Green impact
The Information School currently holds the Silver Award for Green Impact.
Green Impact is a sustainability accreditation scheme that runs in universities and colleges across the UK.
It helps staff and students improve their impact on the environment by providing a workbook of well-explained and straightforward actions to implement in their departments.
The Information School currently holds the Silver Award.
Current projects supported by the Information School
Information School is currently supporting the following projects:
What is Fairtrade?
Fairtrade is about better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world. By requiring companies to pay sustainable prices (which must never fall lower than the market price), Fairtrade addresses the injustices of conventional trade, which traditionally discriminates against the poorest, weakest producers. It enables them to improve their position and have more control over their lives.
With Fairtrade you have the power to change the world every day. With simple shopping choices you can get farmers a better deal. And that means they can make their own decisions, control their future and lead the dignified life everyone deserves.
Fairtrade items available in supermarkets
- Tesco - www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/search
- Morrisons - groceries.morrisons.com/search
- Sainsburys - www.sainsburys.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/SearchDisplayView
- Aldi - www.aldi.co.uk/search
- Waitrose - www.waitrose.com/ecom/shop/search
- Asda - groceries.asda.com/search/fairtrade
Healthy produce
In Sheffield, there are many places you can get fresh produce - we have created this map to highlight some of them below.
Reducing our environmental impact
The Information School is committed to minimising the environmental impact and has identified and ranked what it believes to the ten main greening opportunities. These are:
- Energy use - Reduction of energy usage.
- Fairtrade - Raise awareness of Fairtrade and items available in shops.
- Food banks - Raise awareness of food banks and continue collection for Sheffield S6 FoodBank.
- Health eating - Raise awareness of health eating.
- Waste Management - Use of correct bins to separate waste.
- Promote sustainable transport - Raise awareness in the use of public transport (car sharing, cycling, walking routes).
- Air conditioning - Raise awareness of the use of air conditioning. Make sure windows are closed when air conditioning is on and turn off when not required
- Drinking Water - Use tap water instead of bottled and use re-usable drink bottles.
- Catering - Purchasing friendly food/drink
- Printing/photocopying - reduce by 5%.
Health and wellbeing
We encourage all staff and students to do the following:
- Take regular exercise. The University offers inclusive exercise activities for staff, including Sport Sheffield.
- Take regular breaks in our staff room area or visiting cafe's around the university during their lunch breaks.
- Be proactive in discussing health and wellbeing at work, including mental health. We encourage staff to discuss these at 1-2-1's or staff meetings. You could also take part in staff clubs, or participate in local events and charity work with your colleagues.
- Ensure they do not heat their office/lab to more than 21 degrees. The Carbon Trust recommends that workplaces should be heated between 19-21 degrees Celsius during the heating season. For every 1 degree Celsius increase the heating costs increase by 8-10%. If you require a thermometer for your office to check the temperature then please get in touch with Paul Fenn.