Go Green Week is almost at its end and today it was all about Energy! We had quite a lot of guests who joined us in order to promote sustainable energy to the students of the University of Worcester.
The students behind Go Green Week
The first year students from the Sustainability Elective Module were busy at the stalls both in Edward Elgar and the SU to promote conservation of energy. While chatting with them I completed their quiz on sustainable energy and entered their prize draw. The students aim to challenge people’s way of thinking and in that way to show them how much better, cheaper and environmentally friendly it is to be sustainable in our energy use!
I had a very interesting chat with the representative of Act On Energy. I asked him what he would advice student who are now starting to look for accommodation outside of University:
Stay at home. That’s the best way, get your parents to pay all the bills, tell them what they are doing wrong and have them fix it. If you are going to rent a property it is a legal requirement these days for the landlord to give you a copy of the energy performance certificate. This tells you how much energy the property is going to use and how much it is going to cost you. Just check that out because it is a fairly large part of what you have to pay as a student, the certificate will tell you if the property is energy efficient. Choose one that has the highest grade possible, closer to and A the better. As a student what you can do to be more efficient in your energy use and you can stop wasting energy. So switch things off when you do not need them.
I took a lovely thermal selfie thanks to the thermal camera he had brought with him.
The amazing art of the guys from Energize Worcester is done! Its is even better than what I thought. Durng my conversation with Peng Li he told me that their amazing art will be displayed around campus, in order to prompt students to follow the advice given through it. Energize Worcester also hope to recruit more creative students who are willing to promote sustainability. So, if you are passionate about Sustainability and want to express your ideas through art, join Energize Worcester!
I also had the pleasure to meet the representatives of Co-operative Energy who told me a bit more about their mission in the University today:
Co- operative Energy is a division of the Mid Counties Co- operative. It was set up about four years ago and it has gone from scratch to nearly 250,000 customers in the domestic market in those four years.
The way they say they’ve achieved the impressive numbers is by being fair and transparent in prices as well as very, very economic. They turned up today to introduce the concept to students who are paying for their own energy with exclusive tenancies to reconsider who they are with. The more well known energy companies (called the big 6) are expensive compared to Co- operative Energy, significantly more expensive and in some cases they might be paying 25% more for the gas and electricity than they need to. They thought students should know this and they can change energy suppliers.
This is their first time being away from home for many of us and I think it’s brilliant to have people on campus to explain it. I didn’t know any of this until today.
Candle Lit Accoustic Night
Finally the Sustainability Students threw an amazing hippie themed party in the Pear Tree. With it they raised awareness of Sustainability in the best way possible, by getting students together for a drink!
