NEWS
Sustainability Week celebrates green initiatives on campus
RMIT has launched its inaugural Sustainability Week, an opportunity to celebrate environmental initiatives on campus.
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Students and staff will this week showcase the breadth of the RMIT community’s passion for sustainability through a range of activities and events.
Highlights of Sustainability Week include a tour of RMIT’s green roofs, an “idea incubator” pitching session, sustainable food tours, networking opportunities and Earth Hour.
Pitch-It: Sustainability in Practice, is a student-led research pitching event, that will discuss recent innovations such as 3D printing to support renewable energy and the potential for solar music festivals (17 March, 4.30pm-6pm).
The Matter of Landscape, a green roof research team, and Greening RMIT, a student-run project aiming to create more urban gardens at RMIT, will host a walking tour to explore the green roofs around City campus (16 March, 2pm-3pm).
The week will culminate in Earth Hour, an annual “lights off” initiative to create awareness about climate change.
RMIT encourages all staff to switch off PCs, monitors, printers and non-essential lighting before they leave work on Friday 18 March.
Linda Stevenson, Senior Manager RMIT Sustainability, is proud of what the University is doing to contribute to sustainability.
“RMIT has come a long way in its sustainability journey,” she said.
“Over the past few years, the RMIT Sustainability Committee has pushed sustainability-related curriculum development, fellowships, ‘living laboratory’ research projects, a climate change adaptation plan and the Green Innovators Competition.
“Sustainability Week provides a valuable platform to show the rest of the University what steps we are taking to create a sustainable future.”
Behind-the-scenes, RMIT has also invested $98 million to transform over 90 buildings across the Brunswick, Bundoora and City campuses to save water, electricity and greenhouse gas emissions.
Through the Sustainable Urban Precincts Program, electricity use will be reduced over eight years by an estimated 239 million kilowatts, leading to a 30,000-tonne reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Water use will be cut by an estimated 68 million litres.
Sustainability Week runs from 15-19 March. Registration is essential for all events.
Story: Alison Copley