Warwick places 100th in Green League

The recent Meeting of the Building Committee showed that Warwick University came 100th in the annual Green League produced by student campaign network People and Planet.

This was considered by the committee to be largely unavoidable due to circumstances such as the 6000 students that live on campus who obviously use a significant amount of electricity and water on a daily basis.

Commenting on the result, Environment Manager Nick Hillard questioned the robustness of the data used to compile the league table and explained that he did not feel that it was truly reflective of performance across the sector. “The result does not correlate with other performance measures such as Universities that Count and overwhelmingly positive feedback from polls such as the International Student Barometer. I would challenge anyone visiting this University not to be impressed with the quality of the environment that is presented,” he said.

University Head of Communications Peter Dunn said: “I think we are still one of greenest campuses in the UK,” adding that not many universities could boast nature reserves (such as Tocil Wood) and the range of artificial ponds that Warwick has.

Other Russell Group universities performed similarly, with the highest placed being Edinburgh in 47th position. For the main part, this is thought to be down to energy intensive research which is carried out across all institutions, and which results in a poor environmental score in the League.

George Whitworth, Students’ Union (SU) Development Officer, stressed that there are currently carbon management initiatives in place at Warwick. He insisted that while the League is important, it is of greater consequence to work on proposals that would improve the environmental performance of the University specifically.

A current concern of many Warwick students is the lack of green spaces on campus, due to the almost complete loss of Rootes field to the construction of Bluebell, and the somewhat persistent presence of tents erected on Tocil field.

To counter this there are discussions taking place with The Woodland Trust about the possibility of a 60-acre ‘Jubilee Wood’ being created on University land near Cryfield.

Also raised at the meeting, which was held on Wednesday 2 November, was the question of whether a form of qualitative ‘happiness index’ was possible, in order to measure the satisfaction of students living on campus.

As for building plans on campus, there will be more residences constructed near Heronbank and Lakeside. Plans to increase the size of Library Cafe by extending it into the courtyard towards Social Sciences are almost finalised, and the work is expected to be complete by the Easter holidays.

Finally, there are early discussions being held concerning landscaping the area between the SU, the Arts Centre and right across to Gibbet Hill Road to enhance the area aesthetically, as well as making it more practical with a two-lane bus terminal to ease congestion.

Whitworth commented that the Building Committee is “always a success, with a real focus on the students and our needs rather than on money saving initiatives for the University”.