New Insights
Sustainability matters
At Cardiff, we’re taking the lead on environmental sustainability. We’re making a positive change though our research and the way we’re living as a university community.
From green chemistry to species extinction, sustainable architecture to climate change, our scholars are at the forefront of research, transforming the way we think about sustainability and influencing policy and practice worldwide.
Our Sustainable Places Research Institute is our commitment to finding solutions to the challenges of diminishing resources and climate change. Its approach is unique. It’s a meeting place for the finest minds from a wide range of our disciplines, making new connections between science, humanities, psychology and more.
At the same time, we’re working hard to ensure our day-to-day operations are generating less waste and are more efficient. We were the first higher education institution in Wales to achieve the Carbon Trust Standard and we’re committed to reducing our emissions even further.
This e-publication, Sustainability at Cardiff: Making a difference gives you just a small selection of the innovative research we’re undertaking at Cardiff.
Enabling more sustainable ways of working in Cardiff University
All members of the University community can play an active role in reducing the environmental impact of their work, research and study. Technology is one of the key elements enabling this reduction, creating new ways of working that require fewer resources than traditional methods. Here are just some of the alternative ways of working that can support the University’s drive to be ever more sustainable:
Users throughout the University have been taking advantage of the videoconferencing and teleconferencing facilities which enable virtual collaboration. This reduces the travel required to physically attend conferences and meetings, saving the University thousands of hours of travel time and tonnes of carbon dioxide. The two main Information Services-managed videoconferencing studios (the Railway Room in 51 Park Place and Ty Dewi Sant on the Heath Park campus) are available to staff, students and researchers to use on University business. Some academic schools also provide their own local facilities, and Information Services’ recent introduction of Skype as a networked application has enabled desktop videoconferencing for members of the University.
The University’s new myPrint networked printing and photocopying service, which is available in the University Libraries and IT rooms, is helping students, staff and researchers to monitor and minimise the environmental impact of their printing. Users can select options to view the environmental impact of their printing in terms of the number of trees, amount of carbon dioxide, and energy used. Other ways to reduce the impact of printing include printing double-sided or printing more than one page per sheet of paper, both of which help to reduce the use of resources.
As part of the ‘reduce, re-use, recycle’ model, staff members across Cardiff University and other Higher Education and research institutions across the UK are using the Xchange procurement portal to buy and sell used items such as furniture and laboratory equipment. The Xchange system is provided by JISC Procureweb which is a JISC Advance service hosted by Cardiff University. This service not only helps Cardiff and the other institutions to save money, but also to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill. Access Xchange online at http://xchange.procureweb.ac.uk/.
Secure use of the University’s IT network is also supporting sustainability. When users log out from University PCs running the standard University Windows image, Information Services’ PC power-saving system automatically powers down the computer after a set time of not being used. Users are saving the University around £100,000 per year in energy costs, as well as decreasing carbon dioxide emissions, by taking this simple step.
There are lots of small changes that, if we all play our part, can really make a difference to the University’s sustainability and environmental impact. Things like switching off a light when you leave a room, turning off the power to electrical devices rather than leaving them on stand-by, and only printing what we really need, will all add up to improving the sustainability of Cardiff University.
Find out more about sustainability across the University at www.cardiff.ac.uk/sustainability
To read more about some of the practical ways you can help to minimise your environmental impact, please go to www.cardiff.ac.uk/insrv/aboutus/sustainability/hints.html
To find out more about videoconferencing, please see www.cardiff.ac.uk/insrv/graphicsandmedia/videoconference, or contact videoconferencing@cardiff.ac.uk