St AndRe-Use are offering a ‘cut-out and keep’ solution to deal with your unwanted STUFF at the end of the year.

• You ‘cut out’ the waste,
• We ‘keep’ it for next year’s students.

We are specifically collecting Crockery, Cutlery and Stationery. Please drop off these items in the plastic ‘tea crates’ are available at DRA, John Burnet, St Salvators, St Regs, Andrew Melville, Albany park and McIntosh hall. A drop-off day is also being arranged for Uni Hall – check out the facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/128369933455/  for more details.

Please donate other unwanted items via the Frontline Fife or other charitable collection bins in your hall or charity shops in town. You can also use the St AndRe-use Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/128369933455/  to rehome items, or try selling them on the Facebook Flea Market https://www.facebook.com/groups/249681118462606/

For more information about end of term disposal and recycling, please check out the Environment page at http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/administration/recycling/recycling/howtorecycle/endofterm/

COOK SMARTER is running a Cooking Class on Friday 19th April to teach you some key skills to cook more efficiently, save energy & money and preventing food waste.

Date / Time: Friday 19th April 1-3pm
Venue: Mansfield Building (opp Student’s Union), St Mary’s Place, St Andrews

The class will be practical and fun and is open to all who want to learn some top tips on how to cook smarter. As well as that, you’ll get a bunch of freebies, a free cook smarter manual and be able to hire out our thermal cookers (which cook your food without having to use gas / electricity).

The event is free however the number of places is limited to 12.
To register for a place, please email transition@st-andrews.ac.uk by Monday 15th April.

St Andrew’s local currency- SAINT EXCHANGE- has started trading and is encouraging new members to get involved.

It allows members to offer their skills, talents and home-made goods in order to earn “Saints” which they can then redeem on the things they might need or want, allowing access to these things without the need for money. It also encouraging residents to support local businesses and their community, increasing skills and provision of services- all key components for creating sustainable local economies.

Transition’s AGM

Transition is holding its Annual General Meeting in April, to which university staff, students and members of St Andrews community are all warmly invited.

The AGM will take the form of an election to select the new steering group Committee and Co-ordinator, and a celebration of the achievements of the outgoing Steering Group and Transition 2012-13.

Would you be interested in joining a steering group of a project that is doing great things for the good?  Steering group membership starts at the AGM and runs for 14 months, allowing an overlap of old and new committee members. Steering groups members are expected to attend monthly meetings and actively contribute  to the group’s activities. The Co-ordinator acts as Transition’s mouth and ears. She/he must speak for Transition and represent Transition in various situations but must also listen (and respond) to the concerns and ideas of the steering group members and the Transition staff as well as the wider Transition community. It is a position of considerable responsibility but also of great reward.

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If you are interested in joining the steering group, please let us know by email  stating:

• Your name
• Role at the University (undergraduate, postgraduate student, academic staff, estates staff)
• How have you been involved in Transition to date?
• Why do you wish to apply?
• What could you bring to the position?
• Do you also wish to apply for the co-ordinator position?

Please email transition@st-andrews.ac.uk by Friday 29th March, at noon.; please  put ‘AGM NOMINATION’ in the subject line.

If you have any questions about the AGM or what participation in the Steering Group  might involve please email transition@st-andrews.ac.uk. For more information on Transition visit the rest of this website!

Seeds Sown for an Edible Campus this Year

With Spring on the way volunteers have a been avidly sowing seed ready for planting out once the frost has past. Transition is keen to help you take on your own patch of growing space and still has a wide variety of vegetable seeds available for FREE to any departments or halls with small growing spaces. This might be a tub, container or larger plot that brings a little bit of interest to your corner of the University. Just email us for some advice and assistance in getting your growing spaces on track for a productive year ahead. You can also join us for our weekly seed sowing and growing workshops – These are held every Wednesday from 5.30pm to 7.30pm at the Transition Flat, 7 Woodburn terrace.

Albany Park’s New Growing Space

Transition have been supporting the development of a new growing space at Albany Park and after much planning plus the usual winter weather they are now ready to get Digging! The group are keen for staff and students from across the University to get involved in the project and will be holding their first session on site as part of Greenweek. on Wednesday from 10pm to 4pm. Make sure you wear proper footwear and clothing and check the facebook group for updates due to weather etc.

Interhall Energy Competition

Well done to Gannochy for winning the February Monthly Hall Prize. The hall used 12.3% less electricity this February compared with last year, pushing December’s winner, Andrew Melville Hall, into second place. You can also get involved with the Interhall photo competition which could get you a lovely £20 Luvians voucher !

New Groups for Carbon Conversations

We welcomed 23 people to three new carbon conversations groups last week. With St Andrews now having a team of 18 facilitators we are able to run sessions across the week including Sundays’. New sessions will start in April so please pre-register now via our website or email.

As part of my undergraduate dissertation in Sustainable Development, I invite all students who currently reside in University of St Andrews Halls of Residence to participate in a research project about the interplay between green buildings, occupant environmental attitudes and behaviors.

You will be asked to complete a survey that we predict will take 10-15 minutes to complete. A mixture of multiple choice and open-ended questions aim to help researchers understand your environmental attitudes and behaviors as well as some questions about you and your hall. Your taking the time to answer all the questions in this survey would be very helpful to my research so I encourage you to take part.

More information about the project and the survey are detailed on the opening page of the survey (I apologize for the length of the this page!)

The link to the survey is: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FYMD9PZ

I also encourage you to get in touch with me if you have any interest in being interviewed on this topic or if you have any questions at all.

Contact Details:

Researcher: Margot Cromwell

Email: mjc79@st-andrews.ac.uk

Thank you so much for taking the time to participate.

10th to the 16th March 2013

St Andrews Green week will be packed with events and activities aimed at taking positive local action on our environment.

Get involved by visiting the new Green week website and view the up-to-date timetable of events that are happening during the week.

www.standrewsgreenweek.com

Also check out the facebook page at:

https://www.facebook.com/StAndrewsGreenWeek

Green Week Transition Pub Quiz

Its 7 rounds of questions to test even the most avid pub quiz brains mixed in with some fun “green” questions of course. Bring a team of 4 along to the Rule bar on South Street for a great evening to test the mind. Its £5 to enter and there are prizes for the Winner, runners up and the wooden spoon. First question called at 8pm. IMAGE

Transition Open Forum – Tuesday 12^th March at 5.30pm, St Mary’s College (Divinity Lecture Room 2)

We are going to planning a year in transition with your knowledge, help and input.  The session will ask how we can as a group and community work within the season’s and calendar to achieve joined up events and thinking with our partners. A starting point will be a discussion on Transition’s values and mission from which our work flows. A great chance to get involved, get active and work under one community vision.

Green Week – Meat Free Monday

Going easy on the meat is not only healthy it’s a simple way to cut your carbon emissions and live more sustainably. This was highlighted in the recent SASI Local Food Procurement Seminar where Mike Small from Fife Diet and Local Food Procurement expert, Robin Gourlay discussed the complexities of our current food procurement system that has led to the recent horsemeat scandal. Mike suggested that moving to a “local” diet would require us to eat less meat but of higher quality. This would also give us confidence in where our meat came from whilst benefiting the local economy and animal welfare. Lets all go meat free this Monday and cut some carbon emission’s from our diets for green week! Halls will be putting on 1 extra veggie option this Monday evening too and asking you for comments. Get involved with the Food debate at St Andrews on twitter @transitionUStA,  #stafood

600 Trees for 600 Years

Transition is looking for help to plant out 420 young trees Fife park on Wednesday 13^th March. The trees are all native food bearing and should provide us with years of wild foraging fodder in years to come as well as great wildlife value. Species to plant include blackthorn, dog rose, hazel, crab apple and elder. Please join us from 1pm to 3pm on the path from Fife Park towards Balgrove Larder – access from the Strathkiness High Road.

Carbon Conversations is a set of six friendly and practical meetings to help explore the transition to low carbon living. Sessions run in groups of 6-10 people, creating a supportive group experience that helps people halve their personal carbon footprint. They deal with the difficulties of change by connecting to values, emotions and identity and are based on a psychological understanding of how people change. Groups meet weekly with trained facilitators to create a non-judgmental atmosphere where people are encouraged and supported to make serious lifestyle changes. Sessions are supplemented by games, discussion and tasks all over lots of tea and biscuits!

Carbon Conversation meetings are free and aim to start the week of February 25^th (depending on bookings). Bookings for Carbon Conversations are made through the University’s Personal Development Management System (PDMS). You can do it now by clicking here or you can email transition@st-andrews.ac.uk with your preferred times if needed.

Meetings are open for the following times:

Monday 17.30
Tuesday 10.00
Wednesday 14.00
Thursday 17.30
Saturday 13.00
Sunday 14.30

Fife is now recognised as a leading light in the UK’s local food revolution as demand soars for seasonal, fresh food, made and sold on our doorstep. For large organisations like the University of St Andrews, reconnecting with local food networks poses benefits as well as challenges.

To better understand this phenomenon, the St Andrews Sustainability Institute (SASI) is hosting a lunchtime seminar on Wednesday 20^th February at the Gateway Building (LR 3) addressing the ‘Future of Food’ at the University of St Andrews.

While individuals are making positive food choices, larger organisations can find it difficult to make the switch; this seminar aims to explore the benefits of local food and how it might come to play a much larger role in feeding the University of St Andrews. Featuring two excellent and experienced “local food” experts, Mike Small and Robin Gourlay, attendees will be able to hear first-hand how changing our diet can lead to benefits for our local economy, the environment, health and culture.

• Mike Small is an activist, writer and publisher originally from Aberdeen. He has led on the Fife Diet local eating experiment, which aims to re-localise food production and distribution on a regional basis as a response to globalisation and climate change.
• Robin Gourlay is responsible for driving forward the Scottish Government’s National Food and Drinks Policy, for the public sector and was instrumental in making School in East Ayrshire buy more local food. Robin has wide experience in catering and facilities management in both public and private sectors through a career which spans, hotels, Universities, Further Education, Colleges and Local Government.

Our chair will be Dr Shona Russell, Lecturer in Knowledge and Practice within St Andrews University School of Management

With a welcome and introduction from Professor Louise Richardson, Principal and Vice Chancellor the university, this seminar really will pose food for thought on an issue that is close to our hearts – and mouths!

This free seminar is open to all and especially those who have a professional interest in local food.

Wednesday 20^th February from  1pm to 2pm (Coffee from 12.30pm)

Lecture Room 3.

The Gateway Building, North Haugh, St Andrews University, St Andrews

This event is sponsored by the St Andrews Sustainability Institute  -  a group of people at the University of St Andrews who are working towards a sustainable future for everyone.
Poster with full details here.