Transition Heriot-Watt, a new group set up by students and staff at Heriot-Watt University to promote sustainable travel, has beaten off sizeable competition to win funding from the Scottish Government's Climate Challenge Fund.
Transition Heriot-Watt will encourage staff and students to consider more environmentally-friendly ways of travelling to and from the campus. Various activities will be run at the campus to promote sustainable travel including:
- promoting a car-sharing scheme
- running eco-driving workshops to demonstrate how to drive more efficiently
- creating a map highlighting public transport and cycling routes to the campus
- running cycle workshops
Not only will this reduce carbon emissions, but it will help students and staff save money and in some cases, get fitter!
Students and staff will be asked for their thoughts on travelling to and from the campus through a travel survey in May or June, and through various events. All project activities will be publicised widely, online and on campus.
The project will begin in April and last until March 2012.
Funding
Funding for the project comes from the Scottish Government's Climate Challenge Fund, designed to help communities in Scotland to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions.
Transition Heriot-Watt will shortly be recruiting for a part-time Project Co-ordinator to run the project and two students to assist with delivering the project through part-time internships.