Go Green Week at Worcester written by Heather Sykes Go Green Week 2023 had a great turnout and loads of fun events. We hope you enjoyed if you joined us and we look forward to seeing you again next year. Go Green Week 2022 was yet another super success. This year, the university’s Go Green Week ran from the 7th… Read more →
Designed and delivered by the university’s first-year Human Nutrition students, along with many supporting volunteers and the help of the Students’ Union, this year’s Go Green Week signified a new opportunity to reach a wider audience and promote global participation. Read more →
Save Water Drop by Drop with Five Top Tips by Heather Sykes We all know how important it is to save water. Not only do we have a global eco-crisis, but we also are dealing with a cost of living crisis. In the UK, we use roughly 14 billion litres of water a day. Some estimates believe households of four… Read more →
Helping residents and visitors to learn simple ways to live more sustainably the University of Worcester and Worcester City Council held a city-wide Go Green Week. Focussing on promoting the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) created by the United Nations through a variety of events and activities. Heralded a success and promoting the 10 simple Golden Rules about living sustainably. The week… Read more →
Build organic ranking in search engines; develop digital campaigns to share information about your services; sell your products online; attract more volunteers to sign up to campaigns. The University is providing a FREE TALK to all charities, organisations and businesses who are supporting Go Green Week, 2019 to help you with your digital presence. The session is delivered by Wendy… Read more →
Beautiful handcrafted gifts in Worcester Q. What do a reindeer, a pincushion, silly specs and washing up liquid have in common? A. They’re all found in the Pump House Environment Centre’s Eco Shop. The Pump House in Worcester is run by environmental charity, the Duckworth Worcestershire Trust and as well as hosting an ethical café and space for meetings, the… Read more →
A successful Go Green Week collaboration in Worcester promoting the 10 Golden Rules of Living Sustainably Volunteers and local businesses showed that small changes in daily lives can help the environment by reducing water and energy usage, using sustainable methods of transportation, re-using & recycling, and reducing food and plastic waste. We kicked off with ‘Feed the 1,000’ at the Guildhall… Read more →
Welcome to Go Green Week 2018 Go Green Week is April 17th-21st. We have fun craft projects and other activities which gives the public a chance to find out what actions they could take to be more sustainable. Such as learn how to make an origami fish from re-purposed paper collected from Worcester Resource Exchange . Watch a video on how to… Read more →
Students from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester Massachusetts USA and the University of Worcester built on a ‘Go Green Week’ model used by the University (UK) promoting sustainability through activities. Students conducted pre and post Go Green Week surveys to evaluate their efforts. Most citizens surveyed said they were aware of sustainability practices and 93 participants “strongly agree” that it is important… Read more →
Saving students money and improving landlords’ properties #EnergizeWorcester is an exciting opportunity to tackle the poor energy efficiency of privately rented student houses, reducing energy consumption and in turn student bills. The project is in two parts. One part of #EnergizeWorcester looks at behaviour and helps people to find ways of using less energy without losing comfort. This is done… Read more →
Worcester Students’ Union president Kynton Swingle shares promising views on public transport for students in the city. Kynton explained that all current University of Worcester students were encouraged to complete a lifestyles survey a couple of months ago. There was a very high response rate to the questionnaire and the results were very interesting. He concluded that without students thinking… Read more →
Transport is always an essential issue linked to sustainability and with fuel prices always going up, we clearly need to look at the future for more sustainable ways of travelling. In this context, proposed cuts for all bus subsidies from the Worcestershire County Council are met with scepticism from local politicians who emphasise the importance of affordable public transport. Worcester… Read more →
Students got into groups and competed against each other in the Big Green Quiz. There were a variety of questions, some random, some funny and some that no one would have the faintest clue.
The video is a very short ‘vine’ compilation of the electric atmosphere that was in the SU tonight.
Worcestershire Vegans & Veggies have been setting up stalls at the student led Go Green Week for three years. They offer vegan, vegetarian and meat free food samples to students and staff. They are also happy to inform students about the benefits of a vegan diet and they help those interested in becoming vegan, vegetarian, or wanting to reduce the… Read more →
University of Worcester PCSOs offer free advice and kit on how to keep your bike safe Offering you the latest sustainable travelling tips, our PCSOs and helped students by marking their bikes for free to increase security, making sure you get your cycle back in case it’s stolen. This might come as a surprise, but in the UK, a bicycle… Read more →
Volunteer distributors come to the SU to offer students Zaytoun Palestinian fair trade olive oil and raise awareness of the struggles farmers go through in the region As Go Green Tuesday focused on Food and Health, we saw a variety of food being offered in the SU for students and staff to enjoy. With low prices and high quality, there… Read more →
University students who live in privately rented houses account for nearly 40% of total student population in the UK, according to the NUS. The majority of them live in relatively old housing stock which is energy inefficient. Many lack the knowledge and skills and with energy bills ever increasing, students are a vulnerable group with little external support.
Competing with 120 student unions all over England, the University of Worcester Students’ Union was successful in winning a grant of £172,000 to run a project to improve energy efficiency in student houses.
This far reaching project works with students, landlords and Worcester City Council to retrofit student houses to improve housing standards and conditions along with their energy behaviour.
Bespoke software, peer learning from accredited students as well as curriculum ‘live’ project opportunities are hallmarks of #EnergizeWorcester. To test its replicability the project will be run with Birmingham Guild of Students and aims to offer the National Union of Students a similar model to Student Switch Off that can be rolled out to any University.
Student Switch Off which the University of Worcester have run for the students for over six years teaches good energy habits to students when they live in student halls of residence.
#EnergizeWorcester looks to embed this behaviour even further when students move on to houses in their second and subsequent years when they, possibly for the first time, will be responsible for paying their own energy bills.
Giving students real projects as part of their studies is very important at the University of Worcester, so linking #EnergizeWorcester to the curriculum was an easy decision. Peng Li #EnergizeWorcester project manager says:
“We have worked with creative students (3rd Year Creative Digital Media), who have come up with the creative strategy and look for the campaign. Student teams worked in teams and had just 24 hrs to deliver a concept for the campaign. The winning designs were awarded a cash prize of £100. The quality was remarkable and we thank all the teams for their ideas”.
Students who live off campus are being encouraged to save energy, win prizes and learn good energy habits by signing up to #EnergizeWorcester.
The theme of the campaign is limbo dancing with students being encouraged to take selfie’s of themselves limbo dancing around campus and competing to reduce energy in the ‘how low can you go’ campaign. All Worcester students need to do to enter is take a couple of photos of their electricity and gas meters and tweet or upload them. They can have fun as well and win prizes with the limbo competition.
Kynton Swingle president of the Students’ Union says the project will be a transformation for students who don’t know much about energy saving:
“This two year project trains student energy advocates who also gain City and Guilds Energy qualifications to speak with their peers in their homes and show them what they need to do to use less energy.”
Rosa, a second year psychology student and energy advocate has benefited from the training and advice available through the scheme:
“The training was very interesting and I learned a lot from it. Certain bits of information led me to do more research, and gave me a more rounded view on the topic as a whole. I feel like I should carry out this job with a high level of professionalism and deliver knowledge to the best of my ability”
Kynton added: “It is nationally recognised that students are in fuel poverty, which is the amount of money they pay for their energy bills is disproportionate to the amount of income they have. Sometimes students’ fuel bills are included in their rent. This means it’s even more important for students to understand about their energy use so that when they are responsible for the bills, they have good energy habits which they’ll carry with them for the rest of their lives.”
This innovative project also greatly involves landlords accommodating students at the university. It aims to support property owners to make their rental properties more energy efficient and thus reduce cost of gas and electricity bills. The project team will look at ways to finance retrofit measures to houses, such as new, more efficient boilers and insulation.
The National Landlords Asscociation (NLA) supports the initiative that would provide tenants with more energy efficient homes that are sought after.
Don Robbie, NLA Local Representative in the West Midlands says:
“Making sure that private rental accommodation is as energy efficient as possible isn’t just about sustainability; It’s a core priority for landlords in meeting the needs of their tenants.
“It makes it a much better learning and living environment for students if they are renting easy to heat homes. An increasing number of landlords are switching on to the benefits of offering higher quality housing stock. It’s a question of consumer demand, and landlords in an increasingly competitive market are becoming wise to the fact that students are looking for lower bills and warmer homes. As awareness about energy conservation increases, more and more tenants are asking to see Energy Performance Certificates and will discuss the energy efficiency of homes before they agree to rent.”
Although the title is rather cheesy, the pizza making workshop gave a slice of the life of working at Pizza Hut. How to make your own pizza Step 1 Put the dough into a greased pan and smother it with flour. Step 2 Flatten the dough with your fists to make the base thin. Step 3 Grab the dough from… Read more →
The University Shuttle is a quick, easy and cheap way to travel from campus to campus. In fact, bus routes throughout Worcester city are ideally situated for students. Whether jumping on a bus to get to a lecture, visiting the Hive or just shopping in the city centre, there is no simpler, cost effective method than taking the bus. To… Read more →