Easy being Green Programme - Essay Example

Easy being Green’ Programme: As discussed above, Heirot- Watt is willing to take serious measures in order to develop a better understanding of the environmental issues and its impact on the quality of life of the people. The university aims to achieve its objectives regarding the environmental and climatic changes by 2015. This implies that a five- year programme must be developed by the University by incorporating all its staff members and the students to highlight the importance of environmental stewardship at Heirot-Watt University. This initiative will not only show their commitment towards the environmental protection but it will also provide them a great opportunity to reduce the environmental burdens. This programme will focus on all the issues related to the environmental concerns such as resource management, energy conservation, pollution etc. Programme Duration: The complete duration of the programme will be five years i.e. from 2011 to 2015. The activities involved in this programme will be divided into different phases. Each phase will be followed after a period of six months from the preceding phase. Phase 1: This phase will start from January 2011 and the first six months will be directed towards the awareness as well as the implementation of the activity. In this phase, the management will encourage the use of recycle bins throughout the university. It can be possible by placing more and more recycle bins around the campus as it will help reduce and recycle the organic waste. It will also create a habit of recycling the wastes in the minds of the individuals. Phase 2: This phase will introduce the ‘green transport’ idea with the collaboration of the transport companies and will be introduced by July 2011. The idea is to discourage the use of private cars and single occupancy car journeys. It encourages walking, cycling and the use of public transport for travelling purposes. This can be done by offering cheaper bus rates to the students as well as the faculty and other staff members. Phase 3: The third phase will begin from January 2012. In this phase, the university will support the students in bringing their own cutlery for tea/ coffee etc. This will help in reducing the number of disposable cups available in the canteen as well as in minimizing the costs involved in the purchase of the disposable items. Phase 4: This phase will start from July 2012. In the fourth phase, the individuals will be asked to bring their own reusable bags for shopping and other purposes to promote an eco-friendly environment. It will not only save a large amount of money used for the purchase of plastic bags but at the same time it will create a sense of responsibility of minimizing the wastes in very possible manner. Phase 5: This last phase will be introduced in January 2013 which supports the use of stairs rather than lifts in order to conserve energy. Nowadays, people are highly dependent on the electronic machines to perform all their activities, therefore in order to implement this activity a lot of efforts will be required to motivate the people to think in terms of fitness and ecological aspects. Cost of the Programme: Appropriate investments in the environmental programs may lead to substantial savings. In this section the cost of each activity will be determined keeping in view the strategies involved in the implementation of each phase. Cost of Phase 1: The Edinburgh Campus is surrounded by 380 acres of parkland which comprises more than 8200 student and staff. This means that a large quantity of recycle bins will be required in order to place them all around the campus. If the costs of one recycle bin is 15£ and the quantity of recycle bins is approximately 400 bins then the estimated costs that would incur will be: 400 * 15 = 6000£ The cost of the posters will also be included in order to find out the overall costs of the phase 1. If the paper and printing of the posters costs is 1500£ then the total cost sums up to 7500£. Cost of Phase 2: The ‘green transport’ activity as such will not incur any costs to the university apart from the promotional expenses. The university plans to promote this project by offering discounts to the students and other staff members on public transports. The promotional activities may include brochures and banners. The costs in terms of the issuing of student and staff cards to benefit from this offer will be covered by the amount charged on the purchase of each card. In this way, only the costs of promotional materials i.e. brochures and banners will be paid by the university with the partnership of the transport companies. The estimated cost can be between 1000£ to 1500£. Cost of Phase 3, 4 and 5: There are no such material costs for the activities involved in Phase 3, 4 and 5. The awareness costs is the real costs which will be done through posters, sign boards, symbols etc. The total costs (promotional expenses) of the three phases will amount to approximately 6000£. The reduction in the cost of the purchasing items and electricity bills will compensate these expenses of the university. Budget time-line: The budget time-line of the costs of each project over the complete duration of the programme will vary according to the nature of the activity in practice. The costs of recycle bins will be paid once but it will make a significant difference in making the environment more clean and green. On the other hand, the promotional activities of different phases will be done time by time depending upon the amount of awareness required to accomplish the projects successfully. As mentioned above, the duration of each phase is of six months but the preceding activity will be promoted time and again in different ways to keep the people connected with the tasks. All these efforts will not only lead to better environmental and economic conditions but it will also affect the overall reputation of the university in a positive manner. Programme Implementation: This section will briefly discuss how each phase will be completed keeping in view the estimated costs and the duration. In order to practically implement this programme at Heriot-Watt, a large number of resources will be required. The basic resources include man, money and commodity. This ‘Easy being Green’ Programme is expected to start by the beginning of the year 2011 and will grow by the time. A committee must be setup by the University in order to handle the affairs of this programme and other environment related tasks. To perform the activities in the best possible manner, proper planning and allocation of the resources should be done. A regular check must be made by the concerned authorities to make sure that the project is being implemented efficiently and effectively. The involvement of the students will play a key role in yielding the favorable outcomes. The duration of each activity is already mentioned in the previous section. Implementation of Phase 1: In order to implement the recycle bin activity all over the campus, the first step will be towards the creation of the awareness of recycling the wastes material. This will be done by placing posters in different places of the university particularly the canteen area, library, computer labs, offices etc. An attractive tag line such as “Don’t be trashy- Recycle” will grab the attention of the students. Colorful posters including some real facts and figures in reference to the recycling process will aware and convince the individuals to be careful when throwing away the wastes. The first two months of this activity demands a considerable amount of resources in the form of the placement of the recycle bins and posters to make the individuals habitual of the recycling plan. Implementation of Phase 2: The second phase refers to the ‘green transport’ activity which will help in the prevention of the air pollution and is expected to start by July 2011. By that time students and other members will be already aware of the issues related to the environmental changes and will strive to contribute in their respective manner. In order to persuade the people to prefer public transport, an incentive in the form of cheap fares of the bus tickets will be given to the students and other members. It will not only reduce the impacts on the natural environment but it will also save the money of the students. As this activity will be performed with the collaboration of the government transport companies, it will yield higher profits to both the parties and will also help in building closer ties between the institution and the government. The implementation of this activity will require mass marketing in the initial months in order to inform the students regarding the bus fares. The costs as discussed earlier will range from 1000£ to 1500£ which is less in comparison to the long-term profits i.e. it will help in controlling the air pollution and the university will earn marginal profits along with the transport companies which can be further utilized for other improvements. Implementation of Phase 3, 4 and 5: Before entering into these phases of the programme, the university will have already accomplished two major targets: recycling plan and green transport idea. The implementation of these activities would be easy as people will have a sense of obligation towards the environment related activities and would exuberantly participate to further implement the programme and make the university more eco-friendly. The cost of these phases is very less as compare to the benefits that will be enjoyed by the university and the world around us. From 2012 to 2013 these phases will be implemented by realizing the need to do small efforts that will contribute in greater way towards a healthy and green environment. Promotional tools such as banners, posters, brochures, magazines, calendars etc will be required to aware the people. In phase 3 and 4 the use of own cutlery and reusable bags will reduce the costs of the disposable items being purchased by the university which can be used to enhance other areas of the university such as technology, research etc. The use of stairs rather than lifts in the last phase will not only save the electricity and reduce the carbon emissions. It will also educate people from the health point of view by providing the facts and figures in the posters and other promotional materials being used for this activity. The marketing of all the activities included in the ‘Easy being Green’ programme will not end after the completion of the duration. Different environment related events and student initiated programs will further lead the programme towards the achievement of the objectives by the end of 2015. References Barbara, J.W. (1993). Environmental Action in Eastern Europe: a response to crisis Benjamin H. 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