Travel survey! :)

It was a cold Thursday, stopping people to complete surveys was a hard task, but still we managed it! :) We asked a range of people throughout the campus their travel arrangements and views to and from the uni. The survey was effective, it only took a minute per person to complete, but still covered all areas we were interested in. We tried to gain a range of views from students at different locations across the campus, and we managed to achieve this (a cross section of years, ages and genders). It seemed quite a simple task to carry out in an hour, and we could have completed more questionnaires in the time allotted.

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We found that a large majority of people asked who lived off campus, drove to uni as an individual, this wasn't surprising as a class survey showed similar results earlier in the year. About half people asked felt concerned about their impact upon the environment, however very few people actually took measures to reduce their impact, as it was too time consuming or costly. It was also surprising that we didn't come across any disabled people in our questionnaire asking, as we asked a sample of over 60 people between us.

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As a group i felt that we worked effectively, we managed to complete all the questionnaires and do the car count in the allotted time slot. It would have been an improvement though, if we had met up the day before to collect any materials from Faith, instead of being disorganised so she had to come in early on the Thursday!

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If i were to repeat the questionnaire, I would have trailed the questionnaire with a small focus group to check understanding and clarity of questions. I would also have made the study longitudinal, so I could gain a more accurate perspective

Do individuals make a difference?

Sustainability is defined as meeting the needs of today without compromising the needs of future generations, without everybody (not only random individuals) taking responsibility for this then there wouldn't be any sustainability! We are all trying to coexist on this planet, and to achieve this without compromising future generations we all need to work together to limit/reduce our impact. This isn't happening at the moment, which is why there are escalating damages happening; global warming, holes in the ozone layer, deforestation.

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It is important for governments national, local and international to set an example and provide facilities (e.g. recycling facilities) and education for people about how to act and live sustainably to limit their impact on their environment. By providing this role model, it would encourage people further to act sustainably. The greatest thing stopping people from acting sustainably is that they don't really understand how their actions can really have a positive effect, and that it is important for every individual to do their bit.

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So yes, every individual does make a difference; acting united we will achieve!

United Nations debate: DENMARK

For this exercise myself and Sam were representatives of Denmark (whoop whoop), and i must admit that i was kind of relieved when i realised that they had got plenty of sustainable strategies in place, and actually were at the forefront of sustainability. We managed to get information about most of their strategies quite quickly, the harder thing would be to talk about everything in just 5 minutes, and what suggestions of improvements could we offer for a country who seem to be doing everything already!

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I didn't really know much about Denmark as a country, and absolutely zero about it's sustainable strategies prior to doing this exercise, and was pleasantly surprised about how much they had going on. I suppose I always thought that all countries within the EU would be doing the same sort of thing when it came to sustainability, and so always used England as my bench mark for whats good. This exercise has opened my eyes to that, and makes me wonder why we as a country don't adopt some of these strategies. Only 7% of waste being put in landfills, is definitely something to aspire to as a country! Hearing about the other countries sustainable ideas, also made me realise how much the economy influences how sustainable you are; whether it's not being able to input ideas because you can't afford it, or that you haven't got other options to how you manage things already.

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Overall I think our presentation went alright, but it could have been soooooooo much better if we had been stricter with our time, and kept to the point. One of the main elements of the exercise was to identify what you would do differently if you had the money, and we ran out of time to do justice to this. I felt that I was quite clear when speaking, tryed to make eye contact with the others at the table, and hopefully my nerves didn't show too much (because I was absolutely brickin it!). I think Sam and I worked together quite well, and as a team we complemented each other when presenting, we could have met up a few more times possibly to rehearse before hand though and to finalise details.

From this exercise I learnt alot about sustainability strategies in other countries (in particular Denmark). If I were to do the assignment again, I would be more strict about time keeping, and if their was the option to factor in a time for questions. When producing a handout I would also offer a bit more detail for people on the different aspects, instead of assuming the knowledge of the audience (for example I assumed everyone knew about the agenda 21, but they might not have). Overall I quite enjoyed this exercise, and will be alot less stressed if I had to do a debate again.

Northamptonshire Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy

For decades the main way of disposing household waste is through landfill sites, but these are quickly being filled up. Therefore many local authorities are now looking at ways to decrease the amount of household waste we produce, and how to deal with it more efficiently. This is where the Northamptonshire Waste Management Strategy comes in. This strategy has been developed jointly between the Northamptonshire Waste Partnership and Northamptonshire Districts, with the aim of producing 'a joint approach to managing the County's municipal solid waste in the period from 2007/08 to 2020/21'.

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Part of the strategy focus' upon the amount of household waste and collection services there are within each District. There has been a large improvement over the past 7 years, and positively there is stated that the councils may have already met their target for 2010/11 which was stated in the 2002 strategy. This has been mainly improved through the introduction of new waste collection services, and the overall recycling performance of the HWRC's being improved.

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There is variation between each District, as to the amount of household waste they have or their individual collection services. All Districts have noted significant improvement in the amount of household waste which is being recycled (in some cases as big as a 23% increase between 2001 and 2007), but why is this? I feel the main reason for this is the way in which the recycling is collected throughout the Districts. The recycling and organic waste collections shown in the table are not simple to interpret! I'm always forgeting which day to put our bin and recycling bag at home out, so having to remember that i can recycle paper on week 1, cardboard, plastic bottles, cans and textiles week 2, and glass every 4 weeks, well that would be beyond me! In some of the Districts there are much simpler collection systems, which seems to result in more people recycling. The majority of the population are pro recycling, but when it becomes over complicated and confusing people won't bother.

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Overall improvement has been made throughout the county, but more can still be achieved, and needs to be achieved. The simplification of collection services will help to increase further recycling within Northamptonshire. If instead of separate district collection policies there are clear ones set for the County as a whole, this would help to clear understanding of what and when certain collections take place. Free and easily accessible collections or drop offs for less frequent collections (e.g. bottle banks), will help people to 'get rid' of recycling more regularly, rather than letting certain items (which can't be recycled frequently) take up storage space at home. Educating the local people more about the process of recycling is also important in encouraging people to take a more active role with recycling.

Bad news sells papers

The intended audience of UK newspapers varies, (would you expect the same person to buy The Sun as The Guardian?), this results in variation between articles being published. The overall aim of articles in UK newspapers is to entertain and meet the needs of their audience. In my opinion it is this need to sell newspapers and entertain the population, which results in the lack of factual evidence or 'stretch of truths' in many articles, reducing their reliability as factual resources. .

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There is much variation between articles written in different newspapers; the style, how they relate to a topic. Two articles can be seemingly completely different from the title, but actually be based upon the same topic:

• "Sci-fi to aid earth": The Sun 29/10/2008 http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/special_events/green_week/article1871745.ece
• "Royal Society to research potential of geo-engeneering to limit global warming": The Guardian 30/10/2008 http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/oct/30/climatechange-carbonemissions

Both these articles relate to the researching of the potential use of geo-engenerring techniques (e.g. placing mirrors in the sea to reflect sunlight from the earth), to help limit further impacts of climate change. As you can see both papers take a very different angle in representing the information; The Sun more humorously and The Guardian including more detailed information.

In the majority of articles focused upon climate change the authors adopt either a satire or a 'doom' approach when reporting, helping to grab the attention of the audience. As stated earlier it is this need to 'grab the attention' that results in the lack of factual evidence, and often increased bias (in particular) when reporting about climate change.

When looking through newspapers for articles about climate change, I didn't see much evidence to suggest a link being commonly established between climate change and sustainable development. Recently most articles relating to climate change have been more closely linked with politics, and new government law changes. I think links that are generated in the media are done so to highlight areas already identified on the public's 'hit list', and at the moment sustainable development doesn't seem to feature highly in the public's viewpoint.

Sustainable Development Indicators

The whole idea of Sustainable Development Indicators is a good idea in theory. They would help people to shape a more sustainable lifestyle and increase their knowledge and understanding of what it means to be sustainable. However, as it currently stands this doesn't seem to be happening. Very few of the Indicators themselves have actually improved, and the public doesn't seem very aware of this document for it to have any impact. Through speaking to people I know, none of them are aware that the government has developed Indicators (maybe the next generation aren't the target audience?!), and most hear through the media any advice or guidance about being sustainable (e.g. recycling, and reducing your carbon footprint).

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The different indicators used are very varied (from Greenhouse emissions to Fish stocks), and do cover a range of aspects related with sustainability. One of these indicators is the use of private cars; it shows how private cars has had an impact upon CO2 emissions (increased by 4%) and road traffic volume (increased by 20%) between 1990 - 2006. This is a good and simple indicator to use, as people are already aware of some of the impacts car driving has upon people and the environment. The majority of people would be able to identify that excessive driving/ownership of private cars will have an impact (e.g. exhaust fumes = increase in CO2 levels), so it is something every one can automatically relate to.

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Private cars is one of the indicators which hasn't made much progress over the past 15 years. The main reason for this I believe, is the reluctance of society to give up the comfort of owning your own car. Being in control of your own time of departure, deciding a route yourself, being warm and comfortable, there are many personal benefits for having your own car. If we weren't to use our own car, what are the other options we are given? Public transport; time consuming, expensive........I don't think I need to go on. Fair enough, public transport does seem to have developed a slight negative label (probably by car owners), but this is the main reason forcing us back into our cars. What other options are there and what incentives are there for us to switch from our cars? Luckily, the only time i have taken a bus over the past years is whenever my MOT was due. The last time the bus was ten minutes late, I sat next to a coughing man, had the local ASBO glaring at anyone and everyone, and was charged £3 for the privilege, no wonder there is greater traffic and more cars on the road!

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For this indicator to be reduced by the next assessment (2009), the Government needs to take stronger action. They need to put in place consequences (higher taxing for greater consuming vehicles is a start) or incentives (money back for car sharing schemes?), to help convince people out of their cars. Ultimately though it is down to individual choice, so people need to be encouraged to change their habits.