Uniplanet newsletter

UniPlanet Newsletter SBBS Summer 2014

First Welsh Eco-museum being developed on the Llŷn Peninsula

University, Dr Einir Young This latest announcement responded to the top 20 comes shortly after Bangor placing saying: “Our efforts in was named as the “greenest” driving environmental university in Wales in the 2013 improvements and resource UK People and Planet Green efficiencies throughout the League. organisation are really Bangor University’s beginning to show dividends. commitment to sustainability Ricky Carter, Environmental However, we are aware that has earned it 19th position in this is just one aspect of the an international league table of Manager in the Estates and Facilities Department added: sustainable development environmentally friendly “We are making great agenda. Under the new institutions. 301 Universities from 61 countries took part in progress, and this latest news sustainability policy we are is extremely encouraging.” now focussing our efforts on the league table, which was integrating sustainable practice launched by Universitas Indonesia in 2010 to highlight Moving beyond its increasingly into everything we do, through globally impressive our research, our teaching and sustainability and our own supply chain”. environmental management at environmental credentials, Bangor has recently introduced universities across the world. an innovative new sustainability policy and is Vice Chancellor Professor actively involved in a broad John G Hughes said: “I am range of research and delighted that Bangor’s demonstrated commitment to development projects with PrifBlaned Prifysgol Bangor Uni industry focussing on the three taking positive action in UniPlanet pillars of sustainability, People, promoting sustainability and Planet and Prosperity. achieving continual environmental improvement is @planedPBUplanet Head of Sustainable achieving international Development at Bangor recognition.”

Bangor achieves top 20 position in global Green Universities League Table

www.bangor.ac.uk/sustainability

According to Gwenan Griffith, newly appointed as the KTP Associate for the Eco-Museum project, Bangor University are proud to be part of a “There is no specific model for any ecoKnowledge Transfer Partnership in collaboramuseum, the one common element is that each tion with Oriel Plas Glyn-y-Weddw. The project organisation collaborates and shares the same aims to develop an Eco-museum on the Llŷn vision. This is an excellent opportunity to inPeninsula to celebrate the area’s rich heritage crease the sense of community pride in the with seven heritage organisations working in Llŷn Peninsula and raise the area’s profile partnership. The concept of the Eco-museum world-wide by making use of social media in an innovative and positive way.” has proven popular in other European countries, but this will be the first of its kind in The project will assess the use of digital Wales. technologies and provide training to the The project will build on the success of the her- partnership organisations. The vision for the itage work undertaken to date by the Llŷn Eco-museum is to see an increase in cultural Landscape Partnership. Members of the Eco- tourism in the area, leading to a year round museum partnership include Oriel Plas Glyn-y- sustainable tourist industry, which will see Weddw, Felin Uchaf, Plas Heli, Plas yn Rhiw, economic as well as social benefits.

Porth y Swnt, Amgueddfa Forwrol Llŷn and For further details about the Llŷn Peninsula Eco Nant Gwrtheyrn. This innovative project is go- -museum, contact Gwenan Griffith on ing ahead thanks to funding through the Welsh post@ecoamgueddfa.org Government’s Technology Strategy Board following initial assistance through WISE Network.

In May the Sustainability team helped organise a screening of the ’MORE THAN HONEY’ film for the local Friends of the Earth group and the public. A documentary by the Swiss filmmaker Marcus Imhoof, is looking into the fascinating world of bees, showing small family beekeepers and industrialized honey farms. MORE THAN HONEY is a film on the relationship between mankind and honeybees, about nature and about our future, and it is certainly a film worth watching.

were also named Union of the Year (noncommercial) in the Green Impact Awards in Manchester.

Green Impact is an environmental accreditation scheme run by NUS, offering an independent benchmarking of a union's environmental performance. The award challenges Students’ Unions to follow environmental best practice and keep sustainability in mind whilst achieving results for students. The Green Impact Award also seeks to capture the positive green innovations in students’ unions and promote them to the public.

Bangor Students' Union wins three national environmental awards

The Students’ Union also grabbed a third National Award: The Ecologist ‘Communications Challenge’ Award, as a result of a one minute eco-stunt film, using the medium of film to present an environmental message. Bangor Students’ Union’s entry was a ‘Flash Garden’ created in 60 seconds where students created an ecologically vibrant and sustainably sourced garden in a highly public space on campus for a day.

Bangor University Students’ Union has picked up not one or two but three Awards for our en- Antony Butcher Union President said: “This is vironmental work recently. yet another amazing achievement for Bangor Students’ Union; we’ve proved that we are The Students Union was awarded a highly doing some excellent work around coveted Gold Award in the NUS Green Impact sustainability. As well as sustainability being Awards, having achieved gold twice in 2011 one of our core values, it is entirely embedded and 2012 and the Excellence Award in 2012- within the culture of the Union staff, officers 13 for their 'Bangor bikes' scheme pilot. They and students.”

UniPlanet UniPlanet is the University’s structure to help us understand and manage the University's sustainable development under the commonly used sustainability structure: People, Planet and Prosperity.

Contribute to the debate by giving us your opinion on our website and anything relating to sustainability within the university, contact sustainability@bangor.ac.uk

Live Greener This year Bangor University have taken part in the 12 month project ‘Live Greener’ putting Welsh students at the heart of the sustainability agenda. This is a project in partnership with NUS Wales that is substantially funded by the Welsh Government and managed through the Higher Education Funding Council Wales (HEFCW).

NUS Wales have delivered the following greening initiatives at Bangor: Green Impact, Student Switch Off , Blackout, Snap It Off

Blackout Wales As part of the efforts at Bangor University to highlight and reduce its use of energy, the University joined Universities across Wales "Blackout Wales" in a major exercise on Friday 21st March.

The challenge was to turn off all the equipment that had been left on in offices before the weekend. The University then compared the energy consumption of the University during the ‘Blackout’ event with similar energy consumption on weekends. 45 student volunteers and 18 staff volunteers participated and audited the 14 buildings that was part of the plan. The reduction in energy consumption was 1,495 kWh of Electricity, a decrease of 4% and 723kg CO2, saving £180.54 in electricity costs and carbon tax. So potential of an annual reduction of 77,714kWh of electricity and 37,580kg of CO2 that would be an annual saving in electricity and Carbon tax costs of £9388.07. That's enough to heat nearly 5 three bedroom homes each year! The exercise showed the actual savings that can be achieved with only a few small changes to the way people work.

Dr Einir Young, Director of Sustainability at Bangor University said: “This event was a way of raising the profile of sustainability across the University and was a way to encourage students and staff to think about our impact on the environment and what we can do differently. Taking part in this 'national' event reflects our commitment to 'Bring Sustainability to life' and with our reputation as Wales’ Greenest University and one of the top Green Universities in the UK. ”

University celebrates Green Impact Awards 2014

teams were awarded the Bronze Award and one team received the Gold Award.

Bangor University celebrated its first year of participating in the Green Impact Project with an Awards Ceremony recently.

The event recognised the hard work teams had undertaken to green their workplaces over the year and the growing contributions of staff to ‘greening’ their workplaces by implementing practices to increase sustainability.

This year’s Bronze winners were: Dyfdrwy, Library Worms, Cymraeg i Oedolion, Thoday, Third Way, UniPlanet, PVC Posse and Green Collar Workers / Gweithwyr Coleri Gwyrdd.

The Gold standard award went to the Fifty Shades of Green team.

Mair Rowlands, Bangor University Sustainability Officer who co-ordinated the project, said: “The ceremony was a Green Impact is an fantastic way to celebrate the environmental accreditation great work done by staff to scheme run locally by Bangor reduce the environmental University’s Sustainability Team, audited by students and impact of their workplaces. It managed by the National Union was inspirational to see the of Students (NUS). Teams can creativity, passion and collect points according to how dedication the teams had put into Green Impact”. many greening actions they complete in the work place and can achieve Bronze, Silver or Professor John G Hughes, Vice Gold standard. For the first year -Chancellor, said: “The growing participating in the project, nine reputation that Bangor University has developed over the last few years is due to the

tremendous work of its staff and students. We’re very proud of our progress and we’re beginning to develop a national reputation for sustainability for which these awards speak for themselves.”

Ten Bangor University students volunteered as auditors for Green Impact. They received relevant training from the NUS in environmental auditing techniques, gained insight into how the University is run and developed useful skills for their future careers.

This ceremony was also an opportunity to celebrate the Students’ Union continuous success with their work around sustainability and their achievement receiving a highly coveted Gold Award in the NUS Green Impact Awards, winning The Ecologist ‘Communications Challenge’ Award, as a result of a one minute eco-stunt film, using the medium of film to present an environmental message. They were also named Union of the Year (noncommercial).

2013 EEAC International Conference at Bangor University An international Conference focusing on an ‘ecosystems’ approach took place at Bangor University on Friday 18 October 2013 and was sponsored by WISE Networks.

Scientists and policy advisors who provide independent and evidence-based advice to their national governments discussed the latest policy developments and research in ecosystems management at the European, UK and Wales levels and in particular, how the science is translated into policy.

They shared examples of best practice from Europe and the wider UK, and naturally, the focus was on recent advances made in Wales, including the creation of the new single environment body – Natural Resources Wales, and progress with several £million-worth of new ecosystem services research projects.

Welcoming the Conference on behalf of Bangor University, Professor John G. Hughes, the University’s Vice-Chancellor said: We are delighted to host this Conference on its first visit to Wales. The University has an international reputation for environmental science research and teaching and has made clear sustainability commitments, recognised in our standing as the ‘greenest’ University in Wales. One of the many ways in which higher education can contribute is illustrated by our Wales Environment Research Hub, within our College of Natural Resources. Funded by the Welsh Government, the Hub takes advantage of expertise within universities and institutes to provide the evidence base which informs and underpins government policy.”

European Environment and Sustainable Development Advisory Councils (EEAC) have been established in most European countries, and their Network, whose 2013 Conference took place in Bangor, represents 16 European countries. The Conference was co-hosted by Bangor University and Natural Resources Wales.

Junk Genie - Students tackle Bangor’s waste problems Bangor Business School students have been Gwynedd Council is playing its part in the involved in developing an end-of-term campaign campaign by mounting street collections to tie in to reduce waste problems in Bangor. with the ‘Junk Genie’ campaign. The Council will be focusing on collecting student rubbish to The Junk Genie campaign where partners will improve the local environment at a time when work together to tackle the annual problem of end-of-term rubbish can build up and spill out end of term waste of rubbish spilling on to the over streets. The Bangor Junk Genie will come street and other public places, has been to Bangor on 2nd, 9th and 16th of June with developed and will be led by Masters students students being asked to put out their extra from the University’s Business School in rubbish on these specially designated days conjunction with Gwynedd Council. The when clearing out of their accommodation. As student-led campaign uses a humorous and light-hearted character the ‘Junk Genie’ to raise part of the campaign there will also be a student th litter pick held in Bangor on Wednesday the 28 awareness of the need to dispose of rubbish of May in conjunction with Student Volunteering and recycling responsibly.

Bangor.

ISO14001 Accreditation Following an intensive external audit in March this year, Bangor University has successfully achieved ISO 14001:2004 certification for its commitment to continual environmental improvement. ISO 14001 is the internationally recognised standard for organisations that proactively control their environmental impacts through a formal Environmental Management System (EMS). This award builds upon our Green Dragon certification which we have held since 2009.

Ricky Carter, Bangor University’s Environmental Manager Said, “both Green Dragon and ISO14001 require systematic control of those activities that have an impact on the environment. Green Dragon is a highly credible management standard within Wales and to build on this by achieving ISO 14001 certification clearly demonstrates to our stakeholders at a global level, that our University is committed to protecting and enhancing our natural environment”.

We are always looking for ideas for even better environmental performance; any views or suggestions can be sent to environment@bangor.ac.uk

Green power to the people in Conwy the air, ground and water. Communities living

higher up in the Conwy Valley may have access to hydro technology too. We could possibly use Cartrefi Conwy has teamed up with Bangor Unithe flow of streams and rivers to generate versity to address fuel poverty issues and the energy,” she said. rising cost of energy for tenants.

Cartrefi Conwy’s Asset and Sustainability The ground-breaking project has been made Manager, Adrian Johnson, is also excited about possible thanks to funding from the Welsh Govthe project: ernment’s Technology Strategy Board following Anything we can do to tackle fuel poverty and assistance through WISE Network. reduce energy costs for our tenants is worth As a result, Dr Liz Shepherd has started a twopursuing. There is a great deal of new year study aimed at setting up an Energy Sertechnology out there and if we can harness that vices Company (ESCo) which could deliver heat and see if we can make some of it work to help and power to tenants through low carbon our communities and tenants then it’s only right means. we do so. We are looking forward to develop We will be looking at several ways we can gen- further collaborative projects with WISE Network erate energy including solar panels, small scale to build a lasting legacy of research in the wind turbines and possibly heat pumps which company” he said. would use new technology to take heat out of

Free Arriva Bus Travel Arriva Buses Wales teamed up with Bangor University to offer FREE travel for students and staff commuting to and from the university during Climate Week 2014.

Ricky Carter, the University’s Environmental Manager said: “This generous offer from Arriva not only encouraged our staff and students to consider a more environmentally friendly alternative to their car journey to University, but also promoted the health and wellbeing advantages of using public transport to commute. Without Arriva’s help such an initiative wouldn’t be possible.”

Let’s Stop the Block in Bangor Bangor University teamed up with Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water to increase awareness of a problem that affects us all. Sewer blockages lead to huge environmental damage and human misery causing localised flooding in homes. Stop the Block campaign aimed to encourage people to reduce pollution and sewer flooding in homes. The campaigns main focus was to banish the out of sight out of mind train of thought by highlighting all the things flushed down our toilets and reduce the disposing of kitchen fats often poured down the drain.

BREAD4PLA Bangor University’s BioComposites Centre has been at the forefront of research, development and the commercial application of bio-based alternatives to synthetic materials in manufacturing and industry. BC combines the technical and academic resources of Bangor University with a practical and commercial outlook to offer a fully rounded package of research, innovation and application for biomaterials technology Their most recent project BREAD4PLA is an European project to produce Poly-lactic acid (PLA) Biopolymer from waste products of bakery industry. The main objective of this LIFE Project is to demonstrate, in a pre-productive continuous pilot plant process, the viability of Polylactic Acid (PLA) synthesis from waste products of bakery industry and their use in the fabrication of a 100% biodegradable film to be used in the packaging of bakery products (closing the life cycle).

Many biodegradable plastics are produced from renewable sources like crops (wheat, sugar

beet, sugar cane, potatoes, …), leading to social and political discussions due to the destination of human food to this purpose. BREAD4PLA is a solution to this problem, as the raw materials to produce the biodegradable plastics are byproducts of the bakery industry, which are usually addressed to animal feeding.

The project, coordinated by AIMPLAS, is three years long and the first tasks have already started: selection, characterization and treatment of the by-products from the bakery industry. In the next months, the work will be focused on the obtaining of lactic acid from the selected by-products.

As well as BC the project consortium is formed by the following specialized centres also: _CETECE: Technological Institute of Cereals in Palencia, Spain _ATB: Agricultural Institute in Postdam, Germany _AIMPLAS: Technological Institute of Plastic in Valencia, Spain.

Sustainability@Bangor ThinkTanks We will be arranging the next series of monthly Sustainability ThinkTanks over the summer period if you have any ideas or topics you would like to present or to be discussed at the ThinkTanks. The idea of the ThinkTanks is to promote ideas and discussion around the Environmental, Social, Cultural, Ethical and Financial aspects of Sustainability at Bangor University the people and communities in and around campus, particularly for participants to lead their own projects and activities to create a sustainable future for Bangor University.

A word from Dr Einir Young The Head of Sustainable Development This newsletter has captured the growing interest and enthusiasm surrounding Sustainabiliy@Bangor. The University has significant expertise in Sustainable Development and sustainable practices. We are delivering sustainable development services on behalf of nine Universities in Wales across major European funded projects, sustainability is being introduced into the core teaching of the university through projects such as the BSc Applied Behaviour Analysis poster conference; a social entrepreneurship programme launched in 2011 which has continued to grow; working in partnership to create an Eco-Museum locally; significant expertise and industrial liaison in the field of alternative materials, bio-refining and renewable energy....the list goes on.

The University has also made its own internal commitment to behave as a ‘living lab’ in terms of our own sustainable practices and on an ongoing basis we are committed to trialling and evaluating interventions within our own culture, systems and processes in order to create an evidence based platform for successful collaborations with industry and the public sector addressing the challenges of a sustainable future.

This is where you as students and staff come in with your ideas. A ‘Think Tank’ meets once a month and often there are research questions that need answers. We are co-ordinating a list of potential project topics that you might be interested applying for as part of your undergraduate or postgraduate studies. The results will contribute to our greater understanding of how our own campus works, what we need to do differently and how.

For your diary: On July 9th at the Sustainability Action Forum Sustainabiltiy@Bangor will be hosting a discussion facilitated by Mike Palmer of the Wales Audit Office on “The University we want/The Wales we want”.

www.bangor.ac.uk/sustainability