Estates news

The Senior Management Team within Estates are looking for inspirational members of staff who have made a difference to colleagues or customers through dedication, innovation, understanding or skill.

The Customer Services Award ^[51] is given to an Estates staff member or team who:

• provided a timely and professional service to customers;
• were responsive to customer needs and requests;
• were courteous and considered the needs of the customer when making decisions.

Winners will be selected on a monthly basis, each receiving a £20 Amazon voucher.

The purpose of the award is to recognise and reward excellent customer service. Send us your nomination now ^[52]

Nominations will be judged on a monthly basis with the results being published on the Estates website ^[53]. The deadline for receiving nominations for the next award is found here https://www.kent.ac.uk/estates/rewards/index.html

Just 4.2 tonnes of rubbish sent to landfill as efforts to dispose of waste in environmentally friendly ways continue to improve.

The University disposed of a huge 2,315 tonnes of waste via controlled environmental methods in the 2016-17 academic year, the equivalent of 17 blue whales, 210 Tyrannosaurus-Rex, or 126 full UniBuses.

This represents an increase on the 2,287 tonnes disposed of by environmental means in the previous academic year 2015-16.

The breakdown of how the 2,315 tonnes was disposed of is as follows:

• 1,484 tonnes or 64.1% of waste was recycled (an increase on 1,358 tonnes in 2015-16)
• 786.4 tonnes or 33.9% were sent for incineration that turns waste into energy. The ash left over from this process is also compacted and used as building materials (a reduction on 907.3 tonnes in 2015-16).
• 44.6 tonnes or 1.9% were used as compost (more than double the 21.1 tonnes composted for the academic year 2015-16)

Only 4.2 tonnes of waste was sent to actual landfill – the equivalent to three giraffes – while a remaining 31.8 tonnes is classed as hazardous waste and so is disposed of by specialist means. These are both reductions from the previous academic year when landfill waste was 4.8 tonnes and hazardous waste 37.6 tonnes.

The focus on waste is just one strand of Kent’s commitment to reducing its environmental impact as much possible.

A recent report detailed that the University has cut its carbon emissions by 14.4% since 2005 and is on track to reach a target of 20% by 2023. Water waste has also been cut by 15% in the last 12 months.

Estates staff or ‘The Crankies’ rode a 24 hour charity cycle event on Friday 14 and Saturday 15 July in aid of Bloodwise  https://bloodwise.org.uk/. The route was a one mile course around Park Wood. The riders clocked up hundreds of laps between them, including riding through the night. A fabulous £1100 (and still coming in) was raised.  You are all an inspiration, well done!

The summer term always creates a challenge for the Recycling and Waste team as we gear up for the Great Student Throw-out Fest. Adhering to the principles of the Waste Hierarchy, in which reuse is rated more highly than recycling, we partner with the British Heart Foundation and FareShare to encourage students to pass on their unwanted clothing, bric-a-brac and food rather than throw it away.

While the promotions are directed towards students, we’re delighted to see staff join in so enthusiastically too. The results are now in, and we saw a huge 78% increase in clothing donations and 83% in book donations, compared to the same period last year. That’s a staggering 5½ tonnes more!

Sadly the foodbank donations weren’t quite as positive, with a 25% drop – this was mainly down to appalling weather on the first day and the coincidence of the collection for Grenfell Tower on the final day. However we still achieved in excess of a quarter of a tonne of food, and our first donations came from staff members.

Not to be outdone, our Warp It partnership with the Interior Services team – redistributing office furniture across and between Canterbury and Medway – has seen a phenomenal 170% increase year-on-year. First introduced in January 2016, the scheme saved £39,500 in the first six months of the year, compared to £106,700 in the first six months of this year. Not only that, but we’re now linking up with local charities to pass on items which are now below the University’s standards.
Thank you to all for your continued support in making our world just that little bit greener!

The University has launched a new 24/7 security service at the Medway campus. The new security team will be patrolling the Pembroke and dockyard sites to keep our students, staff and visitors safe.

The team will be based in the Medway building and can be contacted at any time on the phone numbers below.

Emergencies:

• 3333 (if dialling from a University landline)
• 01227 823333 (if dialling from a mobile or external landline)

General enquiries:

• 3300 (if dialling from a University landline)
• 01227 823300 (if dialling from a mobile or external landline)

The team will be working closely with other security teams from Greenwich University, Canterbury Christ Church University and Historic Dockyard, Chatham to provide a quality security service that meets the needs of our communities.

And don’t forget that the SafeZone App is available and can be used to contact the team for both security and first aid emergencies saving the need to remember or dial any phone numbers. Please see the SafeZone webpage for more details.

The Security Supervisor, Mick Miles, is available Monday to Friday during the day at the Medway building (next to reception) to answer any queries you may have about the security service at the Medway campus.

Kent are the top performing University in the South East! (using Warp-it).

Out of 200 UK companies using Warp-it Kent are 4^th in the league table of trades per month.  In addition we are 7^th for average total savings per month (£7,171) and Warp-it are so impressed with our achievements they want to do a case study on us!

To date we have saved £121,756 on new furniture costs and avoided 22,009 kg of furniture going to recycling, this equates to 21 cars off the road and planting of 67 trees.

Warp-it gets the best value out of reusable furniture at the University of Kent, by finding owners for items that would otherwise have to be disposed of. Register now https://www.warp-it.co.uk/company/uok