Read more about the winner and runner up of the 2015 Sustainability Action Award for a Student-Staff Partnership Team.
Winners of the Outstanding Student and Staff teams award: Try before you buy
Group members: Dr Simon Coles, Dr Jonathan Kitchen, Robert Laverick, Mike Moazami, Dharyl Wilson
‘Try before you buy’ are establishing an exemplar sustainable synthetic chemistry research laboratory employing approaches broadly applicable to any ‘wet lab’ research operation. This on-going project aims to induce behavioural change in a very traditional, conservative and resource hungry discipline. The projects, which are conceived “by chemists, for chemists”, include:
- Trialling new equipment to reduce power, water and chemicals use.
- Establishing an inventory system to regulate procurement and sharing of excess chemicals, which has already saved 200 litres of acetone in just 3 months
- ‘Myth busting’ by enabling colleague to test whether these approaches work for their area of chemistry
- Embedding it in education, with 30 students having completed the first course.
- Generating follow-on initiatives in other disciplines across the university.
The newly established Chemistry Environment Group is fully integrated into the departmental management structure, and will being to inform and implement new policies, with the aim of embedding sustainability into the everyday operations of the department.
Runner-up of the Outstanding Student and Staff teams award: UniCycle
Group members: David Martindale, Tim Baker, Pascal Lally, Rob Irwin, Colm Corr, Mike Roberts, Zach Llamas, James Perrett, George Johnson
The UniCycle project focuses on restoring old and abandoned bicycles left on the university campus, to then be sold back to other members of the university at a very reasonable price. The mechanical work required to bring the bikes back into working order is all undertaken by volunteers, with the support of a professional mechanic provided by RideRide cycle workshop who also provide the workspace for bicycle repair. Once enough bikes have been repaired, a bike sale is organised to sell them back to students.
The bike sales have also been highly successful with all of the bikes that have been repaired being sold. Over 50 bikes have been prevented from being left for scrap since 2013, with any unrepairable bikes stripped for parts so nothing is wasted. All the money raised is reinvested into cycling-related resources, including the Bike Doctor. The volunteers benefit from developing their skills in maintaining and restoring bikes. The wider student community benefits from access to affordable bikes – a low-carbon and healthy transport option.