1. Degrees Cooler-Behaviour Change in Action
Olivia Knight-Adams: NUS – Greener Living Project Coordinator
EAUC Annual Conference 23rd March 2010

2. Greening Universities Through Behaviour Change
Barriers
Motivators
Old habits hard to break
Environmental / social reasons
No time / inconvenient
£ incentive
I can’t make a difference
Easy to do
I don’t know what to do
Feel good factor
University not doing enough
Encouragement from friends /colleagues
Too expensive
health benefits
23 March 2010
EAUC Annual Conference

3. EAUC Annual Conference
Student Switch Off
Energy-saving competition
Eco Power Rangers: films, quizzes
Encourages simple changes
9.3% or 650 tonnes CO2 saved
23 March 2010
EAUC Annual Conference

4. People & Planet : Going Greener
Based around Transition Town Movement
Staff and students engaged in practical projects
Go Green Week and ongoing campaigns
23 March 2010
EAUC Annual Conference

5. EAUC Annual Conference
EAUC: Green Impact
EAUC accreditation scheme
Greening departments from bottom up
Over 10,000 staff & 250 departments
Empowers environmental champions
Makes sustainability easier
Shares good practice
23 March 2010
EAUC Annual Conference

6. Studentforce for Sustainability
Julia Jack: Greener Living Assistant
University of Exeter
23 March 2010
EAUC Annual Conference

7. Being A University of Exeter GLA
My background
Role of GLA
Links to other sustainability initiatives
My role as a Greener Living assistant is to support and deliver Degrees Cooler locally amongst staff and students at University of Exeter.
Degrees Cooler is not a bolt on – University of Exeter has found Degrees Cooler useful in providing a framework link to our other environmental initiatives
23 March 2010
23rd March 2010
EUAC Conference
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8. Behaviour Change & Staff Engagement
Green Impact & empowering staff
Sharing good practice & celebrating achievements
Healthy Competition!
Green Impact has been well received by staff at the University of Exeter, we have 19 teams taking part. On average there are 20 staff members in each team and the size of individual teams continues to grow.
Staff have felt empowered to encourage their colleagues to ‘green’ their work practices – each team has devised their own weekly newsletters and meet regularly.
Good news stories are included in both the newsletter produced for the Green Impact leads and individual team newsletters – examples of this are:
Our campus services team have reduced the number of print outs they produce by 200 per week by changing their processing system
The School of Physics, Mathematics and Engineering have raised £184 for the Haiti appeal,
All academic teams have made students an integral part of their team,
Education Enhancement department have chosen a novel way to reduce waste by installing a wormery in their kitchen!
The good news stories have proved to be a useful motivational tool with staff striving to get their team mentioned!
23 March 2010
23rd March 2010
EUAC Conference
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9. Behaviour Change & Student Engagement
Green Impact
Staff & Student Collaboration
Student auditors
Exeter University have recruited Green Impact auditors from our student body which we expect will really increase staff / student collaboration around promoting a more sustainable university.
We have linked the Green Impact auditor positions to our employability award programme, the Exeter award.
We had over 100 students apply to be Green Impact auditors (far more than we had capacity for!) who are keen to improve their employability, learn more about environmental issues and put this into practice.
23 March 2010
23rd March 2010
EAUC Conference
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10. Behaviour Change & Student Engagement
Student Switch Off
Raise Awareness
Save Energy
The Student Switch Off campaign has resulted in halls of residence staff and student working together to raise awareness on energy saving issues
23 March 2010
23rd March 2010
EUAC Conference
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11. Behaviour Change & Student Engagement
Go Green Week
Lower carbon diet events
Working with other Student societies
For Go Green week students choose to focus on the environmental benefits of adopting a lower carbon diet They held various events (for e.g. vegetarian cookery demonstrations and film screenings).
They found that by working together with other student societies that participants included a whole range of students and not just ‘the usual suspects’
23rd March 2010
23 March 2010
EUAC Environment Conference
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12. Greener Living Assistant’s Perspective
Benefits for GLA
Rewarding
Benefits to University
Raising Awareness
Encouraging & Engaging
I have really enjoyed being a Greener Living Assistant and I have found it very rewarding to provide staff and students with the tools for greening their school or department.
In turn, the university has found it really useful to have someone dedicated to increasing awareness around sustainable living within the university system. It’s been a great way to raise awareness, and encourage student and staff to do their bit, and let them know that individual action taken collectively can make a difference.
23 March 2010
23rd March 2010
EUAC Conference
EAUC Annual Conference 12 12

13. Greener Living Assistant’s Perspective
Wealth of experience
E.g. Project Management
Challenges
Work Commitments
Opportunities
Encourage & share good practice
My involvement in Degrees Cooler has enabled me to gain a wealth of experience - From project management, to facilitating workshops to advising students on how turn their ‘green’ ideas into practical initiatives.
One of the challenges I initially faced was assisting the Green Impact teams to fit in Green Impact around their other work commitments. I have overcome this challenge though through lots of positive encouragement and encouraging Green Impact leads to involve all members of their team in order to complete the Green Impact workbook. Also getting staff to share their ideas with each other has really helped and I’m sure staff will achieve even more in terms of positively changing their behaviour in the second year of the project. .
23 March 2010
23rd March 2010
EUAC Conference
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14. EAUC Annual Conference
Thank you!
Now I have told you about my personal experience...Olivia and the rest of the Degrees Cooler team have put together a film to showcase some of the great work that the other 9 Greener Living Assistants and Degrees Cooler universities have been doing across the country.
Hopefully it will also inspire those of you not directly involved in Degrees Cooler!
Thanks very much
23 March 2010
23rd March 2010
EUAC Conference
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