Advent calendar #15: Sustainable gift-wrapping
December 15, 2013
There are many ways to wrap Christmas gifts in a sustainable way. Key principles of sustainability are reduce, re-use, recycle, and these can readily be applied to gift wrap. A good start is to ensure all gift paper is recycled. Other ideas include: Wrap gifts in fabric and ribbon – the fabric can be re-used …
Advent calendar #6: Reduce, re-use, recycle
December 6, 2013
The 3Rs of sustainable waste practice are a key part of one of the weeks of our course Sustainability, Society and You, as they have been in the pilot which was run within the University – the NOOC. Students discuss their own recycling practices (or not!) and often find there are obvious actions that they …
My family and their rubbish
November 26, 2013
I recently returned from a family holiday to Broadstairs in Kent, a largely unspoilt 19th century seaside resort where my father grew up. There were three generations of us in an 1880s town house (my elderly parents, my middle-aged brother, sister-in-law and myself, and my two young nephews), and two nationalities – British and German. …
Mike the Engineer
October 25, 2013
In which Mike Clifford introduces Sarah Speight to the concept of upcycling and she gains a chair. One of the academics who has made a major contribution to the Sustainability course is Mike Clifford, an Associate Professor of Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering. Mike never says no. He was co-author of the book Sustainability and Engineering, …
