The Launch Of Go Green Week 2015

Go Green Week gets going!

Today students took part on a bird watch around the University of Worcester’s St John’s campus. Many pictures were taken in aim of capturing the beauty of the small residents we usually hear but do not have the time to often see. To our dismay, Rebecca Davis, a student at  University of Worcester caught on camera a devastating image of a squirrel playing with his head inside a plastic cup. I myself find this picture heart breaking as the small pieces of litter we drop can result in animals being negatively affected. Therefore as students we should try to make a change to littering on site and everywhere!

This drove our students out in force as they litter picked in the streets around uni, showing the community that students care about the local environment. Sian Evans a lecturer at the University described her actions as:

”Giving back to the local community”

Students are concerned about the issues to do with waste and the environment we worry about the impact of plastic waste in the ocean and rivers. How harmful it is to wildlife, polluting rivers and oceans, and entering our food chain. This is a growing problem as waste is on the increase. Therefore linking to the aim of Go Green Week where students eyes are opened to these issues with the hope to return our plastic land, to green land once again. This definitely relates to our desire to:

protect today and change tomorrow

Below is two of our volunteer litter pickers: Sian Evans (left)  and Rebecca Davis (right), making a change to our community.

In the Students’ Union there were many stalls such as Greenpeace, Animal Nepal, Student Switch Off and Friends Of the Earth highlighting, the different ways in order for us to have a more sustainable future.

Firstly Greenpeace have many campaigns such as the Aurora campaign in order to save the arctic and their Fracking campaign. Firstly, their polar bear mascot is the ideal way in order to catch the attention of viewers like it did me, making me want to know more how I could save the arctic!  The Student Union have adopted Pearl their Polar Bear to help students on campus understand the issues and save themselves and the SU energy.

Ginny Lee in the picture above told me more about ‘Protect or exploit’ lead by Greenpeace. Their aim is to stop Shell from destroying the Arctic as they look at Shell treating the melting Arctic as a business opportunity as they aim to drill into it for oil which could lead to a spill that may be impossible to clean up, endangering the unique wildlife and the lives of residents who live there. As the Arctic is warming rapidly Greenpeace aims to stop Shell vanishing the ice as the frozen Arctic is needed for the planet to stay cool, and for global temperatures to stay decreased.#savethearctic

Friends of the earth were promoting run on sun where they believed switching schools to more solar panel energy which will benefit not only the school financially but also benefit our climate as they don’t create any pollution or noise. Solar panels are reliable and a clean source of energy converting our much loved and needed sunlight into electricity tackling the climate tremendously! You even get paid a fixed rate for every unit of power you generate! I believe schools, every neighbourhood and our own homes should adopt this method for a more sustainable future with clean, green energy being sourced from the sun! According to run on sun every UK school invested in solar panels together they could save enough money to pay the annual salaries of more than 6,000 teachers! Can you just imagine the savings!  I want to know what the Institute of Education students’ think and I’ll make sure I talk to some later.

Animal Nepal held a store today where they raised awareness about their innovative project with the practical interventions to gradually reduce the widespread animal cruelty with the hope for Nepal to become a model country for animal welfare. By selling unwanted gifts and raising money for this charity they can step a little closer to achieving their aims focusing on an array of needs such as stray and community dogs and livestock animals in their campaign.  I believe this is a worthwhile campaign that we can support in order to help animals all over the world.

Something I feel strongly about is Student Switch Off where the University works along side NUS by encouraging students to save energy by switching of their lights, unplugging their phone chargers, a putting a lid over pans whilst cooking to reduce cooking time and switching the heating off and putting more layers on. Having an incentive of winning a Ben and Jerry’s ice cream is genius also!

Energize Worcester is the Official Student’s Union and NUS Green Fund project aiming to reduce energy bills in students homes, improving health, saving money and protecting our environment. I believe this is an important organisation in making students aware!

Above is the Energize Worcester team (left to right): Jake Forsey, Chris Lopez, Jack Calver, Peng Li and Vlad Martin.

Some of the Energize Worcester told me about their project for day 1. Energize Worcester‘s held a Live Art Project with head artist James Firkins. In the student union the teams creative juices were flowing onto a large canvas that was painted bright orange with the recognisable ‘Energize Worcester‘ logo centre in order to promote itself!

Exciting to watch and with the aim of walking around campus the smaller canvases will grab the attention of any passers by! These canvases will have separate cleverly designed infographics on with facts and the benefits of draft proofing, energy efficient light bulbs and many more.

What’s better to kick of go green week with live art, bird watching and litter picking! Let Go Green Week commence with the aim to change today and protect tomorrow at not just the University of Worcester, but making the world we live in more sustainable!