News and Events 2007
15 February
Green Spotlight - Waste Wise Recycling Program
Waste Wise is currently rolling out a new office recycling program which forms the first phase of EnviroSMART's Green Office Program. This new recycling program was initiated with a recycling pilot that was successfully implemented in 2006. The pilot resulted in:
- 98 percent reduction in paper and cardboard going to landfill;
- 23 percent reduction in overall waste going to landfill, and;
- Greater awareness among staff of waste issues with staff now recycling significantly more than they 'waste'.
The program was introduced to the staff from Finance, Buildings and Grounds in David Myers, and Buildings and Grounds/Academic Services in Peribolos East. Waste audits in April had revealed that three-quarters of the office waste was made up of recyclable items. An average of 74 percent of general waste was made up of paper (39 percent), co-mingled products (11 percent) and organic material (24 percent).
In these areas, waste bins were replaced by small individual desktop bins and co-mingled bins were introduced to the office kitchens. The staff were encouraged to use the paper recycling bins at their desks and dispose of other recyclables in the co-mingled bins.
The pilot program is part of La Trobe University's commitment to becoming a Waste Wise workplace. If you have any questions about Waste Wise or EnviroSMART please contact us.
Further information regarding the pilot program and associated waste audits.
Thanks to everyone who participated and are still involved in the program.
Ride to Uni Day - Tuesday 13th March 2007
La Trobe University is launching the inaugural Ride to Uni Day on Tuesday 13th March 2007, sponsored by the City of Darebin! Half a dozen universities nation-wide are participating in the La Trobe-initiated event. It is hoped that after the success of this year’s event, the Ride to Uni Day will secure a regular place on the annual calendar of all universities around the country.
So, give cycling a go on Tuesday the 13th of March 2007 and receive a free breakfast and free swim pass to SARA Sports Centre. There’ll be lots of other great prizes to give away also, with a dozen sponsors supporting the event!
For more details, and to register for the day, visit the TravelSmart website.
Waste audit results call for action:
The team at EnviroSMART have now completed audits across a wide sector of La Trobe’s Melbourne (Bundoora) campus, including the David Myers Building, Peribolos East, and Humanities. Further audits of the Bundoora campus are scheduled to be completed by the end of April this year. Alarmingly, the aggregated results of the buildings audited to date show that 69% of waste going to landfill is recyclable. These results highlight the critical need to implement the Office Recycling Program across the University, and raise environmental awareness amongst staff and students.
The Recycling Program pilot conducted in 2006 resulted in:
- 98 percent reduction in paper and cardboard going to landfill;
- 23 percent reduction in overall waste going to landfill, and;
- Greater awareness among staff of waste issues with staff now recycling significantly more than they ‘waste’.
Ride to Work Day success!
Well done to everyone who made Ride to Work Day a great success! We had over 70 people join us on the SARA lawns for a yummy breakfast and got to give away lots of prizes and freebies from Red Bull, Supercycle, La Trobe Union, Fairfield Bicycle Centre and Ivanhoe Cycles. Thanks especially to City of Darebin for providing us with a grant to help run the morning.
Bravo to Science, Technology and Engineering Faculty who were the most represented on the day and to all those who won the different competitions!
For those who rode for the first time, well done! Keep it up and you'll be on the way to building a healthy and energising community habit!
And to all those who travelled to work in some other sustainable manner, well done! Those who let us know received some great prizes supplied by the Council of Darebin as part of the Darebin Business Challenge.
Keep up the peddling/walking/PT-ing/carpooling!
15 April
Green Spotlight - Asian Studies blaze the paper trail
Asian Studies are leading the way in La Trobe's changeover to recycled paper. For a number of years now the program has been purchasing Evolve paper. Asian Studies goes through an average of eight reams of paper per week and EnviroSMART rep Fiona Walsh wanted to lessen the impact this consumption had on the environment. With the support of the school's Executive Officer, Fiona was able start purchasing Evolve paper for the school...and Asian Studies have never looked back! 'The paper is great quality; we've had no trouble with jamming printers. And we're no longer buying paper from those who log old growth forests,' Fiona says. 'And, thanks to EnviroSMART, Evolve is now costing us less!'
La Trobe is making the shift to recycled paper!
Following an initial pilot study and negotiation by our Procurement & Business Services Unit (PBSU), we are pleased to announce some good environmental news.
After meeting with PBSU and EnviroSMART, OfficeMax has agreed to slash the prices of Evolve and Vision Pure White copy papers to help the University reduce our environmental footprint. These are the two most environmentally-friendly copy papers on the market and are now available at very competitive prices (cheaper than Reflex!).
Each year in Australia an area about the size of ACT is logged and over half of this wood is chipped for paper. We have lost enough forest to bushfire this year; help reduce the amount lost to paper production by making green purchasing choices!
The University of Melbourne, Monash University and Swinburne Universities are just three of our contemporaries who are buying these papers in large quantities. Help La Trobe step up to the mark by making the environmental-friendly choice next time you order paper for your office.
Purchasing codes:
Evolve (1961314)
Vision Pure White (1978667)
Ride to Uni Day Success
Tuesday March 13th saw La Trobe host it’s first ever Ride to Uni Day. It was a great success with over 200 staff and students registering online and all cyclists receiving a delicious free breakfast and swim pass for their efforts.
More than $1000 of cycling prizes were given away in competitions, including ‘most rickety bike’, ‘brightest outfit’, and ‘prettiest helmet’. And congratulations to Darcy, the winner of the ‘furthest distance travelled’ who rode over 45 km from Wallan – what a feat!
A number of first time riders reported that their ride to La Trobe was fun and much easier than they’d expected, with many first timers determined to ride to Uni more regularly.
Ride to Uni Day was made possible through the generosity of the City of Darebin and Cycling Promotion Fund. We hope that from 2008 Ride to Uni Day will become an annual event on the calendars of universities all around Australia.
Stay tuned for Ride to Work Day in October!
The EnviroSMARTIE award goes to…
Congratulations to Marina Eleftheriadis (International Programs Office) who won our first ever EnviroSMARTIE award! Marina's passion for all things environmental is a great energiser for us here at EnviroSMART. The award also goes to the entire IPO for their enthusiasm in greening their office - they have more reps than any other area in the University!