POLLOCK HALLS residents will soon have the opportunity to reduce their carbon footprint without even leaving their flat.

Transition Edinburgh University (TEU), a collaborative initiative between students and staff is organising ‘Big Switch’ at Pollock Halls, and hopes to expand its programmes into self-catered university housing in the new year.

TEU aims to tackle climate change and peak oil through "practical action research projects".

Big Switch, which kicked off last week with the launch of an inter-house energy saving competition aims, according to Sion Lanini, programme organiser for TEU, to “make action around big issues such as climate personable, rewarding and fun!”

According to Lanini, over 330 students at Pollock have filled out carbon footprint surveys, which included questions about travel and food consumption. TEU is hosting a fruit tree planting this Wednesday at Pollock and has invited students to get their hands dirty and help out.

“The main focus of the competition will be the small things that we can all do to lessen our impact, with lots of opportunities to have fun at the same time,” says Lanini.

The initiative uses a model of grass-roots action to raise awareness and, they hope, make a difference to the environment.

Lanini adds that TEU’s reasons for choosing Pollock Halls as a starting point are simple: “Guilt is often used as a strategy to persuade people to change their behaviour, but this often causes resentment, opens up a misperceived gap between people 'who care' and 'don't care' and disempowers people to come up with their own creative solutions. Action to raise awareness and tackle environmental problems seems to be focusing more and more on community-led solutions, which is what we're attempting to do by focusing action on the actual campus of Pollock Halls. These community-led initiatives are really important because they provide many other social, health and economic benefits and attract a more diverse range of people than 'the usual suspects'.”

Besides TEU’s environmental goals, organisers say they believe that student-staff collaboration is paramount. Sandra Kinneai, an accommodation manager and environmental sustainability liaison for the University says that initiatives like Big Switch are about “peer to peer learning”.

“This isn’t about ordering people around from the top down; it’s much more effective if students are teaching students.”

Besides, Kinneai adds, “Changing together is more effective and more fun.”

TEU is supported by both the University of Edinburgh’s branch of People and Planet and the University Energy and Sustainability Office.

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