News article
Sussex students show love for the planet on Valentine’s
University of Sussex students celebrated 14 February in unusual style by taking part in an anti-Valentine’s karaoke session powered purely by bicycles.
Students tyre-d of the usual romantic routines instead used Valentine’s Day to show their love for the planet.
University of Sussex students celebrated 14 February in unusual style this year by taking part in an anti-Valentine’s karaoke session powered purely by bicycles.
The Power of Love was among more than 20 events held at the University of Sussex campus to mark the national Go Green Week.
The events also celebrated Sussex’s ongoing commitment to become one of Britain's greenest universities and its work towards cutting its carbon emissions by 45 percent by 2020 through its ambitious Go Greener project.
Dean Spears, head of University Housing Services, said: “Every week is Go Green Week at the University, as we are constantly looking at ways for us to operate in a more sustainable way. As a university we have invested heavily in solar panels on our roof-tops, brown living roofs, improved cycling infrastructure and much more to make it easier for our community to reduce their environmental impact.
“Having a dedicated week like Go Green is really important, though, to focus the mind and to get everybody thinking together about how they we can all take small steps to make a big difference. It’s been great to see staff and students alike getting into the spirit of the week and having some great fun at the same time.”
As well as belting out anti-Valentine’s tunes at the campus East Slope Bar and a carbon-neutral gig of unplugged performances among more than a dozen events organised by the University of Sussex Student’s Union, students helped to mark Go Green Week with paperless bingo organised by members of the Geography Society.
The Students' Union also hosted a family plant and play session, a food waste café in collaboration with Brighton-based The Real Junk Food Project, and a screening of Black Bark Films’ In Our Hands - while university staff joined a team from Balfour Beatty’s construction team in a litter pick where they gathered ten bags of rubbish, a section from a car dashboard, a broken bicycle and a large piece of mesh fencing.
See a full list of Go Green Week events held at the University of Sussex.