The University are putting new measures in place to improve the sustainability of both the Heslington East and West campuses.
Following the addition of David Duncan, University Registrar and Secretary, as a new co-champion of sustainability, plans have been drawn up to introduce a range of new environmentally friendly projects.
University of York has had notoriously poor form in the past, coming 83rd in the People and Planet green league in 2011 with seven of the 13 key areas judged as being poor/awful, but the administration are keen for this to change.
Plans are being introduced to ensure all windows on Heslington West are double-glazed. The campaigns to encourage bike usage will continue as showers on campus are opened up to students. In addition the University are going to be installing two CHP plants and a biomass plants which will result in a reduction in carbon emissions of 7380 tonnes.
Second year Social and Political Sciences students James Winnington and Kathleen Whitehead, and former Vanbrugh College residents, welcomed the commitment to double glazing in particular. “My window shut fine, but I had a draft whenever the wind blew in Vanbrugh’s direction”, said James. “My house mates didn’t close properly at the top for the whole year despite them trying to fix it! Sounds like a good idea”, added Kathleen.
Progress has been made already. The University’s fair-trade status was renewed early this month, after having lapsed and, according to a City of York transport survey vehicle movements have fallen 5% in the last year. This improvement comes despite an increase in the student population.
A spokesperson for the University told Vision that “sustainability is a core element of the University Plan and we are making significant improvements this year.
“This combines with the fact that our new buildings are BREEAM rated ‘very good’ and that our recycling strategy will increase recycling rates by a predicted 25 per cent and our sustainable transport policy which continues to deliver lower car usage to show that we are serious about sustainability.”
Hopefully David Duncan will ensure that we don’t drop another 40 places in next year’s Green League!? 126th this year (bottom 20). As Tim Ellis said ‘it’s embarrassing’.