News
Bedford
College Holds Sustainability Leadership Workshop
On May 9th,
Bedford College will be hosting a Sustainability Leadership
workshop in Brundtland Building. Led by Esin Esat in her role as
Regional Sustainability Advisor, the workshop will focus on
effective sustainability leadership strategies for organisations
within the Further Education and Skills sector. As well as
examining the key characteristics of sustainable development, the
workshop will explore possible collaboration opportunities. With a
particular focus on the Further Education and Skills Sector, the
workshop will be of interest to those with responsibility for
embedding sustainability within their organization, or wishing to
learn more about sustainability leadership strategies within the
Sector. Bedford College’s Chief Executive, Ian Pryce, and the Chief
Executive of Wiltshire College, Di Dale will both be speaking at
the event, providing evidence of effective leadership strategies.
This workshop will lay the foundations for a number of
collaborative leadership initiatives planned to take place in the
coming months. Any member of Bedford College interested in
attending can register through this link.
Sustainability Leadership event 9th May 2013
Bedford College Goes
Electric!!!
As more and more cars on the road
go electric, Bedford College has taken steps to join the Electric
car revolution. Over the spring holidays a team were busy
installing Bedford College’s first electric car recharging points.
At the entrance to the main campus there are now two car parking
spots dedicated to Electric Vehicles. Another recharging station
has been installed outside of the Tavern Pub at Russell Hall on the
Shuttleworth Campus (click here to view the map). This is yet one
more step for Bedford College on its journey to sustainability!
This project was part-funded by Evalu8, a not for profit
organisation running the Government-supported ‘Plugged In Places’
project in the East of England. Electric vehicles will have
exclusive access to these parking spots, with only a nominal charge
for use of the space. Electricity supplied is completely free of
charge. These parking spaces will be accessible to all, so that the
general public can charge up as well. This improvement to the
College will make it more convenient for staff and students alike
to use electric vehicles for travel, enabling us to lessen our
overall impact on the town of Bedford and across Bedfordshire by
helping reduce pollution. If your interested in learning more
about charging up an electric car in Bedford, click here.
Sustainability Day
Success!
Sustainability Day 2013
was an extremely well attended event! Hundreds of students engaged
in and attended the event. There were stalls from The Computing
Department, Fashion and Textiles, Foundation & SLDD &
Skills, Catering & Hospitality, Art and Design, as well as the
Fine Art departments, all who helped us in our goal of showcasing
students work in sustainability as well as promoting sustainability
to the Bedford community. We also had a great deal of support from
the public sector, NGO’s as well as the local council. Four lower
schools from the local area also attended and engaged in a number
of activities, including making elephants out of milk bottles,
decorating them to their hearts delight. Student volunteers also
took part in the event; we especially enjoyed the Fashion &
Textiles Team whose students volunteered their knowledge on the
‘Sew Your Own’ stall, and ‘Design a bag’, as well as showing off
the clothing items they had created from discarded material. The
Business Students even contributed to the event in collaboration
with their student project. Overall we were extremely happy with
how the day went! Thanks for everyone's
participation!!
Sustainability Skills Survey
Bedford College, in
partnership with ESD Consulting are leading an LSIS funded research
project aiming to explore sustainability skills, their relevance to
employment, employers and business, and the opportunities,
challenges and barriers to the FE and skills sector in leading the
development of those skills.
Please complete this
survey before it closes on 8th March 2013. It should
take no more than 10 minutes of your time and the information you
provide will be invaluable in helping us define and shape the FE
and skills sector’s role in developing sustainability skills.
The survey can be accesses through this
link:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SustainabilitySkillsforGrowth
Bedford Borough Council -
Greenspace
Get involved in your community;
Bedford Borough Council is in the consultation process of their
Borough of Bedford Green Space Strategy 2012-21. This strategy
looks at the "long term vision and set of supporting aims and
objectives for the provision of good quality, inspirational
publicly accessible green space across the Borough over the period
2012-21".
Click
here for the Greenspace website ad click
here for the public consultation draft.
Bike to Fitness June 21st
2012
Bedford College encourages
students, staff, and community to cycle as part of everyday
life. As part of Bike
Week, we are having a fun cycle ride;
Bike to
Fitness!
Sustainability Day March 22nd
2012 Success!
The day was a great success,
roughly 400 people attended, nearly 100 pledges were collected and
tours of the Brundtland building were packed, with over 36 students
signing up. Students really engaged with the activities on offer,
with the 'Grow Your Own' seed planting, and Bag-for-Life painting
being particularly popular.
Click for the Mini-Edge
student magazine which contains a review of the day from a
student's perspective.
Book Donations Creating a
Better World
The Bedford College Library have
been reusing and recycling books in association with Better
World Books. They have so far collected over 2,000 books! This has
saved a total of 34 trees, over 76,000 litres of water, 7,041 kWh
of electricity and 1.4 tonnes of Carbon Dioxide Emissions.Well done
to the Library and Learning Resources team!
SSD Competition
The SSD project had one
final push to recieve responses from participants who are now
employed. Our competition resulted in many more job confirmations.
The winners of the competition who responded, and were
then randomly drawn from a hat are;
Steven West
Jock Chisango
Edward Cooke
Wendy Pearman
Kelvin Youngs
As part of SSD, colleges across the East of
England provided free courses for individuals who were
not in work.
The Government has set
challenging targets for increasing the use of renewable energy,
water conservation and reducing fuel poverty. By providing
additional training opportunities we helped to meet those
targets.
Hitting the Mark - Effective Email
Marketing
“Hitting the Mark - Effective Email Marketing” was the topic of a
talk by Tink Taylor, Chief Operating Officer, dotDigitalGroup on
Thursday 9th February 2012. The event was organised in partnership
with the Bedford branch of the British Computer Society. For
more details see
here.
EU Regional Funding for Business
SMEs (Small to Medium Businesses)
in Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and
Suffolk will have the opportunity to explore how they could
benefit from £90m of EU investment in our region. FREE
Workshops run by the European Regional Development Fund
(ERDF) this year are supported by Bedford College and the
SEE Project. They will have the
potential to make a real difference to businesses with resource
audits, grants and innovation support. Events will be
held in Norwich on 18th April, in Ipswich on 30th
April and at Bedford College on 16th May.
Booking is required and can be made by contacting Carole Randall
(carole.randall@anglia.ac.uk
or 0845 196 4310). More information is provided by clicking
here.
College to Reduce Carbon
Emissions with Carbon Trust
Bedford College have recently launched the
Carbon
Trust's Further Education Carbon Management
Programme across all of its sites in Bedfordshire. This
programme will aim to reduce the College's Carbon emissions.A
35% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions will be identified
and put into practice by 2017. The project aims to look at all
areas of the College. From encouraging green transport among
students and staff to increasing the efficiency of our
buildings, Bedford College will ensure that the high quality
learning experience they offer takes place in a low carbon
environment.
For more information on how to
reduce your carbon impact see our pages
or to find out how businesses can
reduce their carbon footprint visit the
Carbon Trust.