delighted with the result. The University has tasked its Sustainability Lab team with actively putting sustainability at the heart of our teaching, learning, research, innovation and public engagement using the Welsh Wellbeing Goals and the Global Sustainability Goals as our frameworks for action. The last year has been an eventful one for us as we move towards a team approach to our environmental management reaching beyond the traditional domain of Property and Campus Services. We have established a Campus Environmental Performance Team to co-ordinate the many strands of our Environmental Management System and our campus calendar for the coming year is full of student led and student focussed activities.”

Earlier this summer Bangor University’s Undeb Bangor Students’ Union was awarded ‘Excellent’ accreditation for the NUS Green Impact Students’ Unions Awards, having achieved the Gold Award three times in 2011

and 2013 and 2016. This latest achievement for the University itself builds on a string of successes in sustainability management over many years. In the last twelve months alone successes include gaining the ISO14001:2015

international standard for environmental management, and being the first organisation in the UK to achieve Level 5 of the new and more stringent version of the Green Dragon Standard for Environmental Management, receiving a plaque of recognition for our contribution to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) over the last 50 years, and winning first prize for “Sustainable FE/HE Institution” in the Sustain Wales Awards.

Your contribution is vital to our success, so send us your views and suggestions on Bangor University’s sustainability to sustainability@ bangor.ac.uk

Green Wellbeing at Treborth Botanic Garden Treborth Botanic Garden, situated on the shores of the Menai Strait is owned by Bangor University and exists to further the conservation, sustainable use and enjoyment of plants and the natural world through education, research, training and community engagement. The garden is comprised of native ancient woodland, species rich unimproved grassland, fruit orchards and many mature trees and shrubs. There are six glasshouses of varying temperatures, with special collections including orchids, cacti, succulents, and carnivorous plants.

It is now well researched that being outside in a green space has a positive impact for improving health and mental wellbeing. From the greenhouses, out to the woodland shore, Treborth has a great diversity of green spaces which can provide an experience to help with positive mental and physical health wellbeing.

The Friends of Treborth Botanic Garden and Students for Treborth Action Group (STAG) are volunteer groups that help to keep the gardens maintained, with regular gardening sessions each Wednesday and Friday and

we have a monthly Sunday workparty day too. When asking volunteers why they like to garden, it’s great to hear “it makes me feel good”.

Many people of all ages come to the garden to get outside into the fresh air and do some physical exercise, some say it’s much cheaper and more interesting than going to a gym!

Everyone joins in at their own pace and there is a real sense of personal and group achievement, especially when people are getting involved in a project. It’s a great way to meet new people if you want to, share common interests with others, and learn new skills for yourself too. Gardening is a great stress buster; it can help people through a specific period of difficulty in their lives, helping get back on top of things and restore balance when life feels out of control. Digging, pruning, raking and weeding each provide a physical outlet for the tension we store in our bodies and minds.

Undeb Bangor wins yet another Award for their sustainability work

by Ffion Jones, Undeb Bangor Undeb Bangor Students’ Union has been awarded a highly coveted Excellent accreditation for the Green Impact Students’ Unions Awards. 2016/17 has marked the 10th year of the Green Impact Student Unions Awards, and to ensure the programme continues to meet the sustainability challenges and opportunities faced by students union, the toolkit has been stripped back to fewer, more meaningful actions to best equip students unions’ to properly embed sustainability.

Having achieved the Gold Award three times in 2011 and 2013 and 2016, Undeb Bangor are extremely happy that they’ve won the highest accreditation for the newly re-vamped Green Impact Students’ Unions Award. Green Impact is an environmental accreditation scheme run

by NUS, offering an independent benchmarking of a union’s sustainability performance.

The award challenges Students’ Unions to follow sustainability best practice and keep sustainability in mind whilst achieving results for students. The Green Impact Award also seeks to capture the positive sustainability innovations in students’ unions and promote them to the public.

The NUS Green Impact Auditor said: “Undeb Bangor have some great structural commitments to sustainability and are forging fantastic relationships with their institution and

community. It will be wonderful to see their GI programme grow year on year as their recording of outcomes gains traction” Mair Rowlands, Bangor University Sustainability Officer from the Sustainability Lab who coordinates the Green Impact work with the Union said: “We’ve achieved an amazing amount through Green Impact over the last 7 years, and Undeb Bangor have proved to be championing sustainability showing the way to Unions across the UK.” Dylan Williams Union Director said: “This is yet another amazing achievement for Undeb Bangor; we’ve proved that we are doing some excellent work around sustainability, and as well as sustainability being one of our core values it is entirely embedded within the culture of the Union staff, officers and students. We’re very proud of our progress and we’ve developed a national reputation for sustainability for which these awards speak for themselves”. * Mair Rowlands has now left the University and is Deputy Leader of Cyngor Gwynedd, and a Bangor City Town Councillor. We thank her for her hard work and are happy that we can continue to work with her in her new roles.

Internationals Go Green!

By Marcel Clusa and the International Student Support Team International students from Bangor University have had a busy 2017! We have seen many students getting involved with the University’s sustainability agenda as part of a project organised by the International Student Support Office - called “Internationals Go Green”.

Great for students, the local community AND the environment The initiative consists of a series of trips and events aimed at raising awareness on environmental issues, sustainability and wellbeing among students. In addition, all the events are organised together with other University Departments such as The Sustainability Lab and local organisations such as the North Wales Wildlife Trus and Pobl i Bobl to enhance the student experience to the max and to work as a bridge between students and the local community.

So far, and as part of this programme, more than 150 students have helped cleaning beaches in Anglesey with the Wildlife Trust, have picked up litter around Bangor with UNDEB Bangor, and have even created Christmas decorations out of plastic litter to raise awareness of the problem with littering in our societies!

Would you like to join in?

We are very much looking forward to a series

of events that will also happen during the Sustainability Carnival in February together with The Sustainability Lab. Keep up to date with this and other events by following us on Instagram (bangorinternational) and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ BangorUniversityInternational/ or take a look at the Internationals events calendar https:// www.bangor.ac.uk/international/support/ documents/calendar-2017.pdf] Wishing you a Merry Green Christmas to you all, see you at our events!

Bangor University students and staff along with local and national organisations, were out and about in October cleaning up the streets and campuses across Bangor, raising awareness and sharing ideas about reuse and recyclingas part of WAW - Waste Awareness Week (02.10.17 - 06.10.17).

The Sustainability Lab has been working in partnership with Campus Life, Halls of Residence, Student Housing, Keep Wales Tidy (KWT), the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM) and Gwynedd Council to run an exciting range of WAW activities and events. These included waste awareness visits in student halls and private accommodation, litter picks and an information sharing day.

Advisors visited 287 flats in students’ halls on Tuesday, looking at recycling behaviours, answering questions and providing recycling advice to 252 students. Advisors also visited hundreds of students in private accommodation throughout the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. There were 2 successful litter picks led by Keep Wales Tidy at the St Mary’s and Ffriddoedd Student villages on the Wednesday, which resulted in over 20 bags of litter being collected. An information sharing day was also held in the University’s Main Arts reception area on Thursday, an opportunity for staff and students to discuss any issues regarding waste, and to have a go at our new recycling game.

We also partnered with Makerere University

in Uganda to deliver WAW across continents.

Activities included litter picking, rubbish sorting, displaying waste messages and stickers at strategic locations across campus, and an upcycling exhibition of eco seats, earrings and much more.

WAW organiser and Waste Co-ordinator for Bangor’s Environmental Performance Team Gwen Holland said: “Bangor has positioned itself as The Sustainable University, and waste is a big part of its impact on the environment and on the local community. It is therefore vital that we improve our reduce-reuse-recycle rates and cut down on how much waste we are sending to landfill. To do this we need everyone to pull together – students, staff and visitors, which means that communication is key.

WAW was organised to do just that, strengthen communication in order to show people simple, everyday ways of how they can make a difference.”

Gabe Hibberd, Campus Life Coordinator and Forestry & Conservation student said: “The Sustainability Lab and Campus Life have hopefully engaged with enough individuals to make difference. Encouraging waste awareness across the University is worthwhile and can save students money in the future.

Thanks to the Sustainability Lab, Campus Life and our student volunteers, we now have a cleaner and more aware campus.”

International Students Go Green around Bangor!

By Marcel Clusa, International Student Support Officer

A team of 30 enthusiastic international students from Bangor University got together recently for a cleaner planet! They spent 3 hours picking up (a lot of) litter around upper and lower Bangor as part of a new project organised by the International Student Support Office called Internationals Go Green. The initiative consists of a series of trips and events aimed at raising awareness on environmental issues, sustainability and wellbeing among students. In addition, all their events are organised together with The Sustainability Lab, other University Departments (with Undeb Bangor Students’ Union this time) and local organisations to enhance every student’s life and experiences to the max and to work as a bridge between students and the local community.

Students experienced first-hand the problematic of litter and waste in our current societies. Kilos and kilos of items were picked up from the floor, one by one, in a very short period. These consisted mainly of plastic and glass bottles, cans and take-away related litter. 15 bags full of litter were collected from the Pier to the High Street to College Road, highlighting the need for a change. Plastic can

take up to thousands of years to decompose and in the majority of cases, the litter around Bangor ends up in the sea, becoming a real hazard for many species and habitats.

The event on a sunny Saturday reminds us that each and every one of us needs to engage and work for a better, cleaner planet. In the words of Frederick Walters from Germany –BSc student in Marine Biology/Zoology: Seeing the shocking amount of rubbish gathered on that day, in such a short time, has made me realise how much one can do for our world. It is vital for people to get active and change our future”.

The time to change our actions has come, as shown by this group of students from all over the world who dedicated their Saturday morning to clean up our city and hopefully influence the actions of others to help reduce littering for a nicer, healthier and even more beautiful Bangor.

University Library teams up with The Sustainability Lab

By Beth Hall, Bangor University Library and Archives Service The Library and Archives Service has been working together with The Sustainability Lab to integrate sustainability and the wellbeing of future generations into our services.

As well as supporting University-led waste management and energy-saving initiatives, we have supported a number of projects including:

•

World Book Day

We will also support Go Green Week and University Mental Health Day. We are interested in developing new ways to support sustainability and wellbeing with events and campaigns in the Library and Archives Service in the future, so please get in touch if we can work together on a project.

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providing free books for school children in Nigeria (with Dr Salamatu Fada) Email or ring Beth:

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providing displays and spaces that b.hall@bangor.ac.uk | 01248 382081 encourage students to think about their wellbeing and mental health

• displays aimed at raising environmental awareness •

supporting charities with cake sales, book sales, stamp collections

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free tea and coffee events for students to take time out and chat to us

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head massages from Coleg Menai students during the exam period

Read more our website: https://www.bangor. ac.uk/library/about/Sustainability.php.en We are looking forward to supporting the Sustainability Carnival in February 2018 with a number of library events as follows: • Love Data Week • Safer Internet Day

From the director’s chair Well, we’ve made it to the end of an ‘interesting’ year. This Christmas edition of our newsletter sums up the highlights of the Sustainability Lab’s activities since May. Whilst celebrating success we’re very aware that there have been plenty of lowlight moments too within and outside the University. A glance at the news from time to time is sufficient to realise that we’re living in turbulent times with huge economic, social and environmental challenges occurring every day and unlikely to be solved any time soon.

It’s been a year of change for all of us and in 2018 the Sustainability Lab will become part of Corporate Services. This will be a step out of our comfort zone as we find our place in the new structure - but we are up for it!

Please watch this space as we develop our programme of work.

We as a team want to make sure that we are truly integrating and collaborating across the University, and involving as many people as possible. But we can’t do that alone.

I’d like to issue a big thank everyone who’s worked so hard with us in 2017 (those in this newsletter and others) and would like to invite those of you who haven’t joined in yet to do so. If you are unsure of what we are about then we hope that during the Sustainability Carnifal month from 1st February to St David’s Day (March 1st), all will become clear.

But for now it’s Christmas, a time to pause and reflect, whether you are of faith or none. The commercial world is in a frenzy encouraging us to buy our way to ‘happiness’. Joining in the madness is not compulsory and not an option for far too many.

I’ll end with some advice from my mother – ‘be kind to people; we don’t know what burdens they are carrying’. So true.

MERRY CHRISTMAS & A HAPPY NEW YEAR