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Green News

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The Energy Management Group was established last term. This is a first report. With assistance from consultants, who undertook a full tendering exercise, a financial contract from electricity has been negotiated which will save over £58,000 on last year; these savings will be passed on directly to budget holders. A tendering exercise on gas is underway. In addition, a water leakage survey has been commissioned. The Purchasing Office will now be supplying, as standard, more energy efficient fluorescent tubes (the price differential of the tube is negligible). The main priority for the future is to identify where investments in energy efficiency measures will bring the greatest return.

August - a month to relax and rest for some, but not for ragwort pullers. Ragwort is a poisonous yellow weed which is commonly found in meadows and along roadside verges. Ragwort can be effectively eliminated with herbicides but this removes not only the ragwort but also a wide range of other plant species - not an acceptable solution in an area which is under development as a wildflower meadow. In such areas, the only option is to pull it out by hand before it goes to seed. Volunteers from the University, Brighton Borough Council and the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV) set to work. After six hours of back wrenching work which filled two tractor trailers with the weed, the meadow was cleared. Nowthe grass has been safely cut for hay and in the future it is hoped that the meadow will be grazed.

For further information/comments on any aspects of the Energy Group, or on environmental matters generally, please contact Penelope Chapple, Secretary to the Group and Environmental Adviser, on ext 8904/ P.J.Chapple@sussex.ac.uk

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Friday October 11th 1996