News
River Lee Clean up for UCC's Green Week 24th - 28th Feb 2014
With the zeal of a Tidy Towns contender, UCC’s annual Green Week kicks off from Monday 24-28 February, with live wildlife displays, green walls and a river cleanup promising to sustain the conversation around being kind to our environment.
The event is timely given it picks up where Raise and Give Week trails off, helping to deal with any excess trash generated. UCC is also now 2nd in the world its approach to sustainability, with the Universitas Indonesia (UI) Greenmetric World University Rankings announced in Janaury 2014 (http://www.ucc.ie/en/news/fullstory-416411-en.html). Organised by the UCC Environmental Society and UCC’s Green Campus Committee, a multitude of topics around sustainability will be highlighted in the week-long programme.
Monday will see the launch of a ‘Green Wall’, onto which those with green thumbs are invited to write their ideas around green living. The Arts Society also will set up installations made from recycled materials.
Tuesday from 12-2pm will focus on live animals. A number of owls will be on display, along with reptiles and a sea wild life ‘touch tank’. There will be a chance to help assemble bat boxes and put together bird food fat balls, as well as a themed photo competition. Volunteers will be invited to sign up for a “Bio-Blitz” later in spring, analysing the biodiversity of the UCC campus.
Wednesday afternoon will herald a spring clean around the campus neighbourhood from 3-5pm meeting at the Honan Chapel, with the Canoe club out in force clearing any rubbish from the River Lee. This will be followed by a table quiz and Green Drinks night (from 6pm) in the New Bar in the Student Centre.
Thursday will be themed around sustainable travel, running on main campus from 11-2pm. City View Wheels will show a selection of their electric bicycles, The Bike Shed will provide a bike doctor service and GoCar will inform about their car sharing services. The day will finish with the screening of “Chasing Ice” in Boole 1 lecture theatre (6pm).
Friday will unearth a gardening workshop in the UCC Polytunnels around growing organic vegetable, located in the garden of Carrigside on College Road from 1-3pm.
Green Week is the main event for students to highlight and showcase environmental activities in and around UCC. It is embedded into UCC's comprehensive sustainability strategy for a Green Campus in teaching, research and operation, covering the fields of Energy, Waste, Water, Transport and Biodiversity.
The Clubs and societies involved are the Environmental Society, Arts, Photo, Film and Gaisce Societies, the Canoe club, School of BEES and the Office of Buildings and Estates, UCC. Support for the spring clean is given by An Taisce.