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Latest news!

• We encourage Darwinians (students, staff and alumni) to sign the Petition for a Cambridge University Ethical Investment Policy

• Weekly meetings - feel free to come and join!

The DCGC in short

The Darwin College Green Committee (DCGC) was set up in November 2009 and it is the first of the kind in Darwin College. It consists of the DCSA Green Officer, who chairs the committee, and a diverse group of students. We work on different projects which we define within the guidelines of the DCGC. We discuss the best way to implement them at fortnightly meetings, and each member takes the responsibility for their implementation.

Our goal is to reduce the environmental impact of the college and its members, as well as to promote sustainable awareness among the Darwinians. We do this through targeting the students directly as well as working with college staff, the DCSA and external organisations.

The formal roles of the committee are to:

1. Revise and improve Darwin college’s environmental performance.
2. Raise and promote sustainable awareness among Darwinians.
3. Liaise with external organisations to develop different projects targeting the college’s sustainability.
4. Find external funding to back green/sustainable projects.
   

We work on a number of levels and some examples of ongoing projects can be found below. If you'd like to join any or suggest your own, please do it!

Current projects

Blog

Our blog aims to be the central online forum for connecting Darwin members and Cambridge society interested in discussing 'green' issues.
Start a discussion thread on a 'green' topic that interests you. Post a link to an article or an event that would interest other readers. The DCGC also welcomes your suggestions, your criticisms and comments on any of our initiatives.

Green zones

To work on a more local scale the college accommodation has been split up into four zones, and members of the Green Committee are responsible for a zone each. The reps can be found in the link in the left panel, and are happily contacted about any problems or queries including recycling, heating, energy consumption etc.

Events Calendar

We are compiling all relevant talks about green issues in its broader term (climate change, geoengineering, environmental economics, geopolitics, etc.). We are including events not only from Cambridge University but as well from colleges, independent organizations and in other towns. Please help us keeping it updated by contacting us or even better by joining and contributing to the project and updating it yourself! Thanks!

Encouraging a better recycling

Indeed recycling can sometimes be a daunting task, especially with so many different products to recycle, but it is everyone's responsibility - our resources are finite!. Sometimes the recycling bin are not well sorted and some health and safety issues arise from it. Check out the action plan drafted in collaboration with the Housekeeper!

Green Guide

Information on environmental issues including recycling. We agree it is a bit outdated, please send us any suggestions! Or even better, join us and help us improving it!

Old projects

Event (past): Evidence based policy making – how can government be an intelligent user of science?

As a collaboration with the Darwin College Ents Officers, the CSaP and the 4CMR, the DCGC organised a public event about Science and Policy. The event consists on a Lecture by Dr. M. Parker, Director of Defra’s Evidence Programme since 2002 (managing Defra’s policy and investment programme for science), Deputy Chief Scientific Adviser and internal Head of Profession for Science and Engineering. .

Energy Saving competition

The great energy saving competition between Darwin student houses is about to begin!
Between May 14th and May 21th the DCGC will read the gas and electricity meters in each of the student accommodations. We will use the obtained values, together with a previous baseline, to calculate which building has achieved the best energy reduction per capita. The results, including a ranking of the houses, will be made public in the BOP of the 22nd May and online.

Event (past): The Copenhagen Accord: a significant ‘first step’ or a disastrously missed opportunity?

As a collaboration with the Darwin College Ents Officers and the 4CMR, the DCGC organised a public event about the Copenhagen conference and its outcome. The event consisted on a Talk + Reception + Formal Dinner. The slides of the presentation and some pictures can be found here.

Collaboration with the May Ball committee

The college May balls are known to be wasteful, and the DCGC is currently working with the May ball committee to minimise the impact and come up with sustainable solutions.

Bike clearance

To encourage cycling among the Darwinians, more parking space is necessary around the college. To achieve this the DCGC is under way with the annual bike clearance. As soon as this is done, left over bikes will be sold at low prices to college members.