Student staff volunteers from the Green Lancaster team took part in a trial aimed at educating and consulting with students living in Graduate College accommodation. The trial, which took place at the start of the academic year, involved members of the team visiting Graduate Accommodation out of hours, to discuss topics of sustainability on and off campus.

The team educated students on energy consumption, drinking water, waste reduction and circular economy issues, whilst raising awareness of the Don’t Ditch It household goods recycling project and the ECOShop, where goods are resold to raise money for sustainable projects.

Students were given an excellent opportunity to feedback to the team, who gained valuable insight into life on campus – and how we can become a more sustainable university.

The trial came about following feedback that there were opportunities to improve staff and student behaviour in the context of environmental issues.

‘The University is a lovely, diverse place and we recruit students and staff from all over the world. This brings people from various countries with unique cultures and infrastructure in place that differs from the UK. It’s important that the University supports and educates so that everyone can do their bit to ensure our campus environment thrives in a sustainable way’ Jonathan Mills - Carbon and Environment Manager (Facilities).

Graduate College provided a good base of students for the team to work with due to graduate students undertaking courses over a single year.

Examples of the feedback include:

• In a number of cases, students were unaware that the tap water is drinkable, or that there are a number of water fountains located on campus that are free to use and can be found on MazeMap.
• There was confusion over what type of materials are recyclable, which led to a review of recycling signage being undertaken with new signage set to be trialled next month.
• Complaints of the heating system were received, resulting in issues being uncovered in relation to the District Heating System
• Students were unaware that they cannot use plastic bags when disposing of cardboard or glass waste. This causes contamination of the external waste bin, meaning recyclable materials are rejected and sent to landfill.

The team reported back their learnings to the University Facilities team and hopes to roll the scheme out to other colleges on campus in the future. To learn more about our Sustainability strategy and projects, visit our Sustainability pages online.