College Eco News
Autumn 2011

Litter is a particular problem at college so the Environment Committee organised a litter pick for the green tutorial. There was a good turn out of willing students and staff and a large collection was made. The litter issue is particularly relevant as the college is hoping to apply for the Eco-Schools Green Flag Award this year and litter is a prominent subject of the application.

The quiz winning tutorial group were 612. Funded by the College Council a goat has been purchased for a demonstration farm run by John, a peasant farmer with a wife and 5 children. They also care for 4 children of neighbours that died. They grow maize, bananas, vegetables, and beans. John is employed by Kenya 2020 to develop the farm to demonstrate erosion control, intercropping, irrigation etc. (Kenya 2020 is a UK-based fundraising charity that set up in 2011 by a group of volunteers that had worked with other charities in western Kenya since 2007.) The winning group get to name John's goat.

As mentioned in last Autumn's bulletin the college is taking steps to reduce its energy bill and subsequently its carbon footprint. The graph on the left has been produced using the Siemens ‘Sie-Smart Energy Management Interface’. See link below to view chart. The red line represents this years use and the pink last years, the graph clearly shows a reduction in use and it is anticipated further reductions can be made with careful use of resources by students and staff.

Chart PDF 192 KB

The Environment Committee continues to promote sustainability throughout the college the most recent being a green tutorial, comprising of a green quiz and litter pick.

The college has this year again been nominated in the Colchester Business Awards, Active Travel and Staff Wellbeing category. This recognises the college commitment to promoting sustainable travel options and the health of staff and students. New to this year we have had students trained with the NHS as Health ambassadors, to give signposting advice to other students but who will also be actively involved with health promotions throughout the year. Having been pipped at the post at last year’s final we would hope to go one better this year.

This year the College aims to apply for the Eco-Schools Green Flag Award. The college has already achieved bronze and silver awards and hopes to add the coveted green flag award later this year. Eco-Schools is an international award programme that guides schools on their sustainable journey, providing a framework to help embed these principles into the heart of school life. The programme covers nine topics Energy, Water, Biodiversity, School grounds, Healthy living Transport, Waste, Global citizenship and Litter. As mentioned in the article to the left litter is an integral part of the application, so remember, DROP THE HABIT!

• 50,000: years it took for the human population to reach 1 billion, in 1800
• 12: years it took to add the latest billion
• 9.3 billion: potential world population in 2050
• 158: people added to the planet every minute (births minus deaths)
• 227,252: people added to the planet every day
• 82,947,000: people added to the planet every year
• 15-37: percentage of existing species expected to be pushed to extinction by 2050 because of human-driven climate change
• 60: percentage of key ecosystem services (freshwater, air and water purification, etc.) degraded or used unsustainably by humans over the last 50 years
• $20.8 billion: amount Wall Street firms paid out in bonuses in 2010
• 1.25 billion: number of people living in more developed countries
• 5.75 billion: number of people living in less developed countries

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