Background
Tipperary Institute is a dynamic higher education, development and research centre established by the Government of Ireland in 1999. The Institute is unique in Europe in its integration of higher education with rural community and business development programmes and now has some 800 students located on two sites.
The situation
In the Thurles campus the Second year Environmental and Natural Resource Management degree students were identified as an appropriate student group to collaborate within Student Power. It was decided to embed an energy awareness campaign into coursework in June 2009 ready for the 2009/2010 academic year. Kevin Healion of TI collaborated with TEA to develop the approach for embedding such a campaign into coursework.
Important Features
In order that the students 'own' the campaign it was decided that they should identify their own conservation campaign. In doing so, one half of the class decided to launch a paper conservation campaign while the other half focussed on killing standby in PCs and VDUs.
Though the students have academic achievement as their main priority this ownership enabled strong campaigns to develop campus wide.
Communication and recognition of the campaigns was enabled through gaining the backing of college staff. Various members of TI management signed a support pledge which was framed and displayed in the main collection area of the college, so that all college users were aware of the
significance of the campaign. The students successfully set about consolidating participation from college staff.
Actions taken
The students carried out a baseline behavioural evaluation survey. This was accompanied by a baseline paper use evaluation. Effectively the above evaluation was repeated after a paper and energy conservation week. Lecturers were asked to inform all students of the campaign.
A double sided printer was installed in the library and instructions were made available. The printing cost structure was modified to make it beneficial for double sided printing. Campaign material was circulated and posted. A notice board, near the main canteen, reminded college users of the project, its aims and its impacts.
The students aspired to complete their campaign by means of feedback mechanisms and the following mutually reinforcing components:
- Identification
- Measurement
- Awareness
- Measurement
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Results
The paper conservation team measured their impacts by analysing invoices in the resource procurement office, while the energy saving team monitored the closing down of PCs and VDUs once daily.
The paper conservation team reduced paper use in the college by 4%. For a short campaign, this is a significant reduction and will be built upon in the next academic year by the incoming students.
For the energy saving campaign, one of the computer rooms showed an improvement from before to after, but for others no reduction was achieved. However, the students made further proposals to achieve better results in the future.
The campaign got a positive reaction from staff and students, environmental awareness was raised, and a worthwhile learning experience was achieved.
Lessons learned
The main lessons learned were:
- Third level colleges are open to widening the educational opportunities for their students.
- Such education can provide an opportunity for undergraduates to put theory into practice by providing support on energy awareness and saving and contribute to a globally important issue.
- The provision of applied research and a thesis style project delivery for undergraduates is a significant learning experience.
- Such initiatives provide continual means of generating new annual campaigns with fresh ideas as new students get involved each year.
For further information contact:
Vincent Carragher ~ Tipperary Energy Agency
Tel: +353 (0)52 43090 ~ vcarragher@tea.ie
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