Students and staff from a range of departments got together to discuss campus sustainability initiatives at two workshops this week.
Otago Polytechnic and OPAIC have strategic objectives for sustainability, including developing sustainable practitioners and modelling evidence-based sustainable practice in our operations.
There will be a big focus on sustainability at our Auckland campus this Study Block. All classes have been looking at the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals. We will be focusing on Goal 3 – Good Health and Wellbeing and Goal 17 - Partnering for the Goals, in particular.
This week’s workshops were focused on facilities and operations, and supported by our Facilities Manager Sonny Teio with the help of other staff from across departments.
They took us through some recent OPAIC sustainability initiatives including switching to LED lighting, and our recycling programme.
They also told us about some planned cross-departmental student projects led by OPAIC IT students including:
- An app to promote sustainability practices at OPAIC.
- An app to measure and monitor the progress of sustainability initiatives at OPAIC in terms of operations and facilities.
- An app for students to create and maintain their own sustainability portfolios.
Students took time to brainstorm other sustainability ideas for the campus in groups, at the workshop.
Our students are being encouraged to embed sustainability into their reports, projects and presentations throughout this Study Block.
Those who do will be able to showcase their work later this year at our Annual Student Research Forum on Thursday 26 November and our Sustainability Industry Open Day with a panel of our industry partners on Wednesday 2 December.
Check out the photos here.
