These are the eco-bytes, brought to you by the Sustainability Hub.
This newsletter will fill you in with the latest sustainability stories and forthcoming events.

Latest news

Design + Sustainability = ?

The University will have a major presence at the Ecobuild exhibition at ExCel, London, on the 1 - 3 March 2011.

A 75-square-metre stand will feature products from the University’s REMATERIALISE materials library, and a 10-metre-long wall profiling sustainability-led projects from across the University.

The University’s stand will host “Talking Shop” - a programme of snappy events held on-the-hour, every hour, throughout the three days of the show. Short workshops, debates and demonstrations will explore the challenges that sustainability presents for the built environment and beyond. Events will include demonstrations of Kingston’s “Eco-construction Trumps” and WEmake’s “Flowmaker” design creativity tool. Short debates will be hosted by Chris Pett (Pli Design), Colin Crooks (Greenworks) and others in response to provocations such as: ‘sustainability’ is just a buzzword – we need to de-brand sustainability.

Kingston’s stand will also feature “Sustainability Soapbox”, where visitors can get something off their chest about the ‘s’ word. Contributions will be filmed and uploaded to a website specially-created for the exhibition: kingston.ac.uk/ecobuild.

Kingston University is at the forefront of explorations into new territories for design. The stories presented at Ecobuild will demonstrate the ways in which our academics and students are using design to drive – and critique - the sustainability agenda. The project is supported financially by the University Enterprise Development Fund.

Register for Ecobuild for FREE on their website

Power Centre focuses on Renewable Energy

The Power Assessment & Training Centre, launched last year as a joint venture between Carshalton College and Kingston College provides quality training for the Gas, Electrical and Plumbing industries;  to those new to the trade and those well established professionals wanting to update their skills and qualifications, and keep up to date with legislation.

The colleges are committed to ensuring they create skilled professionals that are prepared for a sustainable energy future as such as part of their Open Day on Wednesday 23 February they will be hosting a mini conference, “Towards a Sustainable Future”,  to enable visitors to find out about emerging technologies, key drivers and renewable energy courses they provide. Conference speakers will include: Ruth Wharton, Energy Saving Trust “Taking advantage of the Feed-in-Tariffs and Renewable Heat Incentive"; Keith Rule, KRA, “Eco-Building and New Methods of Construction”; and Brett Forster, NICEIC, “Understanding the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS)”. For more information click here

Home Planet BBC Radio 4

Ros Taylor founding director of Sustainability Hub, Kingston University, is a regular on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Home Planet’ weekly programme answering listeners questions about Planet Earth and our impact upon it. Ros’s recent contribution was on the 25th January, where she discussed changing coastlines and humane mole eradication! You can listen to it here

Orchard extravaganza

On Sunday 22nd January Dorich House museum and its historic 100 year old orchard was the setting for a full day of orchard antics for Kingston’s Biodiversity Action Group.
Volunteers of staff students and the local community spent the day helping to restore the old orchard, and expand it with 7 new fruit trees donated by The London Orchard Project. In the morning volunteers learnt the art of fruit tree pruning, then after lunch and a tour of Dorich House, set to work on planting 4 apple, 2 pear and a peach tree in the grounds.The apple and pear trees were chosen for their historic and local provenance - they are all varieties that would have been planted at the time our original orchard was new.
To see more images from the day visit the Biodiversity blog. If you’d like to get involved in future events please get in touch.

 

Outstanding Sustainable Building Design

Two Kingston Knowledge Transfer Partnerships have been graded as 'outstanding' by the Technology Strategy Board. One of which involved Dr Stephen Pretlove, from Archilab in the Faculty of Art, Design and Arhictecture (FADA), Kingston University and Clive Chapman Architects (CCA), an architectural practice specialising in urban design and regeneration. The project looked at putting sustainability in Building Design and construction. The KTP Associate Sidonie Kade, developed a new sustainability design service and obtained environmental accreditation to meet CCA’s increasing market demands for environmentally sustainable building design.
Steve Pretlove’s and Sidone Kade’s podcast is available here
The academics involved saw real impact on their research portfolio, accessing a series of research-funded grants and generating research publications with their respective KTP company partner. Additionally, the KTPs allowed both academics to apply their research to real-world challenges and enabled them to develop stronger links with key external organisations.

Science to Policy Fellowship

NERC and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) have teamed up to offer a 6 month fellowship opportunity to use science to inform policy on Environmental Health.  Salary and some subsistence costs will be covered for a 6 month placement at SEPA.  More details can be found herebut the deadline for applications is Wednesday 23rd February 2011.

If you would like to be kept up to date on opportunities like this in the future or have a particular research idea (involving sustainability) you are looking for funding for please email our Research Officer, Dr Kat Eames and she will pass any information that we receive on to you.

Watch out for Paint the Town Green

This year's Paint the Town Green (PTTG) festival is packed full of local green themed community events for everyone to enjoy! Check out the full programme hereas there are currently over 40 events taking place throughout March 2011.

Upcoming events

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