Author: kcl sustainability (Page 7 of 12)

Meet Estates and Facilities: The Service Desk

May 7, 2015 / kcl sustainability

Service Standards poster image_jpg Over the next few weeks we are meeting various members of different teams within Estates and Facilities. Each week we’ll be asking the team what they do and how they are linked to sustainability at King’s. For our first week we meet Alison and Debbie from the Service Desk.

The service desk, you might know them as Ask@kcl.ac.uk, are very busy people! Any request, problem, feedback or information you need they will sort it for you. It is ‘the first point of call for Estates and Facilities information and service requests’. So, for example, if you have a problem with your heating in your classroom or notice a broken lock around campus, the Service Desk are the people to ask!

The Service Desk are in operation Monday to Friday, 8:30am -5:30pm and are there to help students and staff receive the best possible care and help to communicate and resolve problems quickly and efficiently.

We asked the team what they do with sustainability and at first there were not sure if they did anything at all. However, once we talked through a few things it was clear that the Service Desk has accomplished some amazing sustainable achievements and has a lot of sustainable values at their core. Two examples which really highlighted the amazing work the Service Desk does were the termination of printed tickets and recycling of WEEE waste.

Up until March this year, every request put into the service desk was printed out and sent to the relevant team to act upon. Now this has all become electronic, reducing the Service Desks printing dramatically, saving a lot of paper, energy and in turn money for King’s. This is fantastic!

Another initiative that the Service Desk applies is the redistribution of WEEE waste (anything linked to electrical, such as PCs, lamps, Keyboards) with the IT department. If anyone has equipment they no longer want or if they require equipment and contact ASK, the Service Desk work with IT to reuse equipment rather than disposing of items. This again is a great use of resources and reduces the amount King’s throws away. A future project that the Service Desk and the Sustainability Team may work on together is a similar scheme but with furniture recycling and reuse, throughout King’s offices and also within student residences.

It was great to talk Alison and Debbie in the service desk and learn more about the vital service they provide. Here in the Sustainability team we are really pleased to hear that they are working hard to improve King’s and in turn are becoming more sustainable. If you do have any requests, feedback or problems please do contact Ask@kcl.ac.uk, or visit their webpage or ring them on 020 7848 3456. service desk

That time I went Vegan

May 5, 2015 / kcl sustainability

[This guest post comes courtesy of Elle Harris, a 2nd year French and German Student who is also a member of Ecosoc, Fossil free and Urban garden projects and is a student rep for the Sustainable food steering group and is also president of KCL stop the Traffik. The views presented do not necessarily reflect those of King’s Sustainability]

From the offset I should just clarify, I am not a very good vegan. The King’s community contains many more impressive vegans who will truly wow you with their dedication to the cause, as opposed to my novice ways. That said, I feel I am in a unique and exciting stage of adopting a lasting vegan lifestyle i.e. the transition from vegetarian to vegan and can provide some confirmation that even the small steps are ok. So I feel my humble story can offer a refreshing outlook on how this whole veganism thing isn’t really as radical or scary as it sounds – it is surprisingly simple and makes a lot of sense!

Beginning with the start of the vegetarian lifestyle. After 18 solid years of eating meat, within the first month of university I decided to stop (which was surprisingly easy!). Despite years of watching horrific PETA videos, it didn’t seem to click that not eating meat was a logical response. Due to the questionable vegetarian options at my catered halls, I continued to eat fish, but my morals soon caught up with me and when I went home for Easter (and had more control in the kitchen), it was proper vegetarianism from then on. So, in terms of the veggie part of my life, it was primarily prompted in support of animal rights. Why kill a cow for dinner when there are SO MANY other things to eat that provide just as much satisfaction and nutrients?! I am not even a massive ‘animal lover’, but still, it just seems so absurd and unnecessarily greedy to eat meat in this modern day.

Moving swiftly on to the vegan ‘step’, I began at the end of January 2015 (so it wouldn’t get caught up in that New Years Resolution phase and become an immediate fail). Although vegetarianism was prompted primarily for the animal rights issues, my involvement within environmental groups last term introduced me to the environmental side of the meat industry. Watching ‘Cowspiracy’ finally pushed me to begin the transition, a film that puts the effects of the cattle industry on the environment in real perspective. It not only confirmed my vegetarian ways but also highlighted how the dairy and egg industry are just as bad.

To ensure this would be an actual lifestyle change, I started by being a vegan during the weekdays and then a vegetarian on the weekend (mainly to eat Quorn fajitas). The whole ‘Protein Problem’ that I was often bombarded with as a vegetarian is ever more present with veganism, but once more, it is misinformed. Granted I eat a lot of lentils and sweet potato, but this whole ‘restricted’ diet malarkey isn’t the case at all. There are so many fabulous recipes out there that makes vegan food fun. If anything I am more conscious of my protein intake, so I probably have stronger bones than meat-eaters who rarely eat fruit or veg. There are some unlikely perks of not eating meat too, for example, the limited veggie/vegan options on menus means I annoy my company less by being more decisive. Also, the feeling when you beat the system by discovering that something labelled as ‘vegetarian’ is actually ‘vegan’ is so rewarding that you will be put you in some ethical high all day. People often comment that such a lifestyle is costly. Granted, if you have a splurge at Wholefoods every week, this would apply (just like if a meat-eater went cray at TGI’s). However, with kidney beans at 30p a tin and a packet of rice lasting weeks, it is actually saving me a lot of pennies! It is also great for the environment. especially when comparing CO2 emissions, Oil and water use and land needed to sustain an omnivore diet to that of a vegan.

To sum up, I could literally ramble on for hours about reasons to go meat-free. It’s not in my nature to be that pushy veggie girl, but I hope this brief insight into my own vegan attempts shows that it is a journey that shouldn’t be rushed but rather, enjoyed – I get excited when I see soy yogurt on offer and the way to my heart is with a bag of hummus crisps. A poignant moment which confirmed that this is the right lifestyle for me happened over Christmas when I accidentally ate pork scratching, thinking they was just really salty breadsticks. Despite my initial horror, slips like this are okay. It proved my Eco and ethical ways are not just a university fad and veganism is the lifestyle for me. It is clear there is a lot of room for improvement in my own diet, but I hope I have demonstrated that even a switch to soy milk in your coffee is still a great step to eating sustainably. So, for the animals, the planet, your health, there are a wealth of reasons to go meat-free.

Guardian Sustainable business awards 2015

April 30, 2015 / kcl sustainability

Last night the Guardian Sustainable Business Awards 2015 took place and King’s PhD student Richard Milburn went along to find out about the event. As the Guardian says ‘ making and keeping a business sustainable is a challenge’. These awards gave the opportunity to highlight some innovative businesses and those that have created a positive impact in becoming more sustainable.

The awards focus on a whole range of businesses; those that had sustainability at their core from the start and those that are now trying to incorporate it into their already function business. The awards consider businesses from a wide range of sections and consider those both large and small.

The awards are meant to showcase people and projects that are helping businesses to become more sustainable and work to improve people, the planet and profits.

This year the winners ranged from the large superstore M&S to the slightly smaller company GENeco, a sustainable solutions company who focus on waste (‘we make waste work’).

Here are a few of the winners from this year:

Neal’s Yard remedies won the Innovation award for Supply Change
Divine chocolate won the Innovation award for social impact
GENeco won the Impact award for waste
IKEA won the Impact award for Net Positive
M&S won the Impact award for Natural Capital
Carbon tracker won the Innovation award for communicating sustainability
Wyke farms won overall winner for carbon and energy management
Carbon trust won the Innovation award for built environment

If you would like to find out more about all the winners and how you can get involved next year here.

Looking at Display Energy Certificates at King’s

April 27, 2015 / kcl sustainability

This week we’ve been talking to Tom Yearley and Bolaji Olaniru, (who look after energy at King’s), about DECs around King’s and how these help monitor the energy performance of our buildings.

Display energy certificates (DEC) were introduced to improve the energy performance of buildings and are used to display the actual energy performance of a building. Since January 2012, all public buildings with total useful area of more than 500m² are required to display DEC in a place clearly visible to the public. This means that a lot of the buildings across King’s are now required to have a DEC on display.

DEC displays the Operational Rating (OR) of a building ranked from A-G, with “A” being the most efficient and “G” the least. This rating shows the amount of energy consumed by a building, calculated by comparing the value of carbon emissions per unit area with other buildings in the same OR category. Other metrics of a building are considered for the OR rating, including building category, location, unique property reference number, energy consumption, measurement period and total useful floor area. DECs are accompanied by an advisory report (AR) that helps the occupier to identify what may be done to improve the energy efficiency. The DEC is valid for 1 year and the AR is valid for 7 years in buildings over 1000 m². For smaller buildings (between 500 m²and 1000 m²) both the DEC and AR are valid for 10 years.

At King’s we currently manage 26 buildings which have DEC certificates. Within these buildings, nine have a rating of C (no As and Bs!) and four buildings are rated as ‘G’. As this shows a lot can be done to improve the energy performance of our building.

Currently within the Sustainability team we are focusing on two main methods to improve of energy efficiency: capital investments and behavioural change. Capital investments can help to make infrastructural change which can have a large positive impact on energy performance. However these projects are quite expensive and will require more labour and time to implement. Behavioural change therefore can have a huge impact on our energy use at King’s – and it’s free! These are the little things we can do as individuals, such as switching off electrical appliances, wearing warmer clothing in winter and using the stairs.

As a team we are working hard to try to improve our energy performance and are currently running a number of behavioural change programmes, including Sustainability Champions. You can make a difference so get involved! Contact us for more details or sign up to our newsletter to stay up-to-date with our future projects.

Meet Phil, our interim Head of Sustainability

April 21, 2015 / kcl sustainability

Today we’d like to introduce you to our newest member of the team, Phil, our interim Head of Sustainability. Phil is covering for Kat Thorne whilst she is away on 12 month maternity leave and joined us at the end of March. He has some key objective he will be working hard to achieve within his time here at King’s.

Phil Evans ‘I’ve been working in the energy and environmental sector for 20 years, with this being my third stint in Higher Education along with a variety of corporates and consultancies. Over the years I have worked with varies organisations including UEL and Imperial College, London, as well as Green Bridge and EnTech Energy.

My main goal is to ensure Estates & Facilities becomes ISO14001 certified within the short time I’m here, so I’m going to be busy! It’s the obvious next step for us because the ISO14001 environmental management system will allow us to consistently manage our environmental risks and help to demonstrate our commitment to serving a world-class University.

Everyone within the Sustainability Team is playing their part in making this happen, but we won’t be able to do it without your help and support.’

So Phil’s main aim for the year is to help get King’s college ISO14001 Certified. ISO 14001 is the international standard for environmental management and shows that as a University we are committed to meeting and improving environmental standards. This will help us to achieve:

* An effective management system for activities affecting the environment on sites * Reducing risk to the environment and improved efficiency at King’s * Compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements in relation to the environment

It is also good housekeeping, keeping us in line with Fit for King’s, which in turn can help lower costs within estates and facilities.

Phil will be working closely with Ann in implementing the Environmental Management System in accordance with this which is currently being developed. This is a huge positive step for the University and we are happy to have Phil joining the team!

If you have any ideas or projects that you think will improve the sustainability at King’s please do email them to us. Also sign up to our newsletter to keep up to date with our progress and to find out how you can help us!

Energy Savings over Easter

April 13, 2015 / kcl sustainability

We hope you all had a lovely Easter and are all ready for the last term of this year!

Over the Easter break we asked you to try to turn off any unused equipment, shut windows and recycle your waste to help reduce our carbon footprint, as we did over the Christmas holidays.

Thanks to your brilliant efforts we were able to reduce emissions between 2nd April and 7th April by 95 Tonnes of CO2, which equates to around £23,379! Fantastic! 31% of the reduction occurred in our residences, who (hopefully!) were inspired by our Easter shutdown poster.

The recent incident at Strand also of course had an impact on our electricity use during the holidays. The initial impact of this appears to be a saving of 18.8 Tonnes of CO2 (around £4,000), with this saving likely to be higher once gas figures are verified.

These are great results for the Easter shutdown and highlight how you as individuals are making a huge positive impact towards us reaching our 43% carbon reduction target. Thank you for your help and we look forward to seeing the results of the next shutdown!

Here’s something fun if you want to try to reduce your waste when drying your hands! http://youtu.be/2FMBSblpcrc

News, stories, and interesting bits.

High pollution hits southern England on Friday, only a day after this article mentions how longer-term thinking is needed on air pollution.
Harvard divestment campaigners gear up for a week of action to put pressure on the University to cut its ties with fossil fuels.
How your phone could help save you from an Earthquake.

EECC post event summary

March 26, 2015 / kcl sustainability

The inaugural Environmental and Ethical Careers Conference took place on Monday 23^rd March. Over two hundred KCL students and alumni attended the event to listen to a host of industry experts discuss the array of potential roles available in the sustainability sector.

Speakers provided a broad overview of the sector as a whole, as well as a more detailed insight into specific sectors such as business, the not-for-profit sector, and finance and consultancy.

A careers information fair in the Great Hall also provided attendees with a chance to talk one-to-one with representatives from a selection of organisations including PWC, the RSPB and NUS.

There was something for everyone at the event, and panel discussions showcased the latest developments in sustainability. The conference demonstrated that sustainability is a major growth sector and increasingly becoming a core component of many businesses’ and organisations’ activities. As one speaker from Futerra put it, their aim is to make sustainability so desirable that it becomes normal.

The event also provided attendees with advice on the key skills and experience they require to get a job in the competitive sustainability jobs market, where demand for jobs vastly exceeds supply. Commercial awareness and time management skills were deemed as important as knowledge about sustainability, and potential employees need to clearly demonstrate the value they can add to the companies they work for.

The event also offered many topics of discussion about how best to drive sustainability; for instance whether to sell a positive message as opposed to warnings of impending crises, and whether large corporations or smaller businesses and NGOs were the more effective mechanisms to promote change. The event provided a platform for a range of opinions to be presented on this topic, all delivered by sustainability experts.

IEMA were present throughout the day, providing the most up to date information and advice about the sector and offering free memberships to students.

The event as a whole proved a resounding success, and plans are already underway to run the EECC bigger and better next year. For those who missed the event or wish to have a recap, summaries and recordings of the panel presentations will be online next week. In the meantime, if you would like any further information on the event, please email ecosock.kcl@gmail.com

Run up to EECC- ‘How I got my job’

March 19, 2015 / kcl sustainability

With the Environmental and Ethics Career Conference coming up on Monday, I asked members of our team how they got to where they are now and if they had any advice for students and graduates who would like a career within Sustainability. Here’s what they said:

Tom Yearley, Energy Manager

My name is Tom Yearley, I am currently the Energy Manager at KCL. I took this role in September 2014 to progress my career as an environmentalist. As energy manager I am responsible for paying all utility bills for the University and for the University achieving the 43% carbon reduction target by 2019/20. This is a significant challenge and to date I have established a fund of over £3,000,000 to invest in order to achieve the savings.

To get to where I am today I did an undergraduate course in economics: the study of scarce resources. Since leaving University I have worked for a wide range of public and private sector organisations, including banks, law firms, food manufacturers, BAA, the BBC, and a gas import terminal. Most recently I spent five years working at the University of Reading as their Energy Officer. My aim through my career has been to gather a broad range of experience across the sustainability sector. Along the way I have become a full member of IEMA and a Chartered Environmentalist.

If you want a job like mine, I would suggest a similar objective. I see one of my key strengths is the breadth of experience I have gained. I would recommend that a year as a junior consultant in a good consultancy company is more useful than an MSc. That’s not to say that an MSc in a subject you wish to specialise in is not important! There are many opportunities for recent graduates to gain employment in the environmental sector, including paid internships, junior consultancy roles and the more traditional graduate recruitment roles.

Martin Farley, Sustainable labs project coordinator

I started working in biology labs thinking I was going to finish a PhD. The labs I happened to work in highlighted to me that science had other issues beyond trying to get my stem cells to differentiate correctly, and the program I was in afforded me an opportunity to work in another internship.

I was tired of studies that weren’t exciting me, so I started to just google words that I liked the sound of. One of the first searches was ‘green science’ and I ended up coming across an article about a fellow in the US named Alan Doyle. A few contacts later, I ended up as a laboratories programme facilitator in the University of Edinburgh. Since then, I’ve loved the progress and growth in this position and can’t imagine going back to research.

If I had to give some advice (which I’m still a bit young for), I would say try everything you can until you can’t take it anymore, and then use that experience to push yourself into what you love. It’s been said but if you don’t love it, you won’t do it well.

Ann Maclachlan, Operations Sustainability Manager

I joined KCL in November 2014 as Operations Sustainability Manager. My role covers a wide range of sustainability issues such as development of our Environmental Management System, Sustainable Procurement, Sustainable Construction, waste and running our Sustainability Champions program.

I did a BSc in Immunology and Microbiology followed by an MSc in Environmental Studies. When I left university I got an analyst consultant role with AEA Technology and have since worked as Environment/Sustainability Manager for a range of organisations including an Airport Operator, Interiors fit-out company working in the education and retail sectors as well as for a renewable energy company.

My advice to anyone interested in a career in Sustainability would be to look out for seminars/workshops etc. to attend – these can be great opportunities to not only learn more but also to make connections that can help you progress in a career. Doing your thesis in conjunction with a business can be a great way to gain experience before you graduate – I did a project for mine in conjunction with Edinburgh and Glasgow Airports which gave me some great experience in industry and 18 months after graduating I joined Glasgow Airport as Environmental Assurance Manager!

Sarah Hayes, Sustainability Projects Assistant

My name is Sarah and I am currently working as a Sustainability Project Assistant as part of King’s Sustainability Team. This role is quite varied – I get to organise events, look after the teams communication networks, work with the energy manager and procurement manager to get involved with things such as DEC assessments, Environmental management systems (EMS) and much more.

To get where I am today I studied and undergraduate in Geography and then a Masters in Environmental monitoring, modelling and management. During university I undertook two internships, one with Air Quality Monitors and one with the Renewable Energy Foundation. At the end of my Masters I started working for King’s and have recently become a graduate member of IEMA.

If you would like a job like mine, I would suggest getting as much work experience as possible (which is what this role is great for). If possible try to gain experience whilst at University; even if this is just volunteering with a society or charity at weekends. My two internships during university helped me to realise where I want to go in my career and also helped boost my CV. This role with King’s, along with other graduate and internship schemes, is a great opportunity to get paid experience in the field and I know that this will help me with future career options.

It can be so hard to get your first job (especially if you have found it hard to get any experience), but keep going! One day you will get a ‘break’ and get offered that first job and then the rest is easy…..right?! J

EECC – one week to go!

March 17, 2015 / kcl sustainability

The Environmental and Ethics Career Conference is fast approaching, and with the final list of speakers now available there is no excuse not to reserve your ticket!

As you may know, the EECC is offering students and recent graduates of King’s College London the chance to see and hear about the diverse array of organisation and opportunities in these two areas, and will provide sector-specific and role-specific careers advice that is otherwise difficult to find. The EECC is made possible by alumni donations to King;s Community Fund and is co-organised by EcoSoc, the careers department and King’s Sustainability Team.

The format of the conference will be a combination of a careers information fair in the Great Hall from 12.30 – 14.30 and a series of talks throughout the day on Strand Campus.

For the full list of talks and speakers please click here.

If you require any more information please contact us!

Be an Ocean Hero this Earth Hour!

March 12, 2015 / kcl sustainability

[This guest post comes courtesy of Gwyneth Hill, a former Masters student who now works for Sustain. The views presented do not necessarily reflect those of King’s Sustainability]

This year’s Earth Hour is on its way, starting at 20.30 on Saturday 28^thMarch. How you can do your bit to save the planet the might ask. This year, we’re turning our thoughts to the Oceans for Earth Hour 2015. Marine life is under treat from plastics, litter, pollution, and increases in acidity and temperature. However, nothing threatens our oceans more than irresponsible and unsustainable fishing. Not only are target stocks decimated, but non-targets such as sharks, rays, turtles and seabirds are caught up and killed by fishing gear. Long lining vessels searching for tuna drag their hooks through the water like a knife, stabbing and wounding the ocean as they go. Over 70% of European fisheries are over exploited and critically endangered species such as the European Eel and the Bluefin Tuna. While the killing, trafficking and sale of terrestrial endangered species are abhorrent to most of us, we don’t really bat an eyelid when we see jellied eels for sale or sharks (marketed at rock or huss) in our fish and chip shops.

So how can we solve the problem? One option is to look at the Marine Conservation Society Good Fish Guide, (however it does requires the public to know where and how something was caught, information that is not always publically available). The best thing to do is to look out for the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) logo on menus and in the supermarket. The MSC certifies fisheries as sustainable and responsible. Once a fishery has been certified, it can use the MSC logo when selling its products, so that when the fish arrives to the consumer they can be certain that it was fished sustainably. Farmed fish is not always the answer as they can be dirty, spread pollution and still rely on wild fish for fishmeal. Look out for Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) certified farmed fish. There is a limited supply in the UK as the ASC is a young organisation but you can find it at Sainsbury’s.

For this year’s Earth Hour I’m asking you to Be an Ocean Hero by helping to get King’s College MSC certified. The Earth Hour team have joined forces with the MSC and are asking you tell your university that sustainable, responsible fish is what you want on your menu. This includes responsibly farmed fish too! Join the campaign by posting a selfie of you pulling a fish face on twitter or Instagram and challenge your friends to do the same with the #fishface #EarthHourUK #msc and the three best selfies will win an iPad mini! Phrases like “I support sustainable fishing, let’s sea your MSC #fishface for #EarthHourUK @insertname @insertname” work really well.

By making this one small change to our purchasing habits, we can have a really dramatic impact on our marine environment, so get posting people!