Monthly goings on.....

Hey Everybody!
Here's what has been keeping me more than busy up to November; any comments or questions more than welcome.....
Thanks for visiting this page! However pretty soon there shall be a link here to a new webpage that the Guild shall be providing all officers with.....hopefully by end of next week I have been told.
Til soon....
Jenny.

Ethics and Environmental Officer Monthly Update:

Over the last month (and during summer and end of last year) I have been investigating the feasibility of using corn starch, non oil-derived, fully compostable take-away packaging for use predominantly in The Underground. I have emailed Steve Pickup and Geraint Edwards with the prices and shown them examples in the flesh and provided them with the website link: http://www.vegware.co.uk/products.html

There is no immediate rush as Steve does not expect to reorder anything before Christmas.

At the fresher’s’ societies fayre I held a stall raising awareness that the position exists, collecting emails of those interested in maybe helping out with anything, informing students of what I hope to achieve and what the university already does and displaying eco-friendly gadgets/products.

I researched good value organic and fair trade hoodies/t-shirts that societies and sport clubs could use for their club garments. At fresher’s fayres I spoke to every society, trying to encourage them to do so, using the information I provided them with from a company I had found. I have copied the lists of society and club contacts from the Sports and BOS Officers and shall email them to find out any progress on this.

I have distributed leaflets to encourage people to buy from the Fair Trade section of the union shop.

I have participated in a short recycling documentary for a group of Media students for use in their studies.

I have participated in a small press release with Arthur Davis, Alan Stephens and a member of staff from the county council regarding the Lilac Bag scheme.

I have attended meetings such as the Water and Energy Management Subgroup and the Waste and Recycling Subgroup, as well as smaller meetings with members of staff such as Glyndwr Humphreys and Nigel Owen from the Estates Office. Also with Angela Jones about the catering department; learning more about it, where their products are sourced from, investigating how much vegetarian/vegan options there are and about where sustainable packaging could be used for example coffee cups. I also asked about having an organic meal option available; I was told it had been tried in the past and was not bought.

I met with Organic Centre Wales to hear their side of the story to the past when an organic meal option was sold. They are supporting me in my aim….even if not in an organic meal option…..just more organic products/single ingredients. I am waiting to hear back from Jim Wallace for a meeting with him and a representative form Organic Centre Wales.

I have worked with Nigel Owen on the Waste-wise website and organised to work together for the launch of the Waste-wise Initiative and for a student travel survey to commence in December.

I have provided Steve Pickup with Fair Trade leaflets, which he has agreed to put into the bar menus.

I have been organising the Greenest Flat competition with the Halls Officers and the BOS Officer. We have begun to do ‘clinics’ at each halls of residence, where we ring on a flat’s door, introduce ourselves, advertise the competition, give them a lilac bag (if they are not in then we slip a leaflet advertising the competition under the door). We have done the Seafront so far. The results are to be released as part of a hopeful combined event with the Ethnic and Environment Officer in February as part of a Go Green week (Feb 16^th to 24^th).

I am working with Phil MacDonald on the Go Green campaign of People and Planet. We have a meeting with the VC on Monday.

I have begun research on how ethical the university’s investments are; I have just received the results of a Freedom of Information Request and shall take if further in due course……making sure to leave the results with the next Environment and Ethics Officer as there was a complaint that they get the same question each year.

I have done lots of research into the feasibility of having some form of student composting available. There are many legal restrictions to individual ones in each flat due to Foot and Mouth. It looks promising though that students (as well as catering outlets) will be able to use the soon-to-be-constructed ‘Rocket Composter’. Alan Stephens has kindly invited me to be involved with the introduction of the rocket composter as well as the new bike shelters that area appearing around campus.

I have got replies from many departments regarding whether they use recycled paper or paper form a sustainable source in their ‘behind the scenes’ printers for staff. None have come back positive. I have got prices and information from one company and shall investigate further in due course. Some departments would like some free samples to see if their printers can cope with the paper. This will be arranged.

I wrote a motion for the GM but then was informed that a similar thing is happening next year anyway.

I have emailed many lecturers, asking if they’d be willing to display a ‘Go Green’ or ‘Fair Trade’ advertisement power-point slide before their lecture slides as students are entering the lecture theatre. I received about 13 positives and have sent them the slides.

I have organised the Environment part of Fair Trade and Environment Day.

I have created my webpage and helped out at as part of Headway.

I have distributed just under 2500 free energy saving light bulbs!

By the way! hehe.....this is me!....feel free to stop me in the street and ask/tell me things in the street......even if i have headphones on, listening to music; I don't mind......the music being powered by rechargable battieries of course....and solar powered batteries when there's enough sun!

Jenny Mace; the new Enviro and Ethics (E+E) Guild Officer.

Howdy All !!!!!
Firstly I would like to say (and I'm sure on behalf of you all as well) a big THANK YOU to Nick Chan (the former E+E Officer) and GOODBYE and GOOD LUCK....though I am sure I shall see him via People and Planet events and talks we may request for him to do....as he is now a Campiagn Advocate in the organisation.

Before I go further I would just like to say that I am very committed to this role and will to my absolute best to achieve what I said I would in my manifesto....as well as any other extra things I can manage in the time I have.....this is detailed (as well as commending the university on what it already does (many are new this year; which is marvellous! Now I can do more in my role as some things already done! Yay!) below......

What the university already does:
-at least a few Fair Trade products in all establishments
-a few fair trade products in some vending machines
-we have a fair trade steering group striving to gain 'Fair Trade' status for the university
-use a lot of locally sourced ingredients in the catering outlets
-stock fair trade (as well as normal) hoodies, tshirts (they are actually"organic in conversion too") and some fair trade food in the union shop
-a composter for the catering outlets is being created behind the artscentre
-programmes exist whereby the levels of gas, water, temperature andelectricity are monitored and alarms sound if they go above a certainlevel
-last year the university had a 6 month contracted, part time energysupervisor and it looks promising that the university may employ a fulltime energy supervisor
-there is a waste-wise campaign with the intention of raising awarenessabout the issues of waste and to encourage recycling among students
-public computers can now be (or are in progress to be) switched off overnight
- Information Services Department are to adopt the use of special plugs,that allow all PC peripherals to be turned off when the computer is shutdown
-recycled paper is now used in all printers and by default everything isprinted double sided.
-the new 'Visualisation Building' has lights that go on when somebodyenters a room and turn off when someone leaves a room-a corn starch, biodegradable cup is to be used in some catering outlets
-water is being saved by an automatic flushing system
-there is now an easy recycling system in place in every halls ofresidence; including Brynderew and Sea Front. Students are supplied withlilac recycling bags in which they can place plastics, cardboard and tinsetc....glass can be recycled in the glass recycling banks dotted aroundcampus and town.
-the swimming pool now has new environmentally fridnly lights, theventilating system has been changed to reduce heat losses, there is newlining that reduces leakages, there are new windows offering improvedinsulation and there is a pool cover, which helps to save water and mainly heat

What I hope to achieve:
-increase the number of environmental and ethics guild officers
-'all-waste composters' to be present in every university flat
-many university clubs and societies using fairtrade and organichoodies/tshirts
-as many departments as possible to be using reycled paper/paper from asustainable source
-catering outlets to offer an organic meal choice
-all catering outlets to be using takeaway packaging and cutlery made frombiodegradable corn starch
-for Brynderew residents not to have to go to Sea Front Residencereception in order to obtain more lilac recycling bags
-progress on People and Planet's Go Green campaign
-supporting the People andPlanet Society in gaining Fair Trade Status for the university.
-as well as much much more if time allows!

I shall be updating this site now and then......if you would like more info before it is updated or would like to ask me questions/get involved and help me, please do not hesitate to contact me!
You shall receive a very quick answer!

Ok everyone......make most out of life til next time! I Plan to update at the end of next week after some key meetings.
cheerio!
Jenny.

Disingenious

Sorry, thought I was done with the last post, but still me (Nick) here - I've been cleaning up all my papers and files to hand on to Jenny, but came across this recent change to the Energy & Water Management policy that was slipped in without me realizing at the time:

A section of the final policy statement reads, under a general 'Energy and Water Management' section:
"Reinvest a proportion of annual savings into future saving initiatives."

However, the first draft that was presented, discussed and commented on at the first meeting of the E&WM group read:
"Reinvest 50% of any annual savings into future saving initiatives."

Now, this seems to me like some serious backtracking on a policy even before it formally comes into operation! Fifty percent is a concrete number, and we know that if the university saves £X it will end up with £Y to definitely be invested into a further program of action. With this change, the university can waffle and fudge and well, only spend 'a proportion' of savings into future initiatives and justify spending only a ridiculously low amount of money with this policy.

What I'm incredibly angry about is how this change, which is by no account insubstantial, was put in without being brought to the Energy & Water Management group as a whole. Part of me is extremely annoyed at myself for not spotting the change, but a bigger part of me is annoyed at university management for not highlighting that the change was made in between the two meetings.

Pro-Vice Chancellor John Harries, introducing the final document, said that only minor, wordsmithing changes had been made, and that is true for the rest of the policy - consolidating headings and word changes that don't affect substance - except for this one. I asked him if he would go through the changes that were made and he reassured me that they weren't substantive ones (so we didn't need to go through them), and I took him at his word. Trusting him was quite clearly a mistake on my part, and I've learned my lesson.

Quietly making this shift amidst a raft of other wording changes is disingenious and dishonest at best, and seriously calls into question the university's alleged commitment to student engagement with environmental progress if they weren't willing to at least discuss the change.

Final Words to the VC

Sorry, Nick here again - I promise my last ever post here, and I'll definitely shut up from now. In drawing a close on my year, I wrote a final letter to the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Noel Lloyd, focusing (as ever) on the Go Green campaign and I've reproduced it here:

Dear Vice-Chancellor,

Re: Will the University Go Green?

As I formally complete my degree here in Aberystwyth, I thought that I should take a few moments here to offer some concluding thoughts on the university’s environmental performance as it relates to my year on the Guild of Students’ Executive.

An Environmental Manager

You will be personally aware of the messy situation regarding the Wastewise waste awareness campaign’s distribution following Ben Gray’s communication with you in the spring. I am sure you agree that there are better uses for Pro-VC John Harries’ time than the minutiae of putting up stickers and door hangers. This has been perhaps the most glaring example of where communication and management on environmental issues continues to fall through gaps. As further work on waste management and travel, for instance, continues to develop in the months and years to come, simply put, an increased staff capacity through a full-time environmental manager is needed to ensure the optimal use of resources.

At its most basic level, this is about matching your verbal commitment to environmental progress with new and additional staff time dedicated to making change happen. The Wastewise episode exemplifies the risks of doing otherwise. Bring the various strands of energy and ideas together and we could have a great future ahead of us. When a few student colleagues and myself met you in February, you promised us that the current part-time energy consultant would be closely reviewed when his contract ends around now, and it would be regressive if there was no further commitment made in this regard. If you still do not feel that a full-time environmental manager can be employed, I would at least ask that you set out your reasons for this in writing.

A Refreshed Environmental Policy

Technically speaking, the University has an environmental policy as part of its broader Health, Safety & Environment Policy. This policy statement, however, has not been updated recently and its environmental assertions are extremely general and vague. When you put the existing HSE policy next to the newly-introduced Energy Management policy, the former is almost embarrassing to read in terms of the strength and clarity of its commitment. In my view, this needs to be substantially redrafted to reflect the obligations, responsibilities and targets that are, for instance, expressed in the Environmental Strategy document. A substantive, rather than merely procedural, student contribution to this process is also essential.

There has undoubtedly been progress over the past year, and I will be the first to acknowledge that. For all the methodological quibbles that you may put to People & Planet’s Green League 2007, however, there is no disputing that in broad terms other institutions have stolen a march on becoming a truly environmentally sustainable university. You can be sure that these issues are here to stay, and I very much hope that the pace of progress is only quickened.

Thank you for your time, and I trust and ask that you will direct your response to my successor, Jenny Mace, at the Aberystwyth Guild of Students.

Yours sincerely,

Nick Chan
2006/07 Aberystwyth Guild of Students Environment & Ethics Officer

Signing Off

So as the academic year formally comes to a close with graduation week, it's time too to finally sign off on my year as Environment & Ethics Officer for the Aber Guild of Students, and pass on this blog to my successor, Jenny Mace (jnm5[at]aber.ac.uk). So future references to 'I' should be read in a different context, reflecting different priorities and interests. But a few concluding thoughts and observations here on what my year has been...

What progress has been made? This is a difficult one to judge, because while I know I've certainly been busy (as the long and tedious process of cleaning out my e-mail inbox demonstrates) on a personal level, actual forward movement for the university as a whole is a bit more mixed.

I've developed good relationships with management staff in the areas of both energy and waste, meaning that the lines of communication have been open and frequent and that I've been able to monitor the progress in these over the past year. The first meetings of dedicated groups for energy management and waste management have taken place over the past year, to consider directly and more effectively how these issues impact the university and what action can be undertaken. Some university staff have, naturally, been more cooperative and interested than others. There have been the requisite moments of frustration where things simply fall through the gaps, but also the quiet satisfaction of slow, but momentum-building progress. I guess it will always seem like the big breakthrough is going to come next year (when I'm no longer here, obviously) and part of me wishes that I will still be around to see it through! It goes without saying that I've lost track of the number of times that coursework comes second to firing off emails to students and staff on green issues.

I've made the Go Green campaign a priority, which has seen an 800-strong petition, a meeting with the Vice-Chancellor, quality local press coverage and getting the UCU staff union involved. A full-time dedicated member of staff to environmental management is still needed, as is a complete overhaul of UWA's environmental policy statement. But the issue is firmly on the VC's table, and students will continue to demand the changes that will set in wet cement (it'll take a while to dry, of course) an institutional commitment to sustainability.

I have happily seen People & Planet members take the Fairtrade university campaign many steps forward and have my greatest optimism in this regard for success in and Fairtrade status in the very near future. My one regret has been an inability to take up a proper campaign on the university's continued staff pension investment in BAE Systems (and other arms companies), all the more galling given the recent BBC/Guardian investigations into corrupt business practices and bribing foreign officials. I very much hope that staff members will finally get off their bums and want do something about their own contributions to a trade focusing on violence and destruction.

I was elected to serve as a Aber delegate to both NUS Wales and NUS UK annual conferences, and at both of them contributed to highlighting sustainability and environmental concerns that had largely been absent from the agenda. A personal interest in the NUS has grown out of these experiences and something that I hope to be able to continue at my next stop. The NUS is a massive organisation in its resources and reach, and must be absolutely involved in greening and 'ethicalizing' our universities, demonstrating our solidarity with students of all stripes, home and abroad, and engaging students in the political challenge of making the world a better place.

The year ended with UWA's 97th placing in the Green League, and while this year has seen the beginning of environmental-related activity at various levels, it is just a beginning and in relative terms highlights how many other institutions are much further down this road. Current momentum will see UWA move up next year - the question is, how much? It'll have to run simply to keep up.

It has been a pleasure offering my thoughts on this blog, and providing some kind of link between the Guild and 'regular' students, a connection that definitely needs deepening. Simply putting this information out there is an important step, a place on the internet to be caught up in Google searches and the passing student. My own interest in blogging has been stimulated by the process of running this blog, although I now realize that there are also plenty of things that I should have included throughout the year that simply slipped right through my mind. But at least it's a start.

This is very much a niche blog - not a full-on commentary about environmental and ethical issues, but neither a full-on litany of observations about the work of the Aber Guild of Students in general. A rough average of ten hits a day, I think, is fairly respectable. From that perspective, I'm well pleased with the 3,500 hits to the site over the past ten months and while I don't know what my successor has planned for this blog, I hope that there'll be many more to come. But do check out my new project - Nick Thinking Aloud - to exactly take on the role of a more general, but also personal, commentary on the events and experiences that shape my world.

Thank you for reading.

Last Meetings

For a blog that I initially thought of as a way to provide updates on the meetings and discussions that I've had with university staff, there has strangely been little of that. So as I wrap things up on my part, just a quick update on the two set-piece meetings that I've had with the university bureaucracy.

Health, Safety & Environment (early June) - The draft UWA Environmental Strategy was brought to the meeting, after it had been pushed back from the previous meeting due to snow! I raised one point regarding the university considering ISO 14001 environmental management certification, and why it was noted that the issue would be considered by Finance group instead of through the Strategy group or the committee, and I was told because of the financial implications such a move would involve. This seemed a bit strange given that all the various items from the strategy do have financial considerations of their own. No further points were raised in this regard, although other members of the committee appeared to demonstrate more interest when discussing other agenda items - namely fire alarm statistics and parking issues.

Energy & Water Management (end June) - The group met to look at progress on this front and to finalize the new energy & water management policy. While further changes to the policy had been made since the last meeting, I was told that these were not substantial ones. There was a discussion of how to bring the policy document and other reporting to the wider university community, including the Wastewise waste awareness campaign. Tenders for the projects that the part-time energy management consultant has been working on have been invited, and part of the work towards a proper building energy management system (BEMS) has already highlighted a £1K monthly saving in heating for the building at Blaendolau playing fields, which is surely only the tip of the iceberg for future savings to be made. Additional energy-saving ideas for future consideration were also invited - including plug meters and vending machine time-switches, for example.

That's me done on that score. The only thing that I missed out on was a meeting for the Waste & Recycling Management group, which first met in April and won't meet until later on in the summer, well after I've signed off.

Visualising Green?

In the midst of clearing out all the bits and bobs from my year as Guild Environment officer, I came across the trail of investigating that I did around the environmental credentials of the Centre of Excellence for Visualisation in Wales, currently under construction on the Penglais campus (shown and scheduled for completion by the end of the summer. I've taken a bit of time to sum things up here and include excerpts where apropriate:

I began by asking, under a Freedom of Information request, for minutes from meetings discussing the Visualisation project that had to do with the BREEAM building standards. I recieved a copy of 'Visualisation Centre Building Group' minutes from the 6th of April 2006 and the following is agenda point 3.14:

"An initial BREEAM assessment will be done to find out the likelihood of obtaining an excellent rating. "Keith Lewis noted that he understood that WEFO [Welsh European Funding Office] had required a BREEAM rating of 'excellent'. Diana Bain confirmed that it was not included in the WDA offer of grant. [Since the date of this meeting, Diana Bain was able to confirm that neither it is a requirement of the WEFO offer of grant.]

"An excellent BREEAM rating will be difficult to obtain due to the glass facade on the main floor and the air-conditioning requirements of the HPC and projection equipment. Options for improving the BREEAM rating will be considered if needed."

A further FoI request, asking for a specific cost assessment for the BREEAM assessment, produced the following response:

> The decision regarding the BREEAM assessment was made in the light of an
> initial cost plan received from the contractors of £3,917,000. This was
> against an available budget of £3,600,000. Discussions with the
> contractors confirmed that the pursuit of a very good or excellent BREEAM
> rating would add significantly to this cost overrun and that it was by no
> means certain that a very good or excellent rating could be ever achieved.
> This is due to the nature of the building and in particular the amount of
> energy consuming HPS and visualisation equipment that it will contain.
> This uncertainty, combined with the budget overrun resulted in a decision
> not to pursue this avenue.
> 
> There was no further discussion in the Building Group minutes regarding
> the BREEAM assessment, following those released to you from the meeting on
> 6 April 2006.

So in the end no BREEAM rating was achieved at all. A £300,00 pound difference to achieve a BREEAM rating is not small change, but for a building whose design life is 60 years, I'm not sure if the math was actually done to take into account savings in running costs. I've certainly not seen anything to that end.

What was most striking to me, however, was how initial requirements highlighted its supposed environmental credentials. The 'Employers Requirements' tender documents, published on the 12th of May 2005, stated as the very first item 1.1: "The building aims to be an exemplar in terms of sustainability."

The Centre also happily recieves £4.3m of European Union Objective 1 funding out of its total 10.4m budget. In the final version of its application form for this EU grant (signed off by Vice-Chancellor Noel Lloyd sometime in 2005), which I obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, the main part of the section on "Environmental Impacts" reads as follows:

"The project complies with all relevant EC and national environmental directives (with particular reference to Sections 1-4 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990). It has no significant emissions to land, air or water. It will not require LAPC or IPPC consent. The building would be built to modern environmental standards and would not use any outlawed susbtances in its construction or operation. A BREEAM audit will be undertaken of the building design in accordance with BRE guidelines, and it is anticipated that this will show a good or excellent rating. The building will be designed to fit in naturally with, and complement, the surroundings on the University campus.

"The Centre will liase with the WDA to incorporate the principles of its Sustainable Development Policy 'Learning to Work Differently', which has the goal of delivering economic growth and improving both living standards and the quality of the environment through the sustainable use of natural resources."

A later section goes on to describe the contribution that the actual purpose of the Centre will make to the environment:

"Visualisation technology has a vital role to play in helping to maintain and enhance the environmental assets of the region. For example, it can be used to model and display the effects of any proposed changes to the environment, such as the construction of on-shore and off-shore wind farms...Although these will help reduce carbon emissions significantly, the visual impacts of such projects are serious considerations. Using visualisation/VR technology, all interested parties - e.g. developers, planners and residents - will be able to better understand the effects of proposed developments."

Indeed, this particular environmental benefit is explicitly made clear as one of the five broad aims of the entire project - coming under the heading of "to improve environmental performance through the adoption of clean technologies" (the others are 'to create a culture of innovation, to create more technology in knowledge-driven firms, to increase R&D investment, and to stimulate demand for and adoption of ICT).

I obviously have no quibble with this part and I fully appreciate the benefits that it provides in this regard towards planning for renewable energy development and so forth. But it goes without saying that environmental projects are held to a higher standard than 'conventional' development. Its functional elements (what the project is for) are perhaps no more or no less important than its operational elements (how the project runs).

If the supposed environmental benefit of the project is played up, it would indeed be a travesty, if not contradictory, that the prospect of ensuring that the building is as eco-friendly as possible has been given short shrift despite initial expectations.

To Brussels by Bike

To drive up (no pun intended) support and public awareness for his proposals for carbon trading as a way of addressing climate change - snappily summed up as Cap and Share - Dr. Will Howard, (who earlier this year came to speak at a People & Planet meeting) is travelling from his home in Machynlleth to the EU Commission in Brussels to lobby European Union officials on the ideas behind the scheme.

While it is an electric bike, which provides the user with peddling assistance, 500 miles is still a bit of a long way to be travelling at 15mph.

"The first message really is who has the right to have the emission permits, because at the moment they're being given to the big companies.

"What I'll be saying is in fact, they should be given to citizens. The government's got no right to give away our emission rights."

How Green is My Hospital?

A report from the NHS Confederation may seem a bit of an odd subject for this blog, except for two reasons - it's about the NHS' contribution to climate change, and it's Wales-specific.

The report, Taking the Temperature, was co-authored by the NHS Confederation UK and the new economics foundation, points out that not only is the NHS at the frontline of addressing the impacts of climate change upon humans (warmer temperatures, spread of disease, etc.), but it is also one of the largest and most resource-hungry public-sector institutions there is.

The report highlights good practice from across the UK, from power supplies to more efficient transport solutions and local food procurement. It ends by listing ten key questions for NHS boards to consider to make a difference, in these areas: leadership on climate change, a strategic response, setting targets, partnerships with local organisations, energy consumption, building construction, procurement practices, green transport, waste management and staff management. None of these are, however, specific to the NHS, and can be just as easily applied into say, the higher education sector.

These questions need to be asked, and this report highlights how effective environmental management must take place across all sectors of society. All of Wales' hospitals are, for instance, running on green electricity. Its target is to cut carbon emissions by15% by 2010.

Will we soon see universities and HE funding councils undertaking a similar sector-wide study?

Causing a Fuss

News of the Green League hits the press this week, as student newspaper The Courier features UWA's 'fail' on its website, while local paper Cambrian News covers the joint-97th (how coincidental is that?!) rankings of both UW Aberystwyth and UW Lampeter in the table, including a quote by me:

Nick Chan, Aberystwyth Guild of Students’ Environment and Ethics Officer, who works closely with People and Planet, said he was equally disappointed. He said: “There is no reason why Aberystwyth should be falling so far behind other universities, particularly when you consider the excellent environmental-related research at the university, the closeness of the Centre for Alternative Technology and the relatively good environmental record of the town.

“Just last week a Carbon Trust report highlighted Aberystwyth as the town having the lowest amount of CO2 emissions released by business in the UK, but this quite clearly does not apply at a university level.”

Note: The Cambrian News link, while reproducing the text, isn't the easiest to read - if you can get the print edition it'll be well worth it.

In the immediate wake of the Green League's publication two weeks ago, Aber People & Planet sent off a letter to the Vice-Chancellor to draw Aber's performance in the table to his attention. Incredibly a reply has already come back at the beginning of this week. (I say incredibly because my initial letter to the Vice-Chancellor last November which first raised the concerns of the Go Green campaign didn't recieve a reply for five weeks...).

Both letters are around two pages along and perhaps too long to reproduce here but do email if you want a copy of the letters and they can be sent to you. The following are excerpts from the Vice-Chancellor's response:

"Firstly, I want to emphasise that the university places high importance to environmental issues. We are committed to the continuing improvement of our environmental management systems and performance, and a wide range of initiatives are being implemented.

"We are disappointed that the progress we are making is not reflected in the information contained in the Green League: this may be because of timing and the way that some of our initiatives are reported....

"...I am determined that the university establishes a cohesive and integrated approach to these important issues.

"I should also like to emphasise that the university has very considerable scientific expertise in Environmental Science generally, and we have the opportunity to make a very significant contribution through our research and knowledge transfer activities."

The main chunk of the letter put in more detail about work and progress on recycling, the university's 'environmental policy' and green transport (through the AHA bus pass). No word on employing a full-time environmental manager though.

Cans, CDs and Composting

Just a quick, routine update on new developments with things coming along nicely for recycling and waste management on campus...

- The nice people at Ceredigion County Council have donated more wheeled aluminum/tin can deposit banks to be placed around campus, making it ever-easier for staff and students...

- There'll be a dedicated drop-off bin in the Hugh Owen library to recycle CDs and DVDs (including their packaging) safely and securely, so keep an eye out for this...

- A couple of funding bids are being put in by House Services to the Welsh Assembly Government's public sector waste disposal funding stream, to hopefully introduce separate recycling sack holders in residences and a kitchen composter. Even if these bids aren't successful they are a good sign of the thinking going on towards waste reduction!

Forced Out

Protestors at the Brecon campsite against the gas pipeline being laid across Wales have been evicted following a court order against them about ten days go granting the National Grid immediate possesion of the occupied land and shutting down their protest camp in the pipeline's route. Even the news that an ancient Roman road has been found in the pipeline's path won't appear to halt it any further - the prevailing mood seems to be that we simply have to hope for the best that the National Grid will take care of ecological and archaeological concerns.

The issue of tunnelling across a national park was brought up at last month's Hay-on-Wye festival - the pipeline, of course, coming close to the iconic town on its way to Gloucestershire. Apparently the subject caught Environment Secretary David Miliband off-balance, which goes some way to show how much the issue has registered in London-centric political circles. That said, though, hardly a peep out of the Cardiff-based political junkies either...

UPDATE (19/06): It seems I was slightly premature in remarking on the eviction of the protestors at the Brecon campsite. The last I had heard from them was two weeks ago just after the eviction notice had been served, when they expected to be turfed out in the next day or so, but today the BBC reports that the eviction has finally begun today, with six arrests made. Police, in support of High Court enforcement officers, have moved on to the site to dismantle it and remove protestors on charges of trespass and failing to comply with the court order.