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.