Students Go Green for week of events highlighting environmental issues

First unified London Green Week brings students together - <em>News</em>

Friday 15 February 2008
By Naomi Weston

Students at Imperial College London will participate in Students Go Green Week 2008, held this year in conjunction with The Greater London Authority, the charity People and Planet and universities from across the capital.

The first unified London Green Week will take place from Monday 18 February to Friday 22 February 2008.

The week’s events aim to unite London students and highlight issues such as climate change. It also hopes to encourage students to find out more about environmental issues and make a positive impact by doing their bit to make Imperial a greener place.

Events taking place at Imperial College, as part of the Student Union’s annual green campaign, include lectures on environmental issues, a Green Fair, an end of week Green Party and stalls on campus selling eco-friendly carrier bags.

Climate change experts will be sharing their insight on the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and what can be done to mitigate global warming in the future on Wednesday 20 February. These include Professor Ralf Toumi from the Department of Physics and a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Lucy Pearce from Stop Climate Chaos and Andy Deacon from the Greater London Authority (GLA), who will be speaking in the Blackett Lecture Theatre 1, Prince Consort Road at 12.00.

There will be a Green Fair on Thursday 21 February, with stalls and demonstrations promoting Fair Trade products, the city car share plan, the College’s new recycling scheme and stalls set up by Friends of the Earth and the Whole Foods Market, which will give a cooking demonstration using locally-sourced ingredients. The event will take place in the Great Hall, Sherfield Building from 12.00-14.00.

Green Week stalls will also be held in the Beit Quad and Sherfield Building every lunchtime where students will be encouraged to sign pledges to reduce their impact on the environment, for example by washing their clothes at 30 degrees and switching off appliances. Volunteers will also be selling eco-friendly shopping bags to reduce plastic bag usage.

Dr Jeremy Woods from the Centre for Environmental Policy and Dr Richard Murphy from the Department of Biology will lead a discussion on biofuels and the controversy surrounding them, with a demonstration of biofuel manufacture from waste cooking oil. The event will take place on Friday 22 February in Mechanical Engineering Lecture Theatre 220 at 12.30.

To end the week there will be the Big Green Party at the College Union on Friday 22 February at 20.00 with live bands and an ethical fashion show with models wearing organic cotton.

The week’s events will raise money for Friends of the Earth and People and Planet.

Laurence Fahrni, a Physics third year undergraduate, is Chair of the Environmental Society at the Union and is organising Green Week events at Imperial. He said: “I’m really pleased I have been involved this year, it’s great to have backing from the Greater London Authority as it means a lot more people are involved and it has been opened up to a wider audience. I hope to spread more knowledge about environmental issues and get students and staff to do their individual part.”

Universities involved include Imperial College, University College London, Kingston University, The School of Oriental and African studies, King’s College London, London School of Economics, University of the Arts London and Birkbeck, University of London.

For a full programme and details of times and venues for the week’s green events across London, please see: Students Go Green Week

In January the College introduced a new recycling scheme to encourage all students and staff to recycle glass, cans, tins, plastics and paper and card. Recycling points have been placed throughput the South Kensington Campus comprising three coloured bins. The new scheme will be extended to other campuses in the coming weeks. This is part of the Facilities Management’s drive to review College waste. For more information please see College recycling

Imperial also has an energy management policy which aims to make the College a leading UK academic institution in applied energy efficiency and utility management, demonstrating sound environmental governance and global citizenship, and providing a showcase low carbon heritage estate.