USP College Sustainability Q&A – With Estates Manager James McInroy

On the 10th of June, I organised, alongside USP librarian Mel Ballard, a Q&A session at USP College with Estates Manager James McInroy, that was open to all students, on the topic of sustainability within the college. After the highly successful EPAS Earth Day Climate Survey (see here) which I organised as USP College Deputy Lead European Parliament Junior Ambassador for Seevic Campus, I decided to bring the conclusions from this survey to the attention of the senior management team at USP College. The Q&A lasted for 50 minutes, during which anyone in attendance had the opportunity to ask a question; in addition, I made sure to ask questions based on the four main conclusions from the Earth Day Climate Survey. This Q&A took place in one of the immersive rooms at Seevic Campus, allowing it to also be streamed live to Palmer's Campus, allowing both campuses to contribute. In total, there were 7 students and 5 staff members in attendance, from a variety of different subjects.

The first question asked what the college has actually done to address issues to do with sustainability and how the college has advertised these improvements and upgrades to the wider college population. To start off, James explained that a lot of the improvements within the college to address sustainability are part of an "organic process" of upgrades to utilities and other background operations that do not garner the same attention as a new building for example. He said that the best way to spread awareness about improvements in sustainability were student-level initiatives, such as the EPAS "Bin There, Done That" campaign or Mel Ballard's proposed sustainability focus group.

Afterwards, James talked about the brand new MedTech building on the Seevic Campus, informing everyone how the building is completely self-sufficient, to the surprise of most people in the room, due to the photovoltaic panels installed on the roof and the insulation used in the building. He added that these measures could only be considered for new builds, as the funding is not there for renovating older buildings, especially Palmer's buildings, which are significantly older than their Seevic counterparts and more expensive to renovate. Furthermore, he mentioned the new EV charging points installed in the college car park to encourage the adoption of electric vehicles.

To finish the question, everyone in attendance agreed that there were three core student interest areas going forward: energy and heating sustainability (reducing wasted heating and electricity), resource sustainability (dealing with general waste, primarily from learning resources e.g. paper) and green spaces (addressing the lack thereof in the Seevic Campus).

Pictured: The new LED lights installed last year at Seevic Campus, outside the library. Similar installations will be coming to Palmer's Campus soon.

The next question asked about more examples of what the college has done at each campus to improve sustainability, particularly for Palmer's, where the survey concluded that the buildings needed improvements in terms of sustainability. James shared with the group the ongoing works to upgrade all lighting within both campuses with LED lighting. As of the time of writing, Seevic has had LEDs installed whilst Palmer's is getting them installed over the coming summer break; the Seevic LEDs themselves had an upfront cost of £250,000 and cost £100,000 to install but have created massive savings due to using only 10% of the electricity the old lighting used to use, creating considerable energy savings. Palmer's will see similar LEDs installed over the summer, at a cost of £100,000, but this work has already started, with the installation of LED "cloud light" in the Palmer's library. At this point, Mel Ballard and Palmer's staff member Suzanne Perry commented on the new lighting that has already been installed in the library, saying that it has seriously brightened up the library whilst also being significantly less wasteful in terms of electricity usage.

Pictured: Estates Manager James McInroy answering one of the questions from the conclusion of the Earth Day sustainability survey.

The next question was about waste management in the college, since this was a large concern within the survey. James acknowledged that, in the Seevic Campus at least, there are some confusing arrangements to do with the fact that many of the Seevic bins, despite having a divider between recyclable and general waste, share the same bin bag. First off, he promised that properly separated bins would be introduced in the new academic year. However, he highlighted that this is not as big an issue as it seems to be, as waste actually gets sorted behind the scenes mainly by the college cleaning staff or sometimes by the private waste contractor the college uses. He said that thanks to recycling initiatives over recent decades, as well as the cost savings recycling can produce (25%-30% on average), private waste contractors often do the sorting of bin bags themselves or require their customers (the college in this case) to sort their rubbish out. This means that a certain amount of waste gets recycled regardless of whether it is sorted within or outside the college.

Instead, James said that efforts should be made to reduce consumption of un-recyclable materials and plastics. Already, the caterers at the canteen in Seevic and Palmer's have reduced the use of plastic packaging; however, there are still problems with the popular Starbucks outlet in Seevic, which still uses a lot of plastic packaging.

Pictured: The Q&A at Seevic Campus. Sebastian Rapley Mende, Deputy Lead European Parliament Junior Ambassador for Seevic Campus, is seen standing on the right.

The next question was about the general sustainability of the college as a whole and how well the college did in the latest EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) which was conducted last summer. An EPC is a mandatory check on a property's energy efficiency, which the college must conduct every 10 years by law. It gives each campus, as well as the college, a score, ranging from A (the highest and best ranking) to G, based on a variety of factors. It takes into account energy use, insulation, green space, self-sufficiency and more.

The college overall got a C score, with all three campuses in USP, Palmer's, Seevic and XTEND Digital, all also getting a C score. James explained why each campus got its score: Palmer's got a C as although it is an old, energy-inefficient building, it also has very little air conditioning (a major contributor to a bad score) and a lot of green space to offset poor energy efficiency. Seevic got a C as the buildings are relatively modern and energy efficient, but the score was brought down by the widespread use of air conditioning. James also commented that if the EPC were to be conducted now, Seevic's score would definitely improve to a B score, due to the new MedTech building, which is built to an A score standard, and because of the new LED lighting. Meanwhile, Palmer's would likely stay at a C as James said that there is not much that can be done with the current budget the college has to improve the main building's sustainability due to its age. Instead, improvements in the score would come from upgrading some of the newer, outer-lying buildings.

Pictured: The open field at the front of Palmer's Campus provides the campus with an amazing green space which offsets some of the less-sustainable aspects of the campus.

The last question of the Q&A was about future plans and upgrades which are taking place, that will improve the sustainability of the college. Besides the aforementioned LED lighting upgrades in Palmer's and separated bins in Seevic, James gave a couple more examples of future plans that will be coming soon to the college.

In Palmer's, over the summer, many of the utilities will undergo some improvements as part of general maintenance, specifically the boilers and water systems. This will improve sustainability by reducing heat loss as well as increasing the efficiency of these systems.

For Seevic Campus, there will be a feasibility review for the 500 block and 700 block buildings which, if the review is successful, should see these buildings demolished and replaced with brand-new, modern facilities, similar to the MedTech building at Seevic Campus, as they are at the end of their lifespan. As part of this, the west car park would be replaced with green spaces for students, increasing the availability of green space at Seevic, a major criticism in the Earth Day Climate Survey. Overall, this would cost a projected £25 million, which the college has not yet been allocated the funding for. Apart from this project, toilets in the North and West buildings will be upgraded alongside the replacing of the wooden flooring around the central Hub and canteen, making the building more energy efficient in general.

Pictured: The Seevic Campus MedTech building, which is self-sufficient for its energy needs - future developments within the college will likely follow a similar blueprint to the MedTech building, in terms of its sustainability and the green space it created.

Overall, the Q&A was a success in getting answers to what the college is doing to improve sustainability within the college. There were constructive conversations amongst the people at the Q&A, helping to engage people around this issue. The information, especially surrounding the EPC and new LED lighting show the successes of the college whilst still highlighting areas for improvement. Lastly, the presence of both students and staff members together showed that this initiative to improve sustainability is a combined effort between both the students and the staff at the college, not a top-down initiative or an ignored student project. In the future, I may set up, alongside other students and Mel Ballard, a college-wide focus group centred around what other improvements could be made to improve sustainability within the college.

I would like to thank James McInroy for taking the time to attend this important and interesting event and for answering questions in front of everyone. In addition, I would like to thank librarian Mel Ballard for helping me organise the event and contact James in the first place. In addition, I would like to thank everyone else who attended, including staff members Kerry Amos and Suzanne Perry, for engaging and supporting this initiative to improve sustainability within the college. Photos of the event were also by EPAS ambassadors Ashdon Casson and Jesscia Obi as well as Mel Ballard.