Latest news

The Growing Your Business event Day 2 was held on 13^th July providing delegates with valuable information about the available services and opportunities for making businesses energy efficient.

Presentations and workshops gave a greater insight to how sustainable businesses can improve their businesses and reduce costs by taking advantage of energy efficient alternatives. We hope the event has helped you consider sustainability for both your business and the environment we live in.

Bedford College would like to thank all the speakers, exhibitors and delegates for their support during the two day event and a special thanks to the Plumbing Technology Centre and the technicians for their services.

Presentations from the meeting below:
New to business ,
Energy survey,
Environmental management

Growing your business - 2nd June Success!

Bedford College hosted day 1 of the ‘Growing Your Business’ event on 2nd June 2010. This was well attended and received by delegates. There were many presentations and workshops for the delegates to visit and learn about different ways for their businesses to save energy and the environment.

Presentations from the meeting are below:

Getting British Business Online ,
MCS Scheme ,

Peak Oil ,
Renewable Energy Systems ,
Right Technology, Right Installation ,

Smart Metering for Smart Businesses ,

Sustainability Day - 22 March 2010

Bedford College’s third annual Sustainability Day on 22^nd March 2010 was a big success. The day highlighted all the areas of work undertaken from courses on renewable energy systems to working with schools to help young children learn about the importance of recycling. Some of the displays, activities and information included the following:

Work currently in progress at Shuttleworth College, Bedford College’s land-based centre, including:

Hinchinbrook Country Park- tree work and weekend demonstration.
Tempsford church- tree work
Edward Peake middle school, Biggleswade - designing and building children’s garden
Peter Pan Children’s Centre, Bedford- designing and building a play area/sensory garden

‘The Green Box’ competition entries from St Andrews school - an art and design schools competition organised by Bedford College’s Centre for the Arts. The winners were given prizes during Sustainability Day by the Mayor of Bedford.
Recycled clothes created by Foundation Level 3 and 4 Fashion and Textiles students. Clothes from charity shops were brought and refashioned then placed on display, accompanied by video footage of the fashion show that the students held.
The Transition Towns film was on display throughout the day with seating so visitors could sit and watch.
Chairs and cabinets recreated using old furniture and other discarded goods by Level 3 students on the BTEC National Diploma 3D Design course.
Several groups led by Wahid Khan created fully functional solar ovens made from boxes, tin foil and other easily accessible supplies.
‘The Water Family’ game provided by Anglian Water was a simple, fun game that taught the players to be more sustainable at home.
Awareness raising posters about sustainability were on display, created by students on following courses:

NVQ Hairdressing Level 1
Hairdressing diploma Level 2
Complementary Therapies Level 2

Work on display by Foundation Degree in Construction and Building Services students contributing to the design and development of the Riseley Eco House.
A ‘Make Bedford Green’ poster competition sponsored by Willmott Dixon.

The day was a big success with over 100 registered and a large number of unrecorded visitors.

Education & Community Sustainability Group

In the recently published Low Carbon Industrial Strategy and Low Carbon Transition Plan the UK Government outlines its national strategy for climate and energy, highlighting the importance of equipping Britain with low carbon skills. The strategy document states:

Increasingly every job in the British economy will require some understanding of energy or resource efficiency, or low carbon technologies and processes...

…There are some key challenges to ensuring that Britain’s workforce has the right skills in the right place in time to fully exploit the benefits from the move to a global low carbon economy. The first is the current lack of visible demand for such skills from employers, and the second, as a direct consequence, is the lack of supply of such skills.

Education and training organisations have a major role to play in developing the skills needed to build the low carbon economy.

At Bedford College we are actively engaged in regional initiatives to stimulate employer demand by building the capacity of businesses to respond to new challenges and opportunities. As a nationally recognised Centre of Vocational Excellence in Skills for Energy we have been successful in embedding sustainability into many curriculum areas. Our renewable energy training facilities include solar water heating, solar electricity, under-floor heating, rainwater harvesting and air source heat pump systems as well as training facilities for alternative transport technologies including bio-fuel, electric and hybrid vehicles. A group of 28 Sustainability Champions help embed sustainability into all teaching and non-teaching areas, with real progress made in recent years in reducing our resource and energy consumption and increasing recycling. In 2008 Bedford College won the prestigious Green Gown Award for its Sustainability training and in 2009 the Highly Commended award in the Colleges category.

There is also a great deal happening in our local schools, not just in addressing sustainability issues through the curriculum but also in improving energy and resource efficiency within school buildings and in their day-to-day operations.

Sustainability is now incorporated into the Ofsted inspection criteria. Schools and colleges are expected to address sustainability within four key areas: Curriculum, Buildings and Estate, Community and Leadership.

Skills required to address all sustainability issues are very diverse and processes can be highly complex. Organisations have a great deal to gain by working together, sharing skills, expertise and resources, and having a unified approach to addressing local priorities. The importance of partnership working to maximise local benefit cannot be underestimated. By engaging in a collaborative effort to support low carbon transition, education, community and local government organisations can each build their own capacity to respond to rapidly changing and highly challenging external demands.

To respond to such demands, we are in the process of establishing the Education & Community Sustainability Group comprising of representatives from Bedford College, local schools, local government organisations, the business community, and organisations playing a key role in the low carbon economy developments locally and regionally.

The inaugural meeting of this group took place on Monday 19 October 2009, Partnership Room, Bedford College.

Sustainability Day - 5 June 2009

Bedford College Sustainability Day - MP Patrick Hall meets students and hears about their work. At Bedford College, we have a whole college approach to embedding sustainability into the curriculum and operations. An exhibition of students' work, held on the College's Sustainability Day, showcased many excellent examples from all academic centres, including work relating to energy efficiency, alternative energy, local environmental issues and many more.

Learners were engaged in sustainability related-activities through competitions, events, projects, and courses. Work on display during the day included:

An investigation into the quality of Bedford College environment (Business Studies L3 Key Skills)
Conservation of the rainforest (Carpentry & Joinery L2 Key Skills)
Reducing our carbon footprint campaign (Business Studies L1, 2 and 3)
Climate change stage display (HND Art)
Illustration of the potential effects of climate change on Bedford (National Diploma Design)
Making the hottest solar oven using readily available materials (Computing- Sustainable Development L1)
Electric Cars (Motor Vehicle Key Skills)
Awareness raising campaign entitled ‘Making a Difference’ (L3 Holistic Therapy)

Low Carbon Future

The College's recent Low Carbon Future event brought together strong industry, Further Education and Higher Education representation, with Bedford MP Patrick Hall and Summit Skills representatives Ivor Rowley and Bob Blake amongst the visitors.

Businesses join green energy partnership at Bedford College

The day before Lord Mandelson opened a summit in London on Low Carbon energy, which could create 400,000 new jobs, Bedford College opened its own "jobs from green energy systems" training centre for the region.

Bedford College and Dimplex joined forces with the launch of a green energy partnership on 4 March to promote the latest renewable technologies designed to revolutionise alternative energy. Local businesses joined the launch to see for themselves the opportunities that the latest technologies have to offer.

At present the number of ground and air source heat pumps installed in homes is in the thousands but in the next ten years that is estimated to grow to 1-2 million in line with government targets to reduce carbon emissions. This new green energy partnership will offer training to businesses so they are ready to take full advantage of opportunities that green technology has to offer.

At the forefront of sustainability

Ian Pryce, Principal and Chief Executive of Bedford College, welcomed business people to the launch and said:
“Bedford College is not only recognized by OFSTED as outstanding but we are also government accredited with 5 centres of excellence, including the Plumbing Centre, and that is a tremendous achievement. This new partnership with Dimplex combines excellence in training with the latest technologies. We aim to be at the forefront of sustainability and renewable energy and to keep building an even better College for our students, local businesses and our partners. This partnership reflects those aims.”

Huge benefits

Launching the partnership, Frank Branston, Mayor of Bedford, added:
“I am a great supporter of sustainable energy and pleased to be here today to launch this green partnership which will have huge benefits for local businesses.”

Training crucial to success

Chris Davis, Head of Renewables at Dimplex, said:
“As an industry we know where the winners will be in new technology and that training is crucial to success. Forward-thinking heating and plumbing businesses will want to take advantage of the training on offer at Bedford College using Dimplex air and ground source heat pumps. We are delighted to be in partnership with Bedford College and that they will be delivering training courses for us.”

Climate change exhibition

Bedford College students began looking to the New Year and the future beyond that when they took part in a Climate Change Exhibition and Fair.

Climate change

The event was held at the Civic Theatre in the town centre and was part of Bedford Borough Council’s ‘Sustainable Bedford’ campaign. The exhibition included work from Bedford College's graphic and fine art students. The students were asked to produce images and words on the topic of the impact of climate change, living sustainably and what that means for Bedford Borough. The fine art students created a sculptural stage piece around the topic of climate change, aimed to get people thinking about the impact of climate change. Students from schools all over the Borough also produced various artwork on the theme of climate change, which was on show alongside the College’s art installations.

Advice

Also attending the fair were a number of organisations and community groups who were there to offer members of the public practical advice on how they can live more sustainably and cut their carbon footprint. These included the Energy Saving Trust Advice Centre, Anglian Water, Bedford in Bloom and the Bedford Borough Council’s waste team.

Green for 2009

Bedford College is the only college in the UK with a Director of Sustainability, who is dedicated to implementing sustainable action across all areas of learning and campus operations.

Green Gown award

Esin Esat has a national reputation on the eco front and steered Bedford College to an educational pole position as a Centre of Vocational Excellence (CoVE) in Skills for Energy. This means the College leads the way in running courses related to sustainability, particularly in construction and engineering. Bedford College is also the only further education college to have won the prestigious Green Gown award for sustainability – otherwise only universities have achieved this level of academic recognition.

Esin is a member of the New ERA (Environmental Resource Academy), a regional network of organisations with the aim of stimulating a low carbon economy, as well as belonging to many other organisations which bring together Government representatives and experts from education and industry to formulate policies and action on sustainability.

Energy & Resource Management

Closer to home, Esin leads the Sustain-Ability approach to effective management of energy resources on the College campus. In IT, for example, this involves re-using equipment to extend its life, and beyond that, selling it to students, or, passing it on to a company which recycles such items.

“When we replace equipment, rather than automatically dispose of it, we try to find ways in which it can continue to find a role in the College. For example PCs that are no longer of use to advanced IT students are being refurbished for use by beginners in Learning Shops,” explains Esin.

“Print and paper waste has been dramatically reduced. Power usage by PC is being monitored. The biggest difference can be made by the behaviour of IT users. Ask yourself - do you need to have that personal printer on when there is another nearby?”