Sustainability in your college

Sustainability in your college

Over the past few years we’ve seen a massive shift in thinking towards being more sustainable in our day-to-day lives. It’s more common place for us to recycle our waste at home, and we’re all aware of the battle against plastic and the need to avoid single-use plastic bottles and carrier bags. We need to ensure the same level of focus on increasing sustainability and reducing our carbon footprint is present in our colleges.

Here’s a few simple tips to help with sustainability in your college:

1. Cut your carbon footprint. Encourage staff to carpool with each other, use public transport, or even cycle to the college; this can help cut your total emissions. Encourage students to do the same for their travel to college. Removing your commute carbon for just one day each, can reduce emissions by around 20%.

2. Think: Do I really need to print that? We all print far more than we need to. Consider what you can do to go digital and encourage staff and students to ask themselves if they really need that print out! Being aware of the paper you’re using and attempting to cut down this figure can help to reduce your environmental impact. Most companies will give you the option to go paperless and send e-statements or e-invoices; be sure to take them up on this. Making a couple of changes will help your staff prioritise what really needs to be on paper, and what can stay digital. If you do have to print, don’t forget to recycle the paper where possible – don’t just throw it in the waste bin. Which brings us nicely onto our next tip!

3. Recycle your waste. When it comes to dealing with recycling our rubbish at home, the majority of us are on it! So, let’s be just as organised at college; make sure you have clearly labelled bins and that everyone knows where to find them, this should mean your waste won’t just end up in the landfill. If we recycle regularly and encourage everyone else to do the same, it soon becomes a habit.

4. Expert support. Research expert support and lecture networks in your area; get them into your college to help boost commitment and enthusiasm for sustainability. There are plenty of online resources to tap into too; for example, Tide Global Learning or the National Association for Environmental Education.

Finally, take a look at the seventeen sustainable development goals and explore how they can be integrated into your college. Don’t attempt to focus on them all at once but pick two or three for your college to focus on – help put sustainability at the heart of your teaching and your college.