By Matthew Chandler
This week, Sustainable DMU are running events as part of Earth Week to make campus a more sustainable place to live and work.
There are numerous events each day from Monday to Friday, including talks from guest speakers, film screenings and a clothes swap.
Karl Letten, Environmental & Sustainability Officer, is both excited and hopeful that the week’s activities will prove to be a big success with students.
“It is important to me but also to the students to understand what their university is doing to be environmentally friendly,” said Karl, who is giving a talk himself at 1.00pm today on DMU’s 2015/16 Sustainability Report.
Karl feels that the aim of Earth Week is to make students more aware of sustainability and what it means, not least because so many companies are beginning to address it.
“Last year, all but one of the FTSE 100 companies reported on their carbon emissions. For students looking for jobs in these companies, it is important that they understand what this means and that there is a drive towards sustainability”.
Yesterday, the creating of decorative of art pieces for the Chaplaincy using prayer ribbons from last month’s vigil helped get Earth Week underway. Karl was pleased that this was well-received by those who attended.
“Students like to get their hands dirty and the students who came enjoyed themselves and found it very fulfilling and worthwhile, especially as a result of its links with the vigil”.
But it was last night’s talk from Richard Smith, Sustainability Manager at the BBC, that Karl was particularly enthusiastic about.
“There is a standard called Albert that the BBC work towards if programmes are environmentally friendly. Richard came up with the idea of the Albert standard.
“That’s a really good example of how companies you wouldn’t think of as leaders in sustainability are taking great strides in this area and coming up with innovative approaches to address sustainability”.
To learn more about Earth Week, visit: http://www.dmu.ac.uk/about-dmu/sustainability/earth-week.aspx.
