Well this is my last day for writing a blog in 2013. With only 2 more days of work until the Christmas break the count down is well on its way. With many people finishing today we’re having to start making sure that as folks leave for the holiday all of their electrical equipment is switched off and unplugged. The need to unplug items remains one of these mysteries to me – my logic says that if the switch is off then no power is used but the evidence exists that a small trickle of power is used. So we will make sure we unplug everything except the fridge as I believe it is important to take any steps possible to save our diminishing reserves of fossil fuels.
We’ve had a really good push on Green Impact activities as the year draws to a close – our Green Travel to Work Day yesterday was successful with several staff opting for the bus rather than driving in. We even had 2 green tips for the student Services briefing so displayed one at the beginning and one at the end. The first reminded people to buy environmentally friendly presents, switch off electrical appliances, try to avoid food waste, and to recycle packaging, cards and trees. The second was to promote our Bring it, Swap it, Give it event on 19 January.
My thoughts are now turning to how we re-energise our Green Impact initiatives in the New Year. We’ve got some really good Green Impact champions who are all setting in motion brilliant ideas – what we’re not so good at is co-ordinating all of our initiatives to share resources and avoid confusion so I will be working with the team on this – for starters I’m going to have a rota for producing the monthly and weekly Green Tips. I’m also thinking we need to update our Google site and make sure we all use this when we’re introducing new ideas. But overall I’m really looking forward to 2014 and working with a great bunch of dedicated colleagues who are good fun to work with, learning more about Green Impact as we all come up with new ideas.
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and our Environment a healthy New Year!