Greening the Student

The student lifestyle - pasta, tomato sauce, canned tuna, dried herbs, beer cans and kebabs. Stereotypical, but I know enough people who fit that generalization.

Student habits are nowhere near as environmentally responsible as they should be and I will be the first to acknowledge that. I have been for a walk around campus at the end of term when students vacate university residences and the amount of waste generated is simply staggering - fridges full of food, bedding, pots and pans, even electronics! Lights are pouring out of buildings at night and even in the middle of winter windows are swung wide open.

A short article by Julia Hailes of New Consumer magazine illustrates the range of ungreen behaviour that has ended up being part and parcel of the student lifestyle. But the crucial thing, as she points out, and which I harp on about frequently, is the role of the university in making green the default option for students. Where are they now?

"Apparently the higher education sector in the UK emits 3m tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere annually. I'm not surprised with these sorts of wasteful practices. It's far less efficient that the business community in terms of its carbon emissions.

"The good news is that some universities and colleges are changing for the better and becoming beacons of good practice. The bad news is that there aren't yet many of them."

When I complete my exams I'll be offering a series of reflections and thoughts on my year and where things could go next. But the underlying theme for me, at least is that consistent, evolving change must be university-, not student-led.

Is this a cop-out? Hardly. The revolving door of students makes it difficult, despite our best efforts, to drive progressive year-on-year change without having to take a few steps backward at the beginning of every year. Institutionalising a commitment to change and providing the resources to back up that commitment within the university itself is what's ultimately needed across-the-board progress. And I've only heard mixed signals at this level so far.