ISSUE 5 - DEC 2014
School of
Electronics, Electrical Engineering
and Computer Science
Against Waste in Academic Research Environment
Environmental Accreditation Scheme - Green Impact Assistant
This year we are participating in Green Impact, which is Queen’s environmental accreditation scheme for schools and
directorates. To help us, we have a Green Impact Assistant, Caroline Poovelil. Caroline is a Chemical Engineering
Student and has committed 20 hours of volunteer time to help us achieve a silver award in the scheme in March 2015.
Welcome Caroline!
In Issue 5 we cover the following topics:
REDUCING ENERGY
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
REDUCING WASTE
• Christmas Shutdown
• Shutdown Checklist
• Air Travel by Staff
• Queen’s Bake Off
• Recycle Books
LO’
LO’
LO’
HOW LOW CAN
YOU GO?
Switch off this Christmas and win
a prize for your School or Directorate
www.qub.ac.uk/carbon
@greenatqueens #QUBlololo
REDUCING ENERGY
Christmas Shutdown
The University is committed to reducing carbon emissions and becoming a low
carbon organisation. All staff are asked to make a special effort to switch off all
non-essential electrical equipment before they leave for this Christmas holiday
period.
This year the University is running a competition - “How Low Can you Go?”
- with a prize of £250 for the School that achieves the greatest percentage
reduction of electrical equipment usage between 23:00 on Wednesday, 24
December and 06:00 on Thursday, 25 December. The comparison will be made
against the average consumption for the same period during the previous three
weeks in December. The winning School can use the money to host an event
for staff using one of the University’s catering suppliers! So let’s see how low our
School can go!
Shutdown Checklist
If you are the last person to leave the Office, please ensure you have turned off
everything possible.
Lighting
• Switch off room/corridor lighting
Heaters
• Switch off all personal room heaters
Kitchen Appliances
• Turn off and unplug all kitchen appliances e.g. kettles, toasters, ovens etc.
Computers
• If you don¹t want to use your computer for a while, the best practice is to
turn if off completely. If you are going away from your PC for a short amount
of time, it would be better to put your PC on sleep mode. Where it uses
very little power and allows PC to start up faster. Please make sure you set
your power management settings accordingly
Equipment
• Switch off all equipment that can be turned off/powered down when not in use e.g. printers
• Remember to shut down all those non-essential pumps, hotplates etc. in the labs
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
Reducing Air Travel by Staff
Business travel is crucial to the University’s core operations but before you book
any air travel please review current availability, utilisation and cost of video,
telephone conferencing and/or Skype. Queen’s has teleconference and videoconference facilities that can be used as an alternative to travelling to meetings.
For more information visit:
http://www.qub.ac.uk/directorates/InformationServices/Services/
VideoConferencing/
The Queen’s Environment team held their first “Great Queen’s Bake Off”
competition for staff on Monday, 20 October. The purpose of the competition was
to promote ‘sustainable food’. Staff who participated had to use as many local and
Fairtrade ingredients as possible.
EEECS had 3 staff who took part Lee Bresland, Gillian Purdy and Neil Anderson.
Unfortunately, the competition was tough and they didn’t get placed but well done
to Lee, Gillian and Neil for taking part on behalf of the School.
REDUCING WASTE
Recycle Books – both hardback and paperback
If you have a book you wish to recycle, please bring it along to the general office
either in the Ashby or ECIT buildings. Small numbers of paperback books can
be placed in the white ‘Confidential Waste’ paper recycling sacks. In the case
of hardback books, the hardback cover should be removed before they can be
placed in the sacks. A request should be logged via Planon through your School’s
Building Liaison Officer (BLO) to collect these books. These books will be brought
to the Waste Management Centre for recycling.
Team Aware
Team AWARE would like to hear from you if you have any ideas/suggestions
to help our School reduce carbon emissions. Please email any of the following
volunteers:
School of
Electronics, Electrical Engineering
and Computer Science
David Laverty (Ashby based)Harry Ritchie (Ashby based)
Narelle Allen (BCB based) Sandra Scott-Hayward (ECIT based)
Clare Delaney (ECIT based)Paula Dougherty (Chair)
Burak Bardak (ECIT based)Ali Tinwala (Student Volunteer)