University commits to going green

Dundee University has signed the "Green Education Declaration" promising to be more environmentally conscious.

The declaration urges people and institutions to recognise the role education can play in moving towards a low carbon economy and society.

The signing was part of a "Go Green Week" for students and teachers.

Dundee University has joined universities such as Edinburgh, St Andrews and Glasgow Caledonian by adding its name to the declaration.

The document also urges people to acknowledge the benefits of creating laws to tackle the threat of climate change and recognise the need to ensure global temperatures do not rise by more than two degrees celcius.

’Challenging targets’

It also urges the government to make sure that the Climate Change Bill is based on the most uptodate science.

University Secretary David Duncan said: "I am happy to sign the People and Planet declaration on behalf of the University of Dundee.

"It fits with our overall strategy to make stepchange improvements in our environmental performance over the next three years.

"We are setting challenging targets, and all members of the university community are being asked to play their part."

Go Green Week has seen students taking part in events and talks on issues ranging from recycling to ethical careers.

Dave MacLeod, from the Dundee University Students’ Association, said: "It’s awesome to be part of the green week; bringing the issues of climate change and our carbon footprint to the fore is important.

"The benefit of green week is that we can reach a lot of our students and show them that combating climate change is not complicated science, it comes down to the decisions every one of us make on a daily basis.

"We are taking a good look at ourselves here too, our facilities staff have attended the Carbon Academy conference and are already looking at ways in which we can reduce the Union’s carbon footprint."