Green Impact Projects at the Graduate School

Reduce  

• Switching off lights when rooms are not in use

• Switching off computer monitors when not in use

• We promote use of the stairs as opposed to the lift. It keeps you healthy and uses less energy!

• Hot water tap: we have a hot water tap in the staff kitchen for tea and coffee to save energy being wasted boiling kettles continually

• We encourage staff and students to walk and/or cycle into work to help reduce their carbon footprint and/or car share, where viable

• We have linked in with Big Loop Bikes to promote cycling to work to our students, one of whom won a fully refurbished bike in our prize draw across Welcome Week 2018

• We have our MFDs set to print double-sided by default

• We try to scan documents rather than making a print copy where possible

• We try to use tablets or laptops to view meeting notes on screen rather than printing these out

Reuse

• As of January 2019 the Graduate School will no longer be providing disposable cups at our training events

• We encourage student to avail of reusable cups and have a loyalty scheme operating to promote these positive behaviour change

• Water coolers: we have water coolers on both floors to encourage students to refill their plastic water bottles a opposed to purchase new ones

• We reuse any waste paper at the main reception for note taking

• Incoming envelopes are collected at reception and reused by all staff

Recycle

• The Graduate School use the corporate Freecycle network (WARPit), which allows staff to redistribute unwanted and underused assets within Queen’s. This avoids unnecessary purchases, saving money and reducing waste going to landfill.

• Paper bins: paper recycling bins are available to both staff and students throughout the Graduate School on both floors. Staples, clips, tape and window envelopes can all go into these.

• Aluminium can bins: we have an aluminium can recycling bin on the ground floor outside Training Room 3 which accepts aluminium and steel food cans, metal biscuit and sweet tins, clean tin foil, cake and pie tins

• Plastic bin: We have a recycling facility for plastic bottles on the ground floor outside Training Room 3

• Glass recycling: we have a glass recycling bin in the staff kitchen. Other glass recycling points can be found at the Whitla Hall, PFC Cafe & MBC Whitla Hall

• Cardboard recycling: we have a cardboard recycling point contained within our reprographics room which is emptied weekly

• The Graduate School purchases sustainable 100% recycled paper from our designated supplier Banner

• We recycle all of our used toner cartridges through Xerox