Go Green For A Week

It is estimated that halving your consumption of meat and dairy could shave 10% off your carbon footprint – the equivalent of 16 return flights from London to Manchester. It could also benefit your health by helping you to cut down on saturated fats and increasing the quantity of fruit and veg that you eat. A report from the British Heart Foundation states that eating meat no more than 2 or 3 times a week would avert 31,000 premature deaths through heart disease, 9,000 from cancer and 5,000 through stroke. Cutting out meat just one day a week must be a step in the right direction, and generally speaking vegetarian meals are cheaper.

Believe it or not but transport accounts for around 40% of a university’s emissions. Try walking between campuses or at least part of the way to and from College. Use your bike or borrow one of Boris’s. Even simple things like using the stairs instead of lifts or escalators can help reduce emissions, and all these ideas if put into practice regularly will also help your fitness and health.

About a third of UK universities are still recycling less than 25% of their waste. You may put everything into the right bin at home (do you?) but are you so conscientious at work. Is there anything your department could do to recycle more? Have you thought of simple things like using re-usable containers instead of buying bottled water or for bringing a packed lunch rather than buying an expensive sandwich? These things could save you money as well as help cut waste plastic.

Home electricity consumption accounts for roughly 1 tonne of carbon per person so imagine the impact we have at universities collectively. If you don’t need it switch it off. All those machines left on standby are using electricity, only small amounts individually but there are a huge number across the university as a whole.
If it’s a bright sunny day do you really need the lights on in your office? Do you turn everything off when you go home? What about when you go out to lunch?
 

Okay, not so much to do with saving the planet, more to do with saving yourself – and in fact treating yourself. Yes, a treat. Get some exercise and I promise you, you will feel better for it, physically, mentally, emotionally. You have had a hard week, before you get stuck into the Merlot go for a long walk, or a swim, or a bike ride or a jog, or visit the gym. It will help you get rid of all the tension that has built up in the week before you settle down for the weekend. It will also entitle you to feel slightly smug and it will help your health.