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.