Going green

You may have noticed some changes around the office as the UWS Green Office Program gains momentum across campuses.

The Green Office Program is designed to improve office environmental practices, reduce office waste and increase recycling.

One of the new initiatives is replacing under-desk waste bins with smaller more efficient desktop bins and requesting that staff take responsibility for emptying their own bins. This has already been implemented across many work areas and has been successful in increasing recycling rates.

Removing individual waste bins makes it easier for staff to recycle, and reduces the temptation to throw away recyclable items into landfill. Since the start of the Green Office program two years ago, UWS has reduced waste to landfill by 600 tonnes.

“I would like to congratulate all UWS staff for taking these small steps to generate a large sustainability benefit for the institution,” says Executive Director of Sustainability Professor Geoff Scott.

“The savings made over the past two years as part of a consolidated waste reduction strategy have been $1,120,000.”

New co-mingle (recycling) and landfill bins are also now available in all lunchrooms and common areas.

Professor Gregory Kolt, Dean of the School of Science and Health, can see the healthy side of this initiative.

“I support staff emptying their own mini bins – there is an added health benefit in that staff can get up, break the sedentary cycle, and stretch at the same time. These short activity breaks are an important contributor to health gain.“

With the continued use of staff mini desk binsand recycling bins, our environmental footprint can only get smaller while our financial savings increase!

Please note that the new mini bins are fully washable. As they are made from corfulte – a low embodied energy product – they are also recyclable at end of life.