A thousand students in green overalls, cheekily called the green police, raised awareness on campus during their recent Green Week. Known as the Green Campus Initiative, they are the biggest and fastest-growing society at UCT ' started in 2007.This year they received R2000 in funding from the university, which seems incomprehensibly meagre. But in true green spirit, they are undeterred: 'You can do a lot with few resources ' it encourages initiative. We have been running on passion, and will be starting a revolving green fund using the money made from initiatives like recycling and retrofitting to fund further changes.'
Bit time recycling
They've introduced a 4-bin recycling system on campus and rolled out an educational programme to drive it home. The recycling is managed by a company called Wasteman, and generates revenue which is ploughed back into green changes. In the residences there is a 2-bin system, separating wet and dry waste. They've also introduced a Ride-Link scheme, a website linking staff and students. 'People type in their addresses and timetables, and pool lifts from there. This initiative won us R10 000 last year in a global youth environmental award,' said Lauren de Vos and Inka Schomer, who have led the GCI this year. The GCI has just launched its first issue of 'Barometer' magazine, which will be an ongoing educational tool on campus. And then of course there is Green Week, raising awareness among students in fun ways, and the 'Building-to-Building Roadshow', which is just starting and will involve retrofitting residences with energy-efficient light bulbs, waterless urinals, etc. UCT shared their experience in the Global Youth Environmental Movement, partaking as the South African representatives in the UN Programme and the Bayer Young Programme. 'Don't be deterred by big names and think that you have to be making huge changes to qualify. We did small things with the resources we had,' they said.
Dreaming of carbon-neutral
To find out what's happening at governing body level, I attended a lunchtime talk on Going Green at UCT. In the pipeline is UCT's official Green Campus Action Plan, the details of which can be read on their website. UCT has raised its dam level with mountain water and is using this to irrigate the sports fields; they are recycling concrete, bricks and steel from two buildings being demolished on middle campus; and an audit is being done to see where the university can best save energy. My idealism faltered ' I'd expected the university to be showing the way and leading the City. How about the first car-free campus? How about harnessing researchers to address greening as the priority research issue in every conceivable and inconceivable way? Why only a handful of stalls at the expo? Why not present overseas models of carbon-neutral universities during green week? Why only 50 people attending out of a campus of 30 000?
What would Jesus buy?
As part of Green Week, the students organised a Green Movie Festival at the Labia. The shows have been packed. The movie 'Garbage!' is about a suburban family who keep every scrap of garbage they generate over a 3-month period, as an experiment. By the end of that time their garage is brimful of rubbish and they have discovered that for every action there is a reaction affecting them and the entire planet. This close-up of everyday life is so shocking that you may feel driven to revolutionise your lifestyle. Another great movie was 'What would Jesus buy' by Morgan Spurlock of 'Super-Size Me' fame. Reverend Billy's new church, 'The Church of Stop-Shopping', goes on tour through the US to save Christmas from the Shopocalypse ' the end of humankind as a result of consumerism. 'Are you people, or sheeple?' yells Reverend Billy outside Toys R Us. The movie is funny but not blasphemous, while making a powerful statement ' the scenes of American consumerism are even worse than here. I'd love to see these green movies and others like them permanently on circuit. Thank you to GCI for promoting this, and keep up the good work on campus!
