Sustainability
Today’s society is very focused upon being sustainable and environmentally friendly and ensuring a positive impact on the world. Everyone is affected by factors such as:
- Debt
- Environmental issues
- Health
- Increasing amounts of waste
- Increasing consumption
- Poverty
- Unsustainable human development
These concerns are often linked to 'sustainable development' which is a way of aiming to improve the economic, social and environmental well-being of communities, now and in the future. Sustainable development is the simple idea of ensuring a better quality of life for everyone, both now and for generations to come.
Here at Bolton College we believe that understanding and managing the impact our actions have on people and on the environment is an essential part of being an ethical and socially responsible college, and it needs to be built-in to how we go about our business.
We have an important role supporting the local community by providing high quality education and training to enhance the long term future of the region; and we will do this without compromising the ability of future generations to do the same.
Recycling
Bolton College runs several internal recycling schemes including the recycling of bras (to raise funds for research), batteries and books. The Arts department will take anything that anyone is willing to give away, and reuse it.
All offices and classrooms are fitted with cardboard box bins fitted with clear bags. These bins are used to collect dry recyclable items (DMR) such as empty cans, plastic bottles, paper, cardboard and plastic wrapping in them.
Deane Road Campus
The Deane Road Campus buildings incorporate a number of renewable and sustainable technologies as part of their design. Photovoltaic panels, rainwater harvesting and ground source heat pumps are all featured, which helped the campus to achieve a high BREEAM rating, awarded in recognition of the building's environmental performance.
Bolton College Catering
Bolton College Catering is very keen on sustainability issues, with plenty of evidence for this:
- All food is produced on site from scratch with the exception of a few bought in sandwiches and paninis. We have also increased our home baked products to reduce packaging and associated waste.
- We have moved to a paper disposable cup in an effort to reduce the amount of styrene that we use as a business, a reduction of 85%.
- We use local suppliers where possible to reduce the road miles our food travels. Meat, fish, bread and veg all come from Bolton based companies. Cooked meats and dairy come from a company called “Little Town” based in Preston; our Coca-Cola comes from the Warrington depot.
- We use triple-certified Rainforest Alliance coffee beans and serve our coffee in crockery mugs to reduce the amount of waste we produce.
Switch-Off Fortnight
The 18th November to 29th December was Switch-Off Fortnight. Along with schools and colleges across the UK, Bolton College took part in Switch-Off Fortnight, an EDF Energy campaign. We aim to encourage our students to think about how we use energy and to show them how and why it is important to use it more efficiently e.g. to save money on energy bills, to help the UK reduce its energy demand and also to help to reduce the amount of carbon we emit.
Sustainability Liaison Officers
Bolton College has a number of volunteer Sustainability Liaison Officers (SLO). As a Bolton College SLO, the staff member will be on a mission to champion efficient and sustainable practices within their department. They will also:
- Act as the staffroom green monitor
- Liaise with the Sustainability Officer to keep staff up-to-date and informed of new sustainability resources, ideas and events
- Promote the College’s sustainability themed campaigns
- Provide feedback to the Sustainability Officer on any sustainable activities within the department, so these can be celebrated.
Anti-Litter Campaign
Bolton College has held an ongoing Anti-Litter Campaign in conjunction with Bolton Council’s Environmental Education and Enforcement Unit. This has involved introducing an Anti-Litter Week, undertaking litter picking activities and featuring anti-litter presentations during our cross college tutorial sessions.The anti-litter cross college tutorials are aimed at highlighting the problems associated with litter, and the burden of cost placed upon the community to clean the streets of Bolton. Keep up to date with Bolton Council's Anti-Litter activities by following the Love Bolton, Hate Litter Facebook page.
Transition Town Project
Transition Town Bolton is a group which aims to raise public awareness of the challenges of peak oil and climate change, and to foster community responses to these challenges in order to move towards a more sustainable future. Bolton College hosted the July meeting of the group as part of its own commitment to promoting a sustainable future for Bolton.
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