Good Oil

As more and more educational institutions jump onto the sustainability bandwagon, the latest example of innovative and eco-friendly best practice comes from a fellow branch of the University of Wales, at Newport, South Wales.

The sexy idea that they've come up with and put into practice is to convert used cooking oil into biodiesel to power its on-site vehicles - tractors, road-sweepers and power generators. The production process is all on-campus, recycles cooking oil that would otherwise have to be discarded, and generates fewer carbon emissions (around 20 tons/year) that regular diesel that would otherwise have been used.

Saves money - and cuts down on greenhouse gases! What is impressive about schemes like this is just simply getting it off the ground - in getting senior management support, being able to demonstrate its financial viability, taking an adventurous step in an area that isn't a conventional university practice. It's adventurous not in the science of the process, which is well established, but in being able to work through the bureaucratic inertia that university administrations will typically have towards nontraditional ideas such as these.

And oh look - not only do they have an environmental staff officer but are also plugging away at their ISO14001 environmental management standard!

What will Aber's big idea be?