from a fungal disease called Ganoderma applanatum â a bracket fungus which grows in the wood of living and dead trees
December 2017
It’s Better OFF this Christmas This will be the 9th It’s Better OFF at Christmas, and as we communicate every year it IS better OFF at Christmas. The university consumed around £51,000 of Electricity last year over the Christmas break. Whilst some of this is supporting research equipment or maintaining building fabric over the Christmas break, there is a large amount of energy that is going to waste un-necessarily. How can you help? Ensure colleagues are aware that It’s Better OFF to Switch off over the Christmas break! Equipment like monitors, PC, lights and un-used equipment, but if you are unsure if you should switch it off please check with your Ops/Building Manager first. You wouldn't want to be responsible for switching off important research! Other Top Tips… Remember to switch off the Christmas lights, not only to save energy but to prevent fires. Turn off Electric heaters. The only electric heaters permitted in buildings are those provided by Facilities Management. Using too many electric heaters can overload circuits in buildings. Blowing a circuit in a building can cause massive disruption whilst the fault is fixed or even cause fires. Electric heaters can often affect how the heating operates across the building too or just be covering up a fault that needs to be fixed! If you have a heating issue please report it to:
[email protected]
Be sure to follow us on social media to keep up to date on all things sustainable: @SustainableLboro @LoughboroughUniversitySustainability @SustainLboro
Be Elf-less We’re supporting Elf-less Acts, an innovative giving campaign by environmental charity Global Action Plan, which is all about giving time to loved ones instead of stuff they don’t want or need. Only 1% of the stuff that makes up the things we buy is still in use 6 months after sale, but memories last forever! Elf-less Acts is all about changing the nature of giving to be about creating more fun and less stuff. The handy Elf-less Acts tool takes you through a simple 3-step process with loads of ideas to do this! Join in at www.elflessacts.org.uk – if you hate shopping or always leave presents to the last minute then don’t worry, you can create fun Elf-less Acts for your friends and family right up until Christmas day!
Travel Discounts for Staff As part of the University’s commitment to sustainable transport, all staff and tenants can sign up for FREE to the Smartgo Loughborough travel benefits package. With Christmas coming up, it’s a great time to save money with offers on the likes of Halfords, East Midlands Trains, Centrebus, Europcar and National Railcards. Plus, with the ability to purchase an annual train season ticket and pay for it monthly, you can save £100s or even £1000s! For example, the Nissan LEAF electric vehicle offer gives Smartgo members an extra £6,561 saving on top of the £4,500 Government EV grant and a free standard home charger, totalling almost £12,000 of savings. The LEAF has a range of up to 130 miles and costs just 2p a mile for fuel on average with no road tax. Plus, you can take advantage of the excellent charging network on campus and cut your commuting costs even further. Nissan will also provide a free 4-day test-drive so you can see if it suits your lifestyle. Sign up now for FREE to the Loughborough network using “
[email protected] ” as the verification email address and see how much money you could save.
If you have any questions, please contact the Smartgo team on 0330 024 5665 or email
[email protected].
Alumnus Publication. Alumnus Alasdair Lord (MSc Water and Environmental Management 2003) got in touch with us about his new book on sustainable development. Find out more here http://www.lboro.ac.uk/alumni/news/2017/alumnusreleases-new-book-on-sustainable-development.html
Ground and Gardens update As the season turns to winter and the flora across Campus reaches its dormant stage much of what we do in the Gardens team is routine maintenance. If you have passed Brockington Cricket ground along Margaret Keay Road this month, you may have seen our arborist team in the upper-most branches of the Black Poplars (Populus nigra) administering a rather severe tidy up. These Poplars are at least 70 years old and are suffering from a fungal disease called Ganoderma applanatum – a bracket fungus which grows in the wood of living and dead trees causing life-threatening rot and decay in the heartwood. One of the poplars blew over in the winds last year, and another 2 have already been felled due to instability for various reasons. Over summer we saw several large branches simply dropping to the ground because of the stress the trees were under. Normally, in this situation, the trees would be felled, but owing to the adverse visual impact on the environment and the fact that they are host to the fussy Hornet moth caterpillars, we would like to retain them for as long as possible. Hornet moths favour Poplars as their principal food source and ideally need to be relocated before the Poplars are lost forever. In addition, the catkins provide an early source of pollen and nectar and the seeds are eaten by birds. Adult Hornet moth The work being undertaken will reduce the crowns by at least 50% but in the spring, the trees will produce lots of new vigorous growth despite the fungus continuing to survive and attack the trees. This severe pollarding will need to be repeated every 2-3 years until the trees are too unstable to retain. When they are eventually felled, replanting will be with a different species since the fungus will attack again.
AlterNativity - Doing Christmas Differently Would you like to choose a ‘living gift’ for your family and friends as an alternative Christmas gift to help those in need? That's the idea behind AlterNativity... Leicester City of Sanctuary is proud to be part of this year’s AlterNativity event, organised by a group of Hinckley churches. We are one of 21 charities, both local and national, who were invited to send representatives to the event in Hinckley on 11 November to promote their work and to offer for sale a two ‘gifts’ that will benefit a needy person or family. The cost of the gifts ranges from £2-£25. http://mailchi.mp/267adfc89c78/alternativity-1438937?e=d72ab6a003
Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree Christmas just isn’t quite Christmas without a tree, but what type of tree do you have? Cut Trees Traditional, magical, aromatic, there is nothing like a real tree to invoke the Christmas spirit. If you plan to buy a cut tree there are some basic things to look out for. The Soil Association has details of retailers selling organic Christmas trees. And the Forest Stewardship Council has a list showing you how to get hold of an FSC-approved tree. Between them, these standards offer a guarantee that your tree has been farmed sustainably. Try to find a tree that's been grown as close to your home as possible. Potted Tree It is worth considering getting a potted tree, rather than one that has been felled, so that you can use it again, in subsequent years. The problem, of course, is storage. Not everyone can host a living Christmas tree at home throughout the year even if they are blessed with some outside space. Plastic Trees This option is often presented as the eco alternative to buying a real tree but this is not the case. Most plastic trees are used little more than a handful of years before being discarded. Consider whether you really want to encourage the production of yet another piece of plastic being produced thousands of miles away and shipped around the planet for your seasonal fun! You would need to use your artificial tree for 10 years or more before it is a more environmentally friendly option. Disposing of your cut tree If you do have to buy a cut tree it is worth finding out first from your local authority whether it offers a Christmas tree collection service whereby it chips up all the trees into mulch. Many local authorities still do not offer such a service which could leave you with the headache of working out what to do with the tree come the twelfth day. Alternatives to Christmas Trees Using contorted willow attached to your mantle or elsewhere in the house to hand decorations from can be really effective. You don’t always have to have a tree!
