In efforts to raise awareness about low carbon living the Aberdeen University Students’ Association (AUSA) is inviting members of the University community to ‘Go Green’ by committing to a small but high-impact lifestyle change for one week.
Fifteen champions are sought to take the week-long challenge and blog about it as part of the national Go Green week (10th-16th February). So far a number of staff members have become involved and will be blogging about their efforts as they persevere through their week – long challenges.
Eva Nohe, AUSA President for Environment and Ethics, explains: “This challenge is designed to provoke people to think about how their daily actions tie in with the bigger picture in terms of sustainability. A wide-spread understanding of environmental issues may help catalyse the political change we urgently need.”
Professor Adam Price from the Biological Science department is going vegan for the week, he said: “From my teaching and research I am aware of the need to reduce the environmental impact of food production, and reducing reliance on animal products is probably going to be required by a large proportion of the people in developed countries. Although I do not eat much meat, my daily life depends on milk and cheese. I am going to try to do without them to see how hard it is.”
Fraser Lovie, the University’s sustainability adviser, has persuaded his family to go vegetarian for the week.
He added: “Colleagues across the University are working to improve operational practice to support sustainability, but as individuals we also have a role to play. Whether that is by taking public transport more, using multi-functional printers rather than our old desktop ones, signing up to the AUSA’s Veg Bag scheme, or simply applying the good recycling habits we have at home in our working lives, we can all change our behaviour for the better.”
There will be daily updates on the progress of the champions at ausa.org.uk/gogreen.
The Aberdeen University Students’ Association have arranged a week of events and workshops to encourage the wider University community to become involved in Go Green week. The programme includes building a bicycle-powered generator, a pedal-powered film screening and a visit to the local Combined Heat and Power Station. All of the events are free and are open to all students and staff.