UCD Students’ Union (UCDSU) has unveiled an online survey to assess the environmental habits of students, teachers, and on-campus businesses.
The survey asks students for their opinion on a number of environmental issues, such as how well they believe UCD is managing its environmental impact and which environmental issues, like recycling and excessive paper usage, the university should do more to address. Questions also involve students’ own efforts to lessen their own carbon footprint by doing things like riding a bike to campus, or using reusable mugs. Additionally, it asks students to evaluate how well they believe on-campus eateries are alleviating their impact on the environment.
‘We hear something or other almost every week about global warming and the likes, and obviously it is a huge issue facing our generation,’ Shane Grogan, then the UCDSU Environmental Coordinator, told the Tribune this past February. ‘Ensuring the safety of our environment and the students to come is something we care deeply about.’
The survey is a follow-up to one in March, in which 89 percent of student respondents said the university was not doing enough to protect the environment. With this new survey, UCDSU is attempting to gain a clearer understanding of what the biggest environmental problems on campus are, and what changes students believe should be made. Students who participate in the survey will be entered automatically into a raffle to win a bicycle from the Belfield Bike Shop.
In the past, UCDSU has had other initiatives to lessen the university’s environmental impact, including encouraging students to carpool when they go home on the weekends and creating ‘Bike Day’ to promote cycling and bicycle safety. They have also attempted to install recycling bins around campus.
Grogan previously explained to the Tribune that UCDSU had encountered difficulties in getting the wider student body involved in their efforts. He noted it was it was hard to promote green initiatives like recycling, without using excess paper, which would have been incongruous with their efforts. Students were also reluctant to engage with UCDSU campaigns promoted over social media. ‘We hope that will change in the near future but for now we are just working away behind the scenes,’ he concluded.
Audrey Cooney – News Writer
