I hope you all had the chance to go to Go Green Day run by Kent Union on the 21st of September! It was hard to miss, there was a big marquee up on the plaza opposite Essentials shop.
During Arrivals Week every year Kent Union run this great day to help promote the #environment to staff and students whilst they are here at @UniKent and hopefully afterwards too! For the past three years we have also attended this event where we have provided our staff and students with information on recycling on campus and what they can do to be #recyclingchampions! (Somehow I envision a long green cape with the recycling symbol on right about now…..)
This year I also had the pleasure of being interviewed by KTV about recycling on campus and you can watch it here.
Apart from #recycling in the correct way by following our A-Z there are lots of things that we can all do to be more #environmentallyfriendly on campus. First of all, all the Hospitality catering outlets offer #fairtrade options and eating outlets such as Dolce Vita use local produce in their menu! What a great way to reduce our carbon footprint by sourcing local produce, which is also much more yummy as its purchased in its best growing season! I couldn’t recommend Dolce Vita enough, their specials are definitely something to look out for!
During Go Green Day there were lots of local companies selling produce such as cakes, breads, pickles, jams, juices and there was even a body lotion stall all made from #organic, Fairtrade or local ingredients.
Another way to be an #environmentalchampion is the transportation that you use to get to campus, now most students who live on campus will walk or cycle around campus to get to lecturers, seminars and to meet their friends (well I hope anyway) but there are also lots of #greentravel options for those of us that live off campus and commute! Students can hire bikes on a termly basis with CyclingAge at a super affordable price and have regular check-ups with Dr Bike, who are trained cycle mechanics, and make any minor adjustments for free. Dr Bike is on campus every Wednesday during term time down at the new Cycle Hub near the Pavilion.
For staff you can join the Cycle to Work scheme which is a UK Government Tax Free initatve through a salary sacrifice scheme, what a great idea! If I lived closer I would defiantly give this a go (not quite sure I can cycle from Margate every day, I would be knackered!)
For staff and students who are travelling between the Medway and Canterbury campuses you can get the free campus shuttle service, but make sure you book your seat as they can get very busy!!!
There are also great offers available with Stagecoach with cheaper tickets for staff and students and our buses are bio buses, all run on bio gas!! And for travelling a bit further there are National Express and National Rail cards that can be purchased to give you discounts every time you travel! For more information visit https://www.kent.ac.uk/estates/services/transport/index.html now that’s quite a lot of plugging for you @unikent_travel 🙂
Hopefully I’ve made it clear that there are lots of ways on and off campus that we can all work to towards protecting our environment, tweet me any ideas that you may have on what we could also do!! I look forward to hearing your suggestions.
Love @UniKentRecycle