Unless you are a certain flame-haired supermodel who can afford a flat in London and a first-class commute to lectures, shared accommodation is a necessity during university. I have to say my experience of shared living was mixed: communal baking, charades and having friends around were excellent; dying rats under the floor boards and shelling out for monthly bills; not so excellent.

If you have ever had to suffer the stench of a decomposing rat, you have my sympathies. Equally, if you have tried to explain to a housemate why having four light bulbs on in one bedroom is a waste; I also feel your pain. There is an element of reason involved, of course. Walking around the house with three jumpers, two t-shirts, gloves, tights, trousers and several pairs of socks on at once is definitely no fun (believe me, I would know), but it is surely important to save money– and the planet too. If SJP of Sex and the City had practiced energy-saving initiatives, she could have bought more shoes instead of needing a bail out from Big. And who wouldn’t want more shoes, or anything else for that matter?

There are many ways to cut down on unnecessary energy use but measuring your electricity use is a good place to start. There are ways to get free measurement devices that plug in and calculate your costs . Oxford University have also created an imeasure which is more work but still provides results as you can find out which appliances eat up your money and use them less. One ‘out there’ suggestion is to use cling-film for secondary glazing – tape it around your windows and then hair dryer it taut. I did this to keep a ladybird infestation out, but it works just as well to keep heat in. Tin foil behind a radiator may help too; recycle foil take-out boxes to be optimally sustainable. Alternatively, sign up to People & Planet’s Big Green Makeover project and you’ll get all the training and resources you need to help fellow students do this for free!

I also recommend outlining the ‘Landlords Energy Saving Allowance’ to your landlord. Up to £1,500 can be claimed against tax each year to improve a property’s eco-credentials. Who knows, there may be some green landlords out there, so spread the word. Encourage your landlord to install better insulation on the roof or around water pipes, and point them in the direction of claims information.

There is one caveat to implementing energy saving suggestions: the rest of your household. Lead by example, gentle persuasion, reminders, and advice as the first steps to switching off appliances and turning down the heating, which can then be backed by technological solutions. Forgetting to turn something off is not an excuse anymore. There is of course an App that can remotely turn off electronics – can you believe that? If nothing else works, try positive conditioning. Get housemates to turn off lights or computers then surreptitiously give them a sweet. Repetition is key. Soon energy saving behaviour will occur with just the vague memory of a delicious sweet for encouragement. In a nod to Thorndike, like rats pressing a lever, those lights go off.

The latter suggestion may not be such a good idea (though I’d love to try it just to see if it works!) but it is definitely hugely beneficial to try and implement energy saving initiatives around the house you’re letting. If nothing else, try it for a month as evidence for the months to come, and watch your bills go down. Before you feel the pinch of huge bills, try turning to this advice. It just might help!

Katie

Hey guys,

This is Katie Luxton putting my sustainably sourced and ethically made stamp on my first blog post. My Monday this week started out as usual - dodging bombs and using human shields.

Yes, I am a female James Bond and I plan to shake up and stir the cocktail of environmentalists who are as eager as I am to help make life a few ‘Degrees Cooler’.

In case you were wondering, I am of course referring to the current environmental campaign for Transition Universities at People & Planet. The bomb dodging was apart of the People & Planet Volunteer Media Activist training I have just undertaken. My use of a human shield was a warm up exercise to get the blood flowing to the brain; cue excellent media ideas.

For me, the training was a refreshing way to initiate putting my passions into practice. I hope to raise awareness on environmental issues, but most importantly instigate ACTION.

I learnt more about ethical investment and tar sands on the training which was something I was eager to clue up on. I also found an excellent introduction to ethical investment in the Guardian. I am definitely going to pursue this avenue of environmental conservation further. I will keep you updated if I find anything new; if readers have any fruitful suggestions on the topic, they would be more than welcome.

I also wanted to say thanks a lot to the staff members at People & Planet for making the experience so enjoyable. It was a great opportunity to meet the dedicated faces behind the organisation, but also my fellow Media Activists; like minded people trying to make the world a better place.

Be safe, be green.

Katie

Are you running a Go Green Week at your university, school or college on 7 - 14 February? If so, we want to hear from you.

Throughout the week we’ll be featuring blogs about your activities and events, culminating in the day of action on Friday 11 calling on the Government to “cut the carbon, not education”.

Not blogged for People & Planet before?  It’s simple, just write us a short piece about your views, experiences or describing an event you’ve organised or attended.  You can register for a Wordpress blogging account by emailing us or simply send your Go Green Week blog post in by email and we’ll post it up for you if you’re not familiar with Wordpress.

Don’t forget to include:

• hyperlinks to useful sites (eg. your Go Green Week facebook events or useful resources)
• at least 1 picture
• your name, email and university name/group name (your email will be kept private)

So what are you waiting for?  Get blogging and you’ll feature news of your Go Green Week and campaigns on the front page of People & Planet’s website!

Irina Nedeclu is a post-graduate student at the University of Edinburgh; hear her views about the struggle to be a low-carbon international student.

Let’s enjoy the journey

Prior to completing a carbon footprint survey I considered myself to be on the right track: I haven’t been driving for a year, I reduced unnecessary purchases to the minimum, I’ve been recycling, saved on my energy spending and started to look at what else I could do to improve my impact on the environment. While I was filling the survey I was pretty satisfied with my answers and expected a fairly good result.

And what a low carbon footprint would I have generated had I not been an international student.

Sadly going back home has turned into a commodity for non-UK students and, even if that happens as little as once a year, most of us choose to fly. I can only speak for myself, but the reason why I chose this means of transportation had nothing to do with my being lazy or saving time, but with saving money. I thought that purchasing a plane ticket was less expensive than planning out an alternative route that would have been both fun and energy saving. But was that really the case? Was travelling by plane the cheapest way to get from Edinburgh to Eastern Europe? Definitely not.

It was not a case of not being willing to take an alternative travelling option, but a case of being misinformed or of not being informed at all.

Time is a deciding factor especially for students who have to deal with deadlines and exams and when you need to find a way to get back home for the holidays in just a couple of days it’s pretty hard to spend time on the internet looking for tips or planning low impact journeys that fit a student’s travel budget.  This doesn’t mean that they don’t exist and the need for alternative travel information is increasing among students.  Especially now that the summer holidays are approaching and people will travel a lot more than they have had throughout the rest of the year.

Here in Edinburgh, Transition Edinburgh University has taken the initiative to organize the Summer Travel Fair on the 14^th of May in Edinburgh at George Square Lecture Theatre, by gathering all the available low impact travel information under one roof.  People interested in cheap, fun, low impact travel alternatives just need to show up, meet travelling peers and learn from experienced travellers what are the ways to get around expensive and climate damaging journeys. This won’t ruin our summer holiday fun – it’ll improve it,

For more information please visit :www.teu.org.uk/travel-fair

The Transition Edinburgh University initiative was set up to put the Edinburgh University community on the road to transition, lowering carbon emissions and finding a community response to peak oil and climate change. TEU was set up partly as a consequence of the People & Planet campaign Go Green and partly as a consequence of the work of the Energy Manager of the University, David Somervell. (more…)