A taster of the upcoming Sustainable Science Symposium

 

On the 12th and 13th of November, CAT will host its sixth sustainable science symposium, showcasing the work of current students and alumni. CAT has been teaching skills in sustainability since 2001; since then the graduate school has become an important embodiment of CAT’s ethos, encouraging innovation in creating solutions to environmental challenges. Last year’s symposium was attended by over 100 people who enjoyed a range of speakers including Erik Lombaut from Belgium, and 2011 will see another interesting selection of papers presented. Though the programme has not yet been finalised, a taster of what to look forward to at this year’s event is below.

For more information on the event, please follow this link.

Spending time at an environmental education centre – an investigation into changes in pro-environmental behaviour by Sophia Perkins
Sophia Perkins’ research looks into the effect of environmental education. As individuals tend to learn best through ‘doing’, the interactivity of CAT’s visitor’s centre makes it an effective educational facility. Perkins examined her subjects’ environmental behaviour prior to and after their time at CAT, showing that their pro-environmental behaviour increased after their visit. Her analysis considered personality types and social dynamics in her conclusions.

Fuel poverty and the failure of policy making as a driver for change by R Honeysett
The Department of Energy and Climate Change defines a household in fuel poverty as one that has to spend more than 10% of its income on fuel to heat their home to a satisfactory standard. R Honeysett’s paper evaluates the strategy developed by he Labour government which aimed to eliminate the problem for ‘vulnerable’ households by 2010 and for all households by 2016. While the strategy had some success early on, the situation has again worsened, making it likely that the 2016 target will not be reached. Honeysett’s assessment of the policy seeks to understand its failure, considering whether the definition of fuel poverty that shaped the policy has had detrimental effects on it.

How could straw bale houses become mainstream? Insights from a straw bale housing project by R Folk
Considering the growing need for affordable, energy efficient housing in the UK, R Folk’s paper looks into the capacity of straw bale building to satisfy this demand. Taking as a case study a rural district council’s decision to build straw bale council houses, Folk evaluates whether straw bale building could become a mainstream building technique by interviewing mainstream building contractors and other project stakeholders and investigating potential barriers to its movement into the mainstream.

The Potential Sustainable Contribution of Vertical Borehole Ground Source Heating Systems to London’s Heating Needs by Cathryn Symons
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions in densely populated areas is difficult. Cathryn Symons investigated the possibility of using Vertical Borehole Ground Source Heating Systems to heat part of London’s central city, concluding that the technology could provide up to 17% of the renewable heat for all London from within the central area alone.

Do-it-yourself sustainability: helping current occupants meet their own needs, whilst preparing the existing housing stock for future generations’ needs by D. Beal, S. Tucker and J. Littlewood
Improving the energy efficiency of existing houses needs to happen in a more imaginative and affordable manner than the current mainstream building industry permits. Beal, Tucker and Littlewood look to DIY enthusiasts as an untapped labour force who could be encouraged and collectively organised to address environmental issues in the home and garden. Looking to DIY training programmes and initiatives, the authors consider how to harness the potential workforce of collective environmental DIY.

Utilisation of Resources along Motorways to Produce Renewable Energy by R Ferrier
English motorways are flanked by 300,000,000m squared of government land, managed by the Highways Agency. R Ferrier’s paper looks at how that land could be harnessed to produce renewable energy by the installation of small wind turbines, projecting an ecological saving of 130,000,000kgs of carbon dioxide annually.