Many of us growing up through school were taught the importance of maintaining a low carbon footprint and the dangers that climate change may present. Over the last few years the world has started to see a taster of what tangible climate change means and its only going to get worse. Stirling University in the past has done some brilliant things to reduce their carbon footprint and improve sustainability but, if elected, I am hoping to help the university not just meet the gold standard but to set it.
To do this I plan to work with departments across the university to ensure all measures are being taken to reduce the university’s energy consumption. This will be done regularly to review and improve.
Recycling is an important issue that can easily be tackled,these are a few ideas that I hope to implement:
- Increase the number of outdoor recycling bins in encourage green behaviour throughout the campus.
- Introduce more food waste bins around campus both indoors and outdoors.
- Work with the union and third party organisations to make sure that our food waste reaches those who are in need. This not only helps to reduce carbon emissions but also gives back to our community.
- Work with local businesses to help reduce waste on campus e.g. Have a dominoes pizza box recycle bin, due to this specific waste being commonly disposed of incorrectly.
- Put a campus wide ban on the selling of plastic utensils
Other actions I will take are:
- Engage with local high schools to promote a green community throughout Stirlingshire. This helps grow a greener and healthier community and shows Stirling University’s commitment to the climate crisis.
- Improve the University accommodation’s energy saving program to increase engagement with students. Although this scheme has been a success, having lived in accommodation when it was in place I noticed many students weren’t engaging with it. This would be something that I would aim to change to allow the schemes success to continue.
- Replace all plastic bags sold on campus with biodegradable equivalents.
- Speak to the sports union about each person who has gym membership receives a re-fillable water bottle to encourage people to ditch plastic bottles.