To All at Easter Bush,

Welcome to this new newsletter.

We are setting up regular communication about Social Responsibility and Sustainability on campus. We will feature news and stories from across campus and share the work of the Easter Bush Social Responsibility and Sustainability Committee. We will also be sharing university-wide activities and any relevant news stories for all those on campus: staff, students and visitors.

If you would like to share any stories, ideas or ask any questions, you can contact the committee by using the following email address ebsustainability@ed.ac.uk. We also have a new blog: Social Responsibility and Sustainability at Easter Bush – A blog sharing reflections and stories from Easter Bush about our Social Responsibility and Sustainability efforts on campus. For now, we will keep a copy of campus communication on the blog. This means that you can look back at communication over time. In due course, we are likely to develop this page further.

Sustainability Rewards App

The Sustainability Rewards App is a university app that is helping to support students and staff with their sustainable lifestyles and provide rewards. We would like to bring this app to your attention and launch this at Easter Bush! Please sign up to help keep a record of your actions and help guide behaviour on campus. Yes, there are rewards for doing so! Please sign up here: https://sustainability.ed.ac.uk/take-action/sustainability-rewards

Bat Boxes on campus

This work has involved numerous individuals on campus and within the central university Social Responsibility and Sustainability department. Thank you for all your passion. We are so lucky to have so many passionate students who spent time on a Wednesday afternoon making these boxes. We are currently working with Estates to site these at Easter Bush. More on this soon.

The work helps to support the broader mission of biodiversity within the university: https://sustainability.ed.ac.uk/biodiversity-plan-2022 and specific biodiversity plans at Easter Bush. We will share more on the wider biodiversity work at Easter Bush.

Staff and students making bat boxes on campus

Signage on campus

Members of the committee have helped to create signage for the campus in conjunction with central SRS. The signs will highlight the biodiversity of the campus and the need for restoration as part of the ‘Wild Easter Bush’ project at different location across the Easter Bush Estate. We will share more news with the campus soon.

Pens and writing equipment

Thank you to those who donated writing equipment for recycling. We are grateful for the receptions at Easter Bush collecting the pens and even our servitors helping us out with some last minute drop off to the recycling points. The TerraCycle scheme has now closed. With the picture attached we can all see that there are high amounts of plastic needing to be recycled in writing equipment at the end of its life. The committee is starting to explore ways that re-useable writing equipment could be used on site. The photo below shows one of eight loads that were all received in the month before the Christmas break.

Pens sent for recycling through the TerraCycle Scheme

Easter Bush Energy Efficiency

Message from Chris Larkins:

Progress towards the University’s climate strategy and net zero objectives is driven by action across all areas of our activity, one of which is looking at how we provide and use energy in our buildings. Chris Larkins has recently joined the University’s Energy & Utilities team as an Energy Manager, with part of his role encompassing support for the Easter Bush Campus in enhancing the energy efficiency of our facilities. Using energy more efficiently can give substantial carbon and cost savings and involves looking at all aspects of how we consume energy, from the systems we all see and interact with through to the centralised building services that allow our buildings to operate effectively. Chris is looking forward to engaging with the Social Responsibility and Sustainability Committee and wider contacts across the Campus. If you have any suggestions for improvements or projects please email ebsustainability@ed.ac.uk and we will pass these onto staff at Easter Bush and to Chris.

***Highlights of 2024***

We will keep reflecting back on past events and activities. In the spotlight this week:

Film-‘Why Not Scotland’

In September 2024, the film was screened as a joint RDSVS / EDI initiative with Scotland the Big Picture. The film focuses on nature restoration across the Edinburgh area. This event is available on Media Hopper via the following link: https://media.ed.ac.uk/media/Why+Not+Scotland+film+screening+and+panel+discussion/1_090ejotw

We hope you all have a good week ahead.

The Easter Bush Social Responsibility and Sustainability Committee  

School Communication (3rd of March 2025) / Social Responsibility and Sustainability at Easter Bush by is licensed under a