The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
University bans beef in bid to be carbon neutral
Environment: New warden’ s climate action plans
Beef burgers have been banned by a university as part of efforts to tackle the climate emergency.
Goldsmiths, University of London, said it is to remove all beef products from sale from next month as the institution attempts to become carbon neutral by 2025.
Students will also face a 10p levy on bottles of water and single-use plastic cups when to discourage use of the products.
The college’s new warden, Prof Frances Corner, said staff and students “care passionately about the future of our environment” and that “declaring a climate emergency cannot be empty words”.
Goldsmiths Students’ Union has backed the ban, with president Joe Leam saying that the university has a “huge carbon footprint” and that the promise to eradicate this in the next few years is needed.
As well as the beef ban and 10p levy, there are plans to install more solar panels across the college’s New Cross campus in south-east London, and switch to a 100% clean energy supplier as soon as possible.
Officials said Goldsmiths will also continue to invest in its allotment area and identify other places where planting could help to absorb carbon dioxide, and will review how all students can access modules which cover climate change and the role of both individuals and organisations in reducing carbon emissions.
Prof Corner said: “The growing global call for organisations to take seriously their responsibilities for halting climate change is impossible to ignore.”
NFU vice-president Stuart Roberts said the union has been encouraging public bodies, such as universities to back British farming and source locallyproduced food, and said the move was “an overly simplistic approach” and said there was a “lack of understanding or recognition between British beef and beef produced elsewhere”.
However, Rosie Rogers, climate emergency campaigner for Greenpeace UK, said: “It’s encouraging to see an institution like Goldsmiths not simply declaring a climate emergency, but acting on it.”