Here's the link to make things easier: http: //fennerschool-lectures.anu.edu.au/lectures/2009/ENVS1001/lectures_and_tutorials/tutorials/campus_sustainability.html
Our questions/tasks are:
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What can you do to reduce your own ecological footprint?
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What are some of the resource inputs and wast outputs of universities like the ANU and NUS and how do these contribute to their overall footprint?
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List some innovative strategies that the educational institutions like the ANU and NUS are doing to reduce their overall ecological footprint. Do any of these strategies challenge social or institutional "norms"? (That is, Change the way people behave or think?)
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Devise 2 strategies that ANU or NUS could implement to reduce their footprint, and enhance sustainability. Who is responsible? Individuals changing their behaviour, the univerisity changing the way it conducts business, or both? Why?
Just before we get into the discussion, does anyone think we need to change anything about how we collaborate on these?
11 comments:
For the footprint I came up with:
Category: Global Hectares:
Food: 0.8
Mobility: 0.1
Shelter: 0.1
Goods/services: 2.1
Total: 3.1
Number of Planets: 1.7
A few easy ways to reduce this would be:
Buying only recycled or recyclable paper/plastic
Purchasing food with less packaging, or more food that is grown locally.
Flying less; go on holiday somewhere nearby.
Inputs/Outputs on campus:
Just a quick brainstorm on this, I figure that a university will have much the same energy inputs and waste outputs as a residential area, though obviously on a much larger scale, with a few additions, such as chemical waste produced in laboratories, or a higher energy input to power equipment like electron microscopes or mass spectrometers.
As to strategies used to reduce institutions' footprints, there are projects such as re-vegetating damaged land, recycling university waste, composting organic waste and using green energy sources to name a few.
None of those listed here really involve people on campus a great deal, so won't have a great deal of impact on the way they behave or think, though I'd say in the case of separating garbage, simply having the choice of which bin to put waste in means people must engage with the idea on some level.
I'm still thinking about the new strategies to increase campus sustainability, but I figure it's best to get the discussion started early and fill in the blanks later on.
I hope to get some more up later today, looking forward to hearing what you guys think.
Hello i have done my footprint and the details are as follows:
Using western australia as my reference point,
I took 2.8 earths.
I use 5 global hectares.
My food account for 47% of my ecological footprint.
Before moving into the four questions, I have a question for Chris, I am interested in knowing why your mobility only accounts for 0.1 global hectares? Does it mean you travel mostly on a bike or walk?
The next question on how we can better collaborate. Maybe you can set sub posts for each question so it would not be so messy. If I want to answer question 2, I will just click on the post set for question 2. Have to trouble you again!
1) What i can do to reduce my footprint is to consume food that is locally produced and not imported. However, Singapore is a import-reliant country and our food industries are not the main engine of drivers here, thus resulting in the huge ecological footprint due to food. But i believe it would not be that huge if there is a reference for Singapore and not W. Australia. Also looking at the detailed questions being asked, we can roughly know which areas of our lifestyle we should take note of, for example the amount of meat and dairy products we consume, the type of electricity we use, how much we recycle and how we travel. By selecting renewable energy resources, engaging in recycling and travelling on public transport are some other pointers we can take note of.
2) We just had a lecture by a guest from the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) and i saw stats on tertiary institutions (170KWH/m²/yr) using huge amounts of electricity, much more than residential households (below 100kwh/m²/yr). I would believe this is due to the air-conditioning and lighting being used throughout the campus, with NUS paying 3million singapore dollars in electricity bills/month. We would also be using lots of water be it for the swimming pool or to watering the greenery, to even the washing of cutlery and floors around the campus. In addition, we even imputed the carbon footprint of staff and students going overseas for exchange or conventions under NUS, so it could be considered one of the resource inputs as well. Our waste outputs could be food wastage, biohazards due to experiments conducted in laboratories and the huge amount of paper that we used on campus for various reasons. All these would contribute to NUS overall footprint in terms of what we used as well as what we could have cut down on using or properly handled to limit the footprint.
3) For NUS, there are a few key strategies which I have personally taken note of. Firstly would be the aim of cutting down on paper wastage. We are allowed to submit some of our work online and for hardcopy submission; double-sided printing is also allowed and in fact strongly recommended by the lecturers. Recycling bins for paper, plastic and metal are also increasingly accessible and prominent on campus, so that students will not find recycling a hassle. The second strategy would be the setting of all thermostats at 25 degree Celsius instead of freezing temperatures of 25 and below. In fact studies have been done by NUS to find out the optimal room temperature a person can function best in and it is slightly higher than 25 degree Celsius. Lastly would be the cutting down on the usage of plastic bags whereby our school bookshop now charges 10cents (which is given to a environmental fund) for every plastic bag given out, encouraging students to decrease plastic bag usage. There are many more schemes but these three are the most memorable ones on campus as it directly affected my campus lifestyle. In addition, all these schemes have personally been endorsed by the top management in NUS, adding credence and importance to the significance of all these measures. Therefore all these schemes definitely challenge our institutional norms as Singaporeans have one of the highest plastic bag usage in the world and double-sided printing used to be seen as “unprofessional” amongst undergraduates when submitting their painstakingly done essays/projects. Lastly, Singapore is also known as “the air-con nation” or its high usage and omnipresent air-conditioning. However it makes sense not to set the temperatures too low as it will only affect the performance of people and not make they feel comfortable but cold instead (noting the notion of environmental determinism here though!)
4) For NUS, I would say implementing the culture of switching off the lights and air-con of tutorial rooms when no one is using them. This would have to be the responsibility of the individuals perhaps with an initial prodding by the tutors, hoping that overtime it would be a habit of some sorts. This should be the responsibility on both parties as Singaporeans are usually very reactive, acting only when instructed to do so. In addition, both parties acting together would push home the point even more strongly that campus sustainability is a team effort.
The second strategy would be having access to adjusting air-conditioning temperatures in lecture theatres. This is because NUS is based on a central air-conditioning unit for lecture theatres and sometimes it is freezing due to the heavy raining outdoors, lowering the room temperature that everyone is close to shivering. This would be up to the university to do it and the individuals would definitely act on their own should the room be too cold or warm.
First off, regarding Andy's question about my mobility, yes, it's because just about all of my traveling (certainly my day to day movement) is all on a bike.
I think sub posts are a great idea. I'll set that up this afternoon (I've also given admin privileges to those of you who've accepted the publisher invitation, if anyone wants to beat me to it).
on to the questions:
Andy's ideas are great, and I'm sure both are just as applicable to the ANU as to NUS. Regarding air conditioning and heating, as well as heating or cooling rooms less extremely I'd say that any new buildings going up on campus could be designed to have passive heating/cooling (window placement, insulation, building materials ect... to stay warm in winter and cool in summer) to further reduce the energy needed for air con.
4) ANU already has a lot of methods in place to reduce consumption and output, but I'm not sure how effective they currently are, or rather, if they couldn't be implemented slightly more efficiently. Case in point would be recycling bins. There are a lot of them around the campus, but I wonder about the wisdom of where they are placed. Some appear almost perpetually empty. There are others, generally those outside the main lecture theaters, which overflow daily (obviously rubbish which falls out of the bin is going to become litter rather than recycling). So, my first solution is a simple one: Have more or larger recycling bins outside frequently trafficked areas. This would primarily involve the management of the campus, though individuals still need to make the choice to put their rubbish in the empty bin rather than the overflowing one.
Secondly, I think that involvement of the student population could be increased. It won't matter how many strategies are in place to help students behave sustainably if none of them know or care. In Envs1001 we hear quite a bit about the organization for campus sustainability, anugreen, but that information isn't given out in any of my other subjects. Like Andy said, campus sustainability needs to be a team effort, so making people aware is essential. To achieve this I would suggest holding events through the year (anugreen does have a 'celebrate sustainability day' but one day of each year doesn't seem like much) to inform people of the organization. Obviously people need to know about such things before they can attend. In Envs1001 we are told about upcoming events like this at the beginning or end of lectures, and I don't see why the same couldn't be done in other courses. This would require action on just about all levels. anugreen need to hold the events, lecturers need to choose to tell people about them, and students need to decide to go.
Hi there :)
I am embarrassed to say that according to the test, I need about 2.8 planet earths.
I use about 5.69 global hectares of productive area.
My food account for 66% of my ecological footprint.
1.As Andy had mentioned, most of the food in Singapore is imported, and hence explains the high percentage of my ecological footprint is on food. As I often consume food sold by vendors, it is not for me to decide to buy locally produced or imported raw ingredients. I will just consume whatever is available from the various food vendors. I can dine in more often, rather than packing my food out. This will reduce my consumption of plastics.
Comment: I think there is much we can do to reduce our own ecological footprint. We know we should, and we know how to. However, I think the bigger question is ARE WE WILLING TO? Are we willing to go the extra mile to reduce our ecological footprint which may sometimes mean giving up some of our comfort? For example, Chris has mentioned about flying lesser and travelling to nearer destinations for holiday. I think the society and individuals know too much but sometimes it can be very challenging to put all these knowledge into action. That’s why for a long time environmental sustainability has only remained as a lip service, it is until recently that active pragmatic and practical tactics have been taken to approach the situation seriously.
2.I agree with Andy that the air-conditioning, lighting and water consumption are the main resource inputs in NUS. There is no doubt that energy consumption in these 3 aspects would definitely increase when the new university town hall comes into being in a couple of year’s time.
I have two more inputs that I feel should be added to the list. First is the internal shuttle. There are 4 separate NUS Internal Shuttle Bus Services (Service A, Service B, Service C and Service D) plying the Kent Ridge and Bukit Timah Campus. I think the internal shuttles are run by a third operator and NUS might simply be purchasing their services. However, based on the number of buses and its high frequencies, there is no doubt that the internal shuttle does contribute much to the carbon count of the campus.
Second, the high paper consumption in NUS. Even though Andy has pointed out that printers are now set to print on double sides by default, rather than the singled-side previously, there is still high consumption and wastage of paper. Not only do students use a lot of paper to print their stuff, the school management, too, uses lots of paper for its publicity and administrative work. Take for example, large huge recycling bins for paper were places outside the Multi-purpose Hall during the recent NUS Open House. It is because the Office of Environmental Sustainability foresaw that a large amount of publicity brochure and flyers would be wasted at such events.
3.Besides those initiatives that Andy has brought out, there are other strategies practiced by NUS. Many of the schemes are still pilot projects. One interesting scheme is the “Bring Your Own Box and Be Rewarded”. Students are encouraged to bring their own lunch boxes or used recycles plastic containers to pack their take away food from the canteen. Lunch boxes are also sold in the canteen. Students would be awarded if the bring their lunch boxes. They can in turn redeem treats with the accumulated points/awards.
Over 1, 800 cities in 80 countries will come together to observe the Earth Hour this Saturday, 28 March 2009. Hundreds of organization and individual households have pledged to switch off their lights for an hour, as an act to support for the fight against climate change. Earth Hour was initiated in Sydney in 2007 and soon spread worldwide. NUS is also going to participant in this event. Emails have been sent out to students notify them and encourage them to take part in this meaningful event. I think this event is a small yet encouraging step to environmental sustainability. All it takes was one city to impact 1, 800 other cities. This is what I call teamwork across borders!
It is has been the practice of environmental-related clubs and societies and even the Office of Environmental Sustainability to screen relevant movies to increase environmental awareness. All these are definitely ideal effort but their impacts are uncertain. I think the biggest challenge is to get to students to attend, watch and ponder about the environmental issues.
Despite all the efforts done on campus to bring about environmental consciousness, I think the impacts on the behavior of students are rather mild. People will do what you inspect but not what you expect. For example, when the 25 degree Celsius initiative began, it was closely adhered to, but now most people seems to have forgotten about it. Lecture and tutorial rooms are back to their low temperatures again. Similarly, the plastic bag rule is no longer strictly practiced by the canteen vendors after the “activity period” dies down. Perhaps the bookshop is the only place adhering to that rule. The measures by NUS are manageable, however, it may take a long time for these practices to become a habit in students.
Comment: I agree with Chris that recycle bins should be place in more appropriate venues. I was at University of Victoria last semester. There is a few paper recycling bins placed on almost every level of the tutorial classes, so as to provide convenience for the students. There are compost bins outside the canteens and cafes so as to make recycling food products more easily.
Hi guys, Fairus here...
Well as for me i scored 1.9 planet earths,
use about 3.5 global hectares of Earth productive area
and my food account is a little over 50%
And hence on to the questions..
1) What can i do to reduce my own ecological footprint?
Well i believe you guys have said some suggestions, but i guess the main bugbear for us Singaporeans is the fact that we mostly import our food rather than grow them within our borders. Lack of land space explains that (about 700km2) But yeah, as stated by Andy, that really contributes a huge chunk to our eco. footprints.
Of course we can do our bit to actually reduce the eco footprint of ourselves. if we observe the breakdown of our eco footprint...(which i'm guessing for Chris and Doris should be the same)...our next biggest contributors are our Goods and Services section. I don't exactly understand what does the quiz mean by goods and services but i guess we need to reduce those.
At the end of the day, all we need to do to reduce our Eco Footprint is to just do the common sense things like recycle, use energy efficient bulbs, use only whats needed, etc.
2) What are some of the resource inputs and wast outputs of universities like the ANU and NUS and how do these contribute to their overall footprint?
Hmmm. When i looked at this question, i thought it was mostly more outputs than inputs. Personally to me resource inputs can range from the land at which the university sits on, to the amount of electricity to even the amount of fuel the university admin staff use to get around, plus security, plus...
For me when thinking about the inputs and outputs of a university, think along the lines of a gated community, where they have access to all facilities and also security and admin and technical staff, who have their own input requirements to carry out their jobs, and maybe add a canteen somewhere. that pretty much sums it up.
As for Eco footprint of universities, i'd say that all these contribute to a huge footprint. To demonstrate, let's use the typical undergraduate and his or her laptop charging habits. We're bound to charge our laptops everyday without fail on campus. But the electrical consumption here pretty much lumps up the eco footprint of Universities up a few notches. and that is only if we're using laptops. Add the otehr functions we see in the university like labs, huge lecture halls and more, and we now see that the universities does have a huge ecological footprint.
3) List some innovative strategies that the educational institutions like the ANU and NUS are doing to reduce their overall ecological footprint. Do any of these strategies challenge social or institutional "norms"? (That is, Change the way people behave or think?)
I think Chris has mentioned the 25 degree limit for air conditioners throughout campus and the 10 cents charge for take away items in the campus canteens. Also there are Recycle bins strategically placed throughout campus to encourage recycling.
Indeed, this is good and excellent. Awareness about the environment has increased and infact, students and staff are more conscious of what they do that will affect the environment
But to be honest, i think these measures are something thats been repeated and repeated and repeated. Sure it has instituted a certain level of change. Yet, i feel it doesnt really challenge any of the social or institutional norms. For instance, sure, plastic bags are charged with 10cents. But honestly, 10c more for a plastic bag is relatively insignificant and can be just paid, without any heed to the behaviour of wasteful plastic use.
4) Devise 2 strategies that ANU or NUS could implement to reduce their footprint, and enhance sustainability. Who is responsible? Individuals changing their behaviour, the univerisity changing the way it conducts business, or both? Why?
2 strategies. 1st, reduce electrical consumption. As pointed out by Chris, Tertiary institutions are one of the highest electrical consumers in Singapore. Perhaps the first way is to reduce elecrical consumption. Perhaps it can use auto switches that only on the lights in a room when someone is detected in the room and offs it when there is no motion in the room. It could also educate the students on responsible electrical usage.
I cant really think of a second strategy, but i must say that ensuring sustainability of the campus is the responsibility of everyone, be it the student body, staff or the organisation.
Wayne here.
I repeatedly took the test because I couldn't believe I use more than one earth. I finally settled for 1.8 earths and 3.2 global hectares some of my answers to the questions were a bit debatable.
1) What can i do to reduce my own ecological footprint?
Most of the Singaporeans have mentioned that most of their food is imported. Although I think importing from Johore or up to Kuala Lumpur should not considered, in terms of the footprint, as not eating locally as it is still within 325 mi (based on the test's definition and KL is around 300 mi away).
There is not much consumers can do to encourage the middlemen to import from nearby countries rather than from places as far as Germany, Chile and the United States if they are not aware first of where their food is coming from.
The suggestions the test gave were to eat less meat and purchase less packaged stuff which could reduce my footprint by 0.3 earths separately.
Hello here is my 2nd posting haha. Read through all your posts and it is really interesting, especially the number of earths that we are using.
Firstly to comment on our high proportion of footprint that is attributed to earth. I believe it is because the reference point is Western Australia because the only way to import food to australia would be thru aviation or marine, while for Singapore we get quite alot of food products from nearby Malaysia. However that doesn't deny our high consumption of food products.
Secondly I got to agree with Chris and doris in that the student body should play a bigger role but most of the time has been impeded either by the lack of awareness or the lack of action. Many schemes have been started and recycling bins are getting more accessible nowadays but people are not recycling the correct products resulting in high wastage in the end! Just like what Fairus has mentioned, we are all not walking our talk, consuming high levels of electricity through the multitude of electronic devices that undergrads simply could not live without today.
Thirdly I agree with Doris and Wayne on reducing the use of packaged stuff as it leads to an increase in plastic usage. However it is hard for busy singaporeans who usually rely on packet food on the go due to our packed lifestyles.
Fourthly, I am impressed with the ability of chris to cycle around most of the time as in Singapore it is a hard thing to do as cyclists do not have designated bicycle tracks and thus sharing the footpaths with pedestrians are not only annoying but also dangerous. Singaporeans are also lazy in nature and combined with the humid weather, there is little conviction in cycling from one place to another when there is an easy access to public transport around the whole island.
Lastly would be earth hour. Personally i think this is an innovative project that requires the concerted effort of the public before it could become a spectacle in order to send a message on environmental awareness to everyone. However personally i do not think earth hour would work. No doubt people switch off their lights for an hour but what i am guessing would be they would revert back to their usual lifestyles, feeling satisfied they have done their part for the environment. So the key is still to change one's lifestyle habits over time and not just for a hyped up event. Hopefully I am wrong on this though but this is just my opinion!
Yup overall I think both campus have some way to creating awareness and instilling good habits within the campus and this is a process that could not be achieved overnight. It would be good for all to do the test as just by doing the questions one will know in which areas they should look out for and change. Great discussion!
I think Fairus brought out a very valid point: there is always a price/prize to encourage/discourage people to reduce, reuse and recycle. The insignificant penalty of 10cents is put in place to discourage the use of plastic bags while the award system is used in the “bring your own box” initiative. It seems to me that recycling seems to be a rather passive effort at the community level. I think the long term challenge is: how to make recycling an active effort or habit?
I share my doubts about the effectiveness of the earth hour with Andy. However, I think sometimes we do need such hyped up events to increase environmental awareness. Such events also act as constant reminder to people that ensuring environmental sustainability should be a collective effort. I think the earth hour is just a symbolic gesture to kick start greater awareness. The effects of such hyped up events may be short term, but they are the fastest way to spread the message of environmental sustainability. Nothing beats the media in mass publicity! To top it off, just get a few celebrities to endorse the event and the before you know it, everyone is responding to the environmental call!
Hi Fairus here again...
Come to think about it, i seem to remember that a few years back there was this free concert promoting environmental awareness around the world...(i think it was last year)...in the end, good message, good entertainment, free entertainment for that matter...but...
Bad waste management...after the concerts, the place was so full of litter..and i think the concerts ate a chunk of energy in order to make it happen...
So are projects aimed at bettering the environment destined to fail? just a thought...
Sorry not to have gotten back to this sooner, this was a hectic week for assessment. Some really interesting stuff here, especially earth hour, or organized events regarding climate change in general. I would agree that for many people earth hour is a day to turn their lights out for an hour, and feel good for the rest of the year about doing something about climate change, but if just a few people start thinking because of earth hour, and change their lifestyles does it make it worth while? It seems that the biggest problem for climate change is community involvement, so if you ask me, the more can be done to make people aware of the issue the better.
Regarding what Fairus said about projects aimed at helping the environment being destined to fail, I just wanted to mention a festival which is held in Australia each year in Victoria. It's called Rainbow Serpent (http://rainbowserpent.net/)
and while the focus of the event isn't explicitly to do with the environment, it does take a lot of steps toward being more environmentally friendly than most concerts. One of the stages runs on solar power, just about everything used at the festival gets recycled, and even if it isn't the official reason for the festival, I think it would be difficult to go to it and leave without learning anything about sustainability. So I wouldn't say that these events are destined to fail, they just need to be managed well.
Lastly, I was wondering if anyone else thought it might be a good idea to start on the last collaboration task a little early, just to give us some more time.
Thanks for a great discussion.
Hey Chris! Would appreciate it if u start a new post becos we are unable to! I will post my contribution (which is already done but no new heading for me to put under) once the new posting is up!
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