UNIVERSITY VIEW
BANGOR University has been in existence for 140 years and we plan on still being here for at least another 140 years.
That’s why we’ve launched an ambitious programme, 25by25.
To achieve our goals the university needs to make sure it has enough resources to enable us to teach our students and conduct our research, both now and in the coming years. In other words, we need to be sustainable.
These resources aren’t just the usual natural resources which immediately spring to mind, but economic, social and cultural resources. These last ones often get forgotten when people think about sustainability in businesses and organisations.
Most focus is on the natural or environmental resources, but at Bangor University we’re determined to give equal importance to all four resources.
Sustainability at Bangor University is therefore wide-reaching, and it involves everything: from the health and well-being of our fantastic staff, to recycling in our student accommodation; from the content of our curriculum to our research activities. It also means ensuring we continue to be a vibrant bilingual employer and educator at the centre of our unique community here in north Wales.
To help us achieve these aims we have been developing a series of initiatives, projects and working practises to ensure we are the most sustainable university possible.
The latest of these is 25by25, which is the university’s aim to reduce 25% of its carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions (CO2e) by the year 2025. A hugely ambitious target.
CO2e is a standard unit for measuring carbon footprints as it takes into account the impact different greenhouse gases have in terms of the amount of carbon dioxide that would create the same amount of global warming.
That way, a carbon footprint consisting of
lots of different greenhouse gases can be expressed as a single number. It also means it includes a variety of university activities that produce emissions, or greenhouse gases, and not just the energy we use in our buildings. It includes the waste we throw away, the equipment we use, the water we consume and the way our staff and students travel.
Cutting our CO2e levels will therefore require a university-wide change to how we operate. It’s not just a case of getting our electricity from low carbon sources and doing more recycling (which we already do). It is about improving and changing how we work on a day-to-day basis with sustainability being at the very centre of everything we do - back to those four principles of sustainability: environmental, economic, cultural and societal.
Crucially this push for 25by25, and indeed many of the sustainability initiatives being implemented at the university, haven’t come from the senior management or external consultants. They have come from our students.
Bangor University’s students whether they are studying Zoology or Music are wanting us to do more, they want the university to put sustainability front and centre of what we do, and they’re giving us ideas on how we can do this. So, the 25by25 campaign is not some top-down initiative but is being run with Undeb Bangor, our Students’ Union (SU). Without our SU we would never have even considered such a project.
Our staff too are getting on board. We made it clear right from the start that those of us involved with the university’s sustainability strategy don’t have all the answers, so we went out to our staff and asked for their ideas and support.
We were inundated with suggestions, and we’re now looking at implementing as many as possible. All parts and areas of the university will be getting involved in some way, including M-SParc which is Wales’ first science park.
Cutting our carbon emissions, will require us to rethink how we do a lot of our business, an example of this was the launch of the 25by25 campaign itself.
It is the norm with any type of campaign to use posters and often merchandise to promote awareness and engagement. However, in line with these ambition and theme of the campaign, we used ‘clean graffiti’ around our campus. This involves a reusable stencil being placed on the ground and then jetwashed, leaving a temporary ‘cleaned’ pattern for people to see on the floor. A step in the right direction in reducing waste and energy, whilst raising awareness of the campaign.
Will we reach our target and cut our CO2e emissions by 25% in the next two years? Well, we certainly hope so and will be working hard to ensure that we do. But we also promise to be open and honest about the process and learn as much as we can on the journey. Plus, no matter what, the 25by25 campaign is already showing us the expertise and passion we have across our university community when it comes to tackling such an important issue.
■ Dr Christian Dunn, Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor for Sustainability.