What's Green Lately..

The past month has been quite busy for us green bees!

On the 22nd we took part in Organisation’s Week, held by KSU. This was held at the UOM quadrangle where we put up a stand for the day. The stand was themed Ethical Living, giving any visitors to our stand a peek of how small changes in their lifestyle can result in more ethical consumerism and overall living. 

We had items from Cruelty-Free Malta, which are certified not tested on animals, products from L-Arka, the only fair trade shop in Malta; upcycled art from Create Hope and some delicious sweets made by your very own greenies. We were also promoting a Greenhouse Malta project, fish4tomorrow. This project is currently tackling fishing and fish consumption - promoting sustainable practices to fishermen, fish mongers and the consumer.

some of us

We also had available on the stand a list of charity and/or ethical shop addresses. These will be uploaded onto our group shortly.

The 22nd also happened to be World Water day. We have published two articles related to the topic, one on zuntier, and one on our blogpost

The next day (23rd) was Earth Hour, in which Greenhouse held an event at the cozy tal-Ingliż Tea Room in Triq il-Ganċ, Valletta. This event was meant to be a time to relax for members and the general public while allowing them to switch off their own homes. People gathered at the venue around 8pm to enjoy a lovely hour of live acoustic music which  was generously provided for free by singer Valerie Galea and guitarist Matthew Muscat Drago between 8:30 and 9:30.

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The area outside l-Ingliz was adorned with candles, so that external lights could be switched off, with the cooperation of the owners who kindly allowed us to carry out the event there. Candles were also lit inside to reduce some of the inside lights. Although not everything was switched off (for example refrigerators could not be switched off for obvious reasons)  this event allowed for people to all be gathered in one place, reducing electrical usage in their personal homes.

We hope that events such as these will inspire everyone present to reconsider everyday activities and see where improvements can be made to achieve a more sustainable and ethical lifestyle, which for the most part results in also saving money! Think about it.

Stay Green,

Greenhouse Malta

ps. Greenhouse Malta now has it's very own page! Like us to keep yourself updated with events and interesting material!

Greenhouse Workshop - Join us!

Reinventing Greenhouse from within

We're holding a half-day workshop on the strategic development of Greenhouse Malta in the years to come, on Sunday 17th July, in our office at student house, uni. Feel free to contact us on green.uom@gmail.com or visit the facebook event

Rough Programme for the Workshop:
9:30 - Meeting in front of Student House (in the Quadrangle of Univeristy)

9:45 - 10:00 'Breaking the ice in Pairs' - Icebreaking exercise

10:00 - 10:20 'The Good the Bad and the Ugly' - A 20 minute presnetation by Simone Cutajar on the past projects of carried out.

10:20 - 10:40 'Developing our Common Vision' - A 15 minute brainstorming in pairs on the Future Vision to take, analysis and presentation of the outcomes

10:40 - 11:00 Break

11:00 - 12:00 'Wielding the Concept Fan Technique' - Taking one of these long term visions at a time so as to come up with a link of ideas short term goals for greenhouse. This technique has been suggest by our member and friend Christine Cutajar and moderated by Anthony Debono

12:00 - 12:10 Break

12:10 - 12:20 'Closure' - A quick presentation by Joseph Caruana of on-going projects carried out by Greenhouse

*There is more to student life than just Books and Lectures! Join our workshop and start shaping the world around you!* :)

The Dwelling for the Green at Heart: Greenhouse- It’s All about Sustainability

An article on the past activities of Greenhouse which was published by KSU as part of the Environmental Fair publications, written by Malcolm Borg, Executive Member.

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With the University lacking a student environmental organisation, Greenhouse set forth to fill in this vacuum and commenced its work in October 2008. Throughout these years the organisation has worked with numerous entities- other student organisations, NGOs, private and public entities and the government.

On campus

The executive has been following and meeting the University’s administration on various subjects amongst which are alternative energy generation on campus, sustainable landscaping, water and waste. With regards to water Greenhouse last year collected a number of plastic bottles which were filled up with water and placed in each flushing unit on campus to reduce the amount of water used in each flush. Perhaps the major contribution Greenhouse has given on campus has been that related to waste. Discussions with a private company yielded a number of skips near the campus for use by the nearby stationeries while other discussions with a parastatal entity yielded a battery bin which is placed in the Student’s House. Greenhouse has held many a meeting with the University administration on the possibility of a tri-bin system to be installed at the University precincts albeit to no avail. Greenhouse will be pursuing the issue further. A composting site has been in the pipeline for a number of months and the last obstacles are being dealt with so that this project starts running in the near future.

Greenhouse members at a clean up way back in 2009, when the organisation was just getting started

Discussions with the administration have also focused on the canteen’s products while through discussions with KSU, the CCTV cameras at the Student’s House were changed to the more environmentally-friendly Infrared cameras.

Greenhouse also formulated the ‘Green Pact’ by which organisation signatories were bound to green their conduct in their day-to-day administration. KSU was a signatory to this pact.

Our first organisations' days

Events on campus included ‘Know Your Food’ with a special emphasis on threats of GMOs, waste reduction educational week as part of the European Week for Waste Reduction, ‘Survival is not Negotiable’- a campaign to coincide with climate change talks in Copenhagen’s COP 15 negotiations, human rights and inter-religious debates as part of human rights week and ‘Status: Refugee’ – an information event which focused on the situation of migrants in their native countries. All this apart from participating in KSU’s Freshers’ Week, Environmental Fair and Organisations Days in which information panels and debates on a variety of subjects were held by Greenhouse.

Off campus

Outside campus, Greenhouse- registered under the NGO Commission and a contributing member of two MEUSAC sectoral committees- is part of the Animal Rights Coalition. As part of this coalition, Greenhouse co-organized the Animal Circus Protest March to coincide with the animal circus on the Islands. Apart from this, Greenhouse is also vocal on the lack of shelters for cab horses in Valletta. The organisation co-organized and participated in ‘Legality Now!’- a protest march to urge MEPA to uphold the law in its decisions so that the environment is safeguarded.

In the annual Worldfest as organized by KKG, Greenhouse installed an exhibition stand on virtual water and gave information to visitors on this little-known subject. Together with other organisations, Greenhouse co-organized food-related events such as the airing of ‘Kissed by the Grape’ and ‘Surviving the Nature Crunch’- an event closing a permaculture-related project.

Greenhouse organized various social events such as rock climbing, bird watching, SCUBA diving, clean-ups, animal sanctuary volunteering, vegan gatherings and more.

During Human Rights Week 2009

This is only some of the past Greenhouse’s work.

Watch out for more Greenhouse projects coming up such as a campaign about sustainable fishing, more advocacy work and events and a variety of social events to tickle everyone’s fancy.

Greenhouse is actively seeking to recruit volunteers this year. If you would like to offer some of your time in helping Greenhouse or some other organisation do not hesitate to contact us and we’ll help you find what you’re looking for.

Keep it green.

European Waste Reduction Week: Malta's Best NGO based project!

Good news! Our event for European Waste Reduction Week 2010 was selected as the best project in the NGO category from Malta :)

Next Monday the EU level results will be out and we'll know which NGO in Europe carried out the best event to promote Waste Reduction.

Visit the Wasteserv website to learn more about the various projects which were chosen as the best in their category.

Here's a summary of the Greenhouse event held on Campus for EWWR:

Association/ NGO- Greenhouse Organization

The project presented was spread over 4 days during the EWWR week, with each day focusing on a particular issue. These issues, although they might not be in the limelight, when it comes to waste-related issues, they are a major problem. The aim of the action was to make students and staff aware that a big part of the waste produced on a daily basis can be easily avoided by adopting simple actions which would make a big difference to our environment. Monday was dedicated to the distribution of rough paper stands across university facilities such as Student House, Library and computer labs where students could deposit or take rough paper to be used. This was done to promote the reuse of one-sided waste paper as rough paper.

Tuesday was about creating awareness about the large amounts of waste produced due to excessive packaging and to the promotion of fresh local produce and the selection of less packaged items in the marketplace. This was done jointly with a local supermarket where a stand was set up to display the different options there are to reduce this waste stream.

On Thursday a collection of goods which are not needed any longer was organized. The aim was to give these goods to an animal charity shop for reselling and thus reuse. This day served also for the promotion of the free cycling concept via websites. This also reduces the waste going to the landfill and saves the world's resources.

Friday was dedicated to the promotion of effective composting. A stand, which provided ample information about the requirements to make good compost, was set up while an example of the final product was also set on display.

Each concept mentioned above was further promoted by the distribution of bookmarks to the students to serve as a continuous reminder of the benefits of waste reduction.

September Scavenging

Maybe the rain is still scarce for spring but in Students’ House cleaning has been the order of the day in the past few days. As some organizations switch offices, others plan to enter their first one but whatever the case the lower storey of the building has been buzzing with activity.

JEF- an organization that will be moving to a new office in the next scholastic year- thought of an innovative yet brilliant idea. Offices would be ceiling-full of stuff gathered from last year’s activities and events. While most of this stuff is only worthy of recycling, some is most definitely in a good enough condition to be reused. And JEF proposed to organizations cleaning up their offices to put their unwanted stuff in the corridor while other organizations scavenge for things that might be useful for them this coming year.

And lo and behold! Boxes filled with all sorts of crazy stuff filled the narrow corridors while the offices breathed a sigh of fresh air as their empty spaces were re-found.

Greenhouse members visited the activity and, being an organization with its first office, found a plethora of stuff that where considered handy. Throughout the time Greenhouse members spent going through the boxes of unwanted stuff, JEF and MUSC were clearing out their offices.

Greenhousers were scratching their heads (and washing their hands) handling all the brimful boxes.

Among the things that were recovered by Greenhousers were cutlery, banners, ropes, crayons, a cupboard, a fridge and much more. We had more capital than we ever had throughout the organization’s history! And all this would have ended up being thrown away in a skip!

Greenhouse members also gave a helping hand sorting out the materials in the waste boxes and separating them into paper, plastic, metal and other waste. The former three were disposed of in the bring-in site containers while the other waste was thrown away in a skip brought over for this clean-up event. One sided paper was placed in WINK/Greenhouse’s rough paper stand in front of canteen.

And thus we sorted all our newly acquired items in our new office satisfied that we reduced the amount of waste that would have been generated and content that we now had some useful stuff that might come in handy come next October. We commend JEF for the initiative and all organizations that participated.

Campus Eco-personality of the Year

Michelle Mahoney and the Print Xpress Team

Print Xpress is a stationery located at the Students’ House on campus and, like all other stationeries, it photocopies thousands of lecture notes and books.

One of the employees there is Michelle Mahoney and she has proved her green credentials time and time again.

Firstly, she made sure that the heaps of paper that they use are derived from the sustainable forestry scheme. Basically this is a scheme which ensures that the paper being used comes from trees which are managed in such a way that no net deforestation or ecosystem adverse impacts ensue. This is a very important step for any firm which uses large amounts of paper for their day to day activities. Deforestation for paper production and furniture (not to mention the toilet paper industry) is stripping the Earth of one of its main oxygen producers and toxin neutralizers.

Look out for this logo when buying paper to ensure your paper comes from a sustainable forestry source:

Starting from the ‘Environmental Fair’ which was organized by KSU last March, Michelle, together with her team, printed a paper which was stuck to their main desk encouraging students to print their notes double-sided. Double-sided printing saves half the resources which would otherwise be used since it uses half the amount of paper. The response from the students was good and many a student, upon seeing this sign, asked to have their notes printed double-sided.

Lastly, Michelle has been instrumental in helping Greenhouse start the rough paper initiative at the Students’ House. Being a stationery and thus producing a considerable amount of paper waste, Greenhouse teamed up with Print Xpress to initiate a scheme in which the one-sided paper waste produced from the stationery would be placed at the disposal of the students for them to take and use as rough paper.

The Greenhouse team would like to commend and congratulate Michelle and the Print Xpress Team for their environmental credentials and in doing their part for a better environment. It is through these small steps that we can together make a significant change. Hopefully more firms will take their example and initiate their green projects. Do not hesitate to contact Greenhouse for more information and help on your potential green projects.

Rough Paper stand for Collective Use!

To see the blog in full format click here.

A section for rough paper has been added to the University Wink stand in the last few weeks as hopefully most of our followers have gotten to know. This is meant to encourage the uptake of rough paper and the reduced waste of paper for study purposes.

We all know the large amount of notes we take which may later need to be rewritten, for this reason and much more start using the rough paper now to be available at the Wink stand at University.

So far the uptake has been very encouraging. Actually we have to inform Print Express to help us pile up more rough paper since we just run out of the first batch given. Anyways on the first try we have to say the feedback which has been flowing in our direction has all been positive. Also contributions are becoming more frequent with people leaving their excess rough in stock instead of accumulating it for themselves. Also the posters from past activities are given here also as rough paper.

Make it a collective effort people! If you got rough paper in excess add it to the present pile. ;)

Special Thanks goes to:

Print Express - Stationery on Campus

Wink Magazine - Positive News

Without their support this would not have been possible.

Bottle up the flush. Challenge 100!

To view this blog with pictures press here.

We have set up a blue tank at the Quad. No it got nothing to do with election time. The colour is merely a coincidence!

Malcolm suffering from slave labour

With is (hoping students will understand its purpose) we hope to collect a 100 empty bottles of plastic. Not for any fancy recycled art exhibition even if we had the human resources and facilities to do it we could. But, rather to simply stuff each one with stones, fill it up with water and place it in flushing tanks at the University. Something like what you are told on the discovery channel of people trying to either save some more or as we are doing to reduce the consumption at the university... How far can it go?.. good question.

Joseph realising its his turn now!

Let me draw the assumptions first.

Assume:

There are 9,000 students full-time at university. Excluding staff

That these each use the bathroom facilities once a week (excluding holidays and days of exams) for 195 days. Therefore, 27.8 weeks

Putting two 500ml Kristal bottles in each flushing.

The figures made are enough to make one realize that the figure of water saved from this simple 'Blue tank' exercise may save up to 250 thousand litres. Not bad for a flush a week per student case study.

Now try make it once, 7 days a week, for every person in a year in Malta.

1 x 7 x 410,290 x 365... well the (small)calculator I have brings about an error.

The original layout for the tank

So the scope is really not what we do at University! But, what we should do in every space we inhabit. We have to minimize the impact we are having on the resources around us NOT only because it makes perfect economic sense, but ALSO because it defines us as people and our relation to the environment we inhabit.

End result

Try to follow this tutorial into introducing this and other similar systems at your home. Educate your family and friends and see what changes you register in the meter by the end of the year. Its with small changes that we can change the quality of life we are living. Think small and incremental and take it as a learning experience.

Tutorial:

http://www.wikihow.com/Save-Water-While-Flushing-(Soda-Bottle-and-Pebble-Method)

Tank location for the coming days

Energy Conservation @ UoM – Every bit counts!

We all would love to justify our helplessness and laziness but pointing fingers at who is in authority or at the society in which we live in won’t help. So much is in fact said about our University. Sweeping statement such as, “they waste energy all the time! It’s right under their noses! Who is it that pays for their bills? What It is a Public institution so….”

And so the rambling goes. But is the University so out of touch with today's realities…. And on all matters?

Think again!

Following the ‘Call for Energy Auditing’ run by Greenhouse together with 9 other organisations and featured also on Insite. We had recovered from the Rector’s Delegate for Logistics a study which had just been running for a year. This study was the first phase of a project undertook in 2007 which analysed all the main forms of energy consumption at university and saw where the bulk of energy consumption took place. This involved metering every building and air conditioner separately and compiling data. It also helped work out a strategy to be implemented over time.

The second part took place in 2008 where wasteful practises where reduced, such as replacing fluorescent tubes to T5 bulbs with a payback period of 2 years and installing motion detectors together with the light circuit. There were also members of the staff selected to run the various projects in their respective buildings and who later would see through the implementation of future projects. In all 2008 saw a 5% reduction in energy consumption at University.

During last year 2009 an additional cut of 5% in energy consumption had been achieved. Through the expansion of the scope of the previous year’s energy saving measures which started in 2008. This reduction was achieved even though there was the expansion of University facilities and the investment in new electric equipment for various facilities.

Later during the opening of the new academic year in September 2009 a project proposal by the University was accepted under the European Regional Development Fund. The project “Implementing Green Activities at the University of Malta” seeks to invest € 4.4million over a number of years. Through the investment in Photovoltaic Systems expected to generate 20-25% of present energy needs to the installation of Power Factor Correction Equipment in each building of the University. Expectations are running high for this project which is expected to be primarily for research purposes.

Furthermore, a similar metering exercise on water consumption was run during the second half of 2008 where it identified water leakages of around 30% of the University recorded level of consumption. This leak has been bypassed and minimized until the necessary repairs will be undertaken by the Water Services Corporation during the summer period.

In conclusion energy consumption has dropped by 10% over the last 2 years and 20-25% of the remaining consumption is expected to be produces through renewable energy. This is definitely a first for a Maltese institution and now!! What are you and your friends doing about your energy consumption?

Ever bit counts in energy conservation.

For additional information visit the following site.

Dealing with waste on Campus.

Little is known about the waste management scheme on campus by the University students except for one thing - it doesn’t work!!

This is a blog on the information that Greenhouse has gathered over its 1 year on Campus on the waste management of public area waste at University.

The three bin tripod system which we have grown accustomed to does not work. It simply does not entice students to start seperating waste in public spaces and the stories published in the past by Insite show the insignificance of this system. It’s not a simple task to pinpoint who is responsible for the lack of a proper system of waste separation.

So how have things developed?

Firstly one must note that the colour code of the bins was one drawn from an Italian model which was replicated using the University resources. By now the story has dragged on for 2 years as Joseph Camilleri from Precincts Office explained. A year ago, while Greenhouse was in its infancy, there was a common consensus among its members that if it were to start any projects this ought to be waste management. Therefore, we moved on to contact Precincts Office which gave us the go ahead to contact Wasteserv and set out a plan of proposals on how the waste scheme on campus ought to function. Wasteserv were interested to work with us and introduce a system at University, but KSU was already in contact with them to try get things sorted out. The responsibility was entrusted to Andrew Busuttil (‘il-Buzu’) - the educational commissioner of the then KSU executive , who for some reason or another always procrastinated on this issue. One can only guess that the furore over the negotiations between the government and UMASA in the now infamous lecturer strike re-directed KSU’s and the commissioner’s efforts away from this issue of a proper waste system and thus this never materialized.

After last summer’s holidays, Greenhouse - having closely monitored the electoral manifestos of both parties running for office - approached Vivenne Bajada as she referred to the waste management separation scheme in the run-up to the elections in one of her messages. After she accepted the proposal, Greenhouse contacted Wasteserv immediately and a meeting was set up between the three stakeholders together with GreenMT a private entity which sought to provide the service.

During the meeting it was decided that KSU, which has Students’ House under its jurisdiction, will take care of the waste separation scheme there. On the other hand GreenMT had to contact the Precincts Office since it is responsible for the outdoor areas. After some correspondence between the Precincts Office and GreenMT, the latter offered a deal to supply the bins. Since then the ball has been in the Univeristy’s court and more pressure is being put on the administration which presently finds itself overloaded with other projects.

Therefore now it’s hopefully only a matter of time until the system is in place. Once that is ready we hope all will be supportive of the new system and would start managing our waste responsibly.

Furthermore we ought not to keep on waiting for somebody else to take the initiative! If you have an idea share it with us! A few days of work is all it takes to see things change around you.

All recommendations on waste management and facilities will be forwarded to the Precincts Office for further consideration. So please do take note of what’s happening around you and if you wish to see some changes, share with us your ideas!!

References

Insight: SDM campaign Video: 'SDM in KSU would rebuild Students' Hut and would press for waste recycling at the University.'

Inisght: How Green is our Univeristy?: 'While waste separation never took off, it is evident that more can, and should, be done for our only university to become greener.'

Views from GW Building

Battery Buster Bins - No more excuses

With all our mp3s, iPods and all sorts of gadgets, we are becoming more and more dependent on batteries- these small energy reservoirs which can provide you with the energy needed to listen to your favorite song on your bus ride back home.

But what are batteries really made of? Batteries are a cocktail of chemicals, and the chemicals therein are not exactly the most safe and green of chemicals. If left in the environment, especially exposed to rain and sun, these chemicals leach out from the batteries and can percolate underground to our water supplies. Therefore we can be drinking traces of what once powered our music entertainment.

So batteries ending up in landfills can be very damaging not only to the environment but to our own health. These chemicals can also end up in our seas risking our health during swimming. Soil can also be affected especially if we just throw our batteries into an open space or worse arable fields. These chemicals can then find themselves into crops which we then ingest.

These chemicals can affect the central nervous system especially of young children, causing seizures, learning disabilities and mental defects.

For the sake of everything and everyone dispose of your batteries in a battery bin so that they can be processed by specialized companies and thus avoid these chemicals finding their way into the environment and eventually our bodies. These bins are being placed in a number of locations around Malta and a new battery bin has been placed at the University. You can find the wooden bin just outside the cafeteria. We urge you to make good use of it!

This bins can be found by the entrance of Canteen and in Agenda bookshop.

Provided by Wasteserve.

Student Feedback @ Freshers - Part 2

The following are another round of comments we received on our guestbook by the students visiting our stand.

While thanking them all for taking some time to share their thoughts with us, we hope that a few of their ideas can be taken as hands on projects in the coming year.

Guestbook Extracts:

“Very good initiatives you are doing. Good Luck & Keep it up”

“The Chinese Garden is such a beautiful place where you can sit back and relax. Wish we had more beautiful astonishing places where we can focus on our studies and find peace!! :o)”

“My opinion about the environment of Uni is positive. I think we have enough open air which is good. Perhaps improvement in public transport could decrease the amount of cars around uni. Good Luck!”

“The university of Malta should be one of the pioneers of alternative energy projects in Malta”

“I would like to propose the introduction of fair trade coffee in the university coffee machines”

“I suggest a better disposal or reuse system for IT electronic waste. What happens to old monitors and discarded pc parts?”

“UNFCC - COP15 Copenhagen 24th October - Tck Tck Tck 350.org! Survival is not negotiable”

“Green the future!! Use the plentiful solar energy, actual recycling, and raising awareness to the enviornmental Damage too many cars cause to our university and to us”

“Battery Bin”

“I think this organisation is a really good idea as it might raise awareness among university students. I hope you manage to reach your goals. Wish you all the best of luck! xXx Alex xXx”

“Wind energy harvesting through giant kites”

Send more comments and share your thoughts on our profile, blog or email and join our network. + if you share your email address with we can list you on our membership list for free.

PS: We would like to thank organisations such as Moviment Graffiti for providing storage space and assistance.