Every year CUECS offers a number of potential projects to its membership, and aims to complete all those in which there is sufficient interest. New projects may also begin later in the year. However, here are brief descriptions of the four projects planned so far for this year.
If you are interested in one or more projects, please contact us by email.
We also maintain an archive of many of CUECS' past projects for reference purposes; the archive can be found here.
Green League Table Project
Visit the GLT website here: www.srcf.ucam.org/cuecs/GLT/.
The CUECS League Table is a long established and well respected annual project that ranks colleges according to their environmental credentials. Amongst other things it provides a reminder to colleges of the importance of their practices and works also as a framework for collaboration between students and staff on college environmental issues.
At its birth in 2002 a questionnaire was developed along with a ranking system. Now, 10 years on, the questionnaire has undergone some major alterations: chiefly in the collection of quantitative data. CUECS now publishes a set of indices by which Colleges can be compared; these chart management practice, energy and water use, as well as recycling.
The League Table Team perform a diverse range of tasks, from liaising and campaigning Colleges, to analysis of data, to writing reports and presentations. The project is an exciting opportunity to work with Colleges to see change. Have yourself a bit of Cambridge history and make a difference across the university. If you are interested or to find out more, do get in touch.
- Reports from previous years can be found here.
College Ball Sustainability Project
Fed up with waste going to landfill? The College Balls are the largest, most widely publicised and well-attended events in the university calendar. However, they are extremely wasteful. Without proper organisation this waste (predominantly food and drink, but also props and decor) is all taken out to the skips together and sent to landfill.
In response to this, the College Ball Sustainability Project has been successfully working for the last three years to reduce the environmental impact of these events; we are now sought out ahead of time for our advice and expertise. Whilst things are generally shifting in the direction of sustainable practice, ball committees have a wide range of ideas and understanding about what should or could happen at their event. We research best practice and suppliers, compile our handy Guide for Balls before they buy things in and organise waste disposal schemes and teams for the evening itself. This is excellent event consultancy experience that also goes down a treat with employers, and it makes a real difference by diverting (literally) tonnes of waste from landfill into the recycling business; if you aren't comfortable with feeling smug and responsible then this work isn't for you!
Most importantly, right now we're looking for some fresh pairs of eyes and a free flow of new ideas; event solutions demand a lot of creativity and each College will need at least one consultant! If you are interested or to find out more, do get in touch.
CBSP has published a Sustainability Guide each year since 2005, which has been distributed to every ball committee in Cambridge. In addition to this, CBSP has provided trained recycling teams (Green Teams) to work at several College Balls and Events (see below for a full list). Each Ball which uses CBSP services for recycling operations and consultancy is now awarded a Green Stamp of Approval, a logo which may be used in publicity for the event.
Any Ball or Event Committee interested in consulting and/or recycling services should take a look at the College Ball Sustainability wiki (linked below) for more information, and feel free to contact us. A lot of the information in the guide is also applicable to other events.
- College Ball Sustainability Project Wiki including:
- College Ball Sustainability Guide - now in wiki format
- Information for event committees
- plus information for prospective workers, consultants and others
- In 2008-09: Fitzwilliam Winter Ball, Selwyn Snow Ball, Churchill Spring Ball, Murray Edwards, Wyvern's (advice only) and Newnham Garden Parties, King's Affair and Homerton, Hughes Hall, Peterhouse, Trinity, Clare, Queens', Downing (advice only), St. John's, Magdalene, Pembroke (advice + kit only), Trinity Hall, Corpus and Darwin College May Balls.
- In 2007-08: Selwyn Snow Ball, Churchill Spring Ball, Girton Spring Ball, King's Mingle Michaelmas & Lent, New Hall Garden Party, King's Affair, Clare, Trinity, St John's, Caius, Trinity Hall, Pembroke, St Catherine's, Sidney Sussex and Darwin College May Balls.
- In 2006-07: King's Mingle Michaelmas & Lent, Churchill Spring Ball, King's Affair, Trinity Hall June Event, Trinity, Emmanuel, St. John's, Queens' and Pembroke College May Balls.
- In 2005-06: Hughes Hall, Jesus, Pembroke and Sidney Sussex May Balls.
Climate Friendly Homes Project
Visit the website at http://cambridgecarbonfootprint.org/action/climate-friendly-homes-project/.
We guide, with the students life-style in mind, our members onto this course which offers excellent training. Our guidance is to enable participants to consult the maximum number of home owners (we expect 5) without severely impacting their already busy lives.
Time commitment - training ~ 2-3 hours, each house 1-2 hours, the later can be done once every fortnight, with flexibility to fit the peaks and troughs in your workload.
Living Laboratory
The Living Laboratory project supports students from a variety of disciplines in carrying out research into the operational sustainability of the University, such as feasibility studies for energy efficient technologies for new and existing University buildings, understanding of human behaviour in buildings, and monitoring the effects of measures that have already been taken. This requires collaboration between the building managers, who provide data and implement recommendations, the students, who carry out the research as part of their curriculum, and the academics, who provide expert supervision.
This integrated approach aims to enable significant changes in the University's operational sustainability, by making use of the intellectual resources in the educational and research parts of the University.
Visit the project site for more information.
Student Carbon Calculator Project
As environmental issues become more prominent on the Cambridge scene, signs of students wishing to measure the impact of their own lifestyles are already appearing. This project aims to link with the student body to give them an opportunity to do so through an online carbon footprint calculator.
The calculator itself is designed specifically for students (who don’t tend to drive regularly or pay gas bills etc) filling a gap in existing calculators. It aims to both establish a carbon footprint and give the student in question personalised tips on how to go about reducing it.
In previous years the calculator has been mostly developed. What remains is to complete this and then the exciting part of publicising it, getting it used, seeing how people respond to it and implementing improvements. You don’t need to be at all technical to get involved (although if you are that’s great!), and hopefully we will be able to tie this in with other campaigns and open it up to students on a national level as well! If you are interested or to find out more, do get in touch.
The first version of the calculator was launched during Cambridge University Green Week in October 2007, and can be found here. A second more updated version with lots more functionality is currently being worked on.
Get in touch to get involved.