We have some new, easy-to-read, wall thermometers in the library, thanks to the University’s Environmental Sustainability Team and Green Impact. See if you can spot all seven of them! They indicate whether the temperature is ideal, warm or hot and will help us with our ongoing efforts (with the Estates Department) to reduce overheating and maintain a comfortable temperature.
Category Archives: Green Issues
Think green: save energy
SSL staff are currently working towards the Green Impact Silver Award for 2015/16, having achieved Bronze and Best Newcomer awards in 2014/15. Electricity use is one of the library’s main environmental impacts. We have been saving electricity by:
- Setting the photocopiers to enter sleep mode after 15 minutes’ inactivity
- Switching off half the photocopiers in vacation
- Enabling the power saving options on staff PCs
You can help the SSL save energy and reduce CO2 emissions by:
- Switching off laptops and mobile devices when not in use
- Unplugging chargers when devices are fully charged or disconnected
- Enabling power saving settings on laptops
- Switching off the Reader PC monitors after use
- Turning off the lights in the Discussion Rooms and Graduate Study Rooms when leaving
- Telling us your energy saving tips! Email ssl@bodleian.ox.ac.uk or talk to library staff.
For the chance to win 100 tubs of ice cream for your college, and find out more, try the Student Switch Off Climate Change Quiz!
Think green: save water
As part of our ongoing efforts to green the SSL we have been looking at how we can save water. Although it seems like it rains a lot in the UK, London actually has a lower annual average rainfall than Istanbul or Rome. Here in the UK the average person uses 150 litres of water a day, plus all the water used globally to make our food, clothing, fuel and other stuff. This increases our water consumption to about 3,400 litres per day!
Oxford University has a water reduction target of 11% (38,210,000 litres) by 2015 compared to 2009/10 levels (nearly 350,000,000 litres).
By saving water we help protect river and wetland environments for wildlife, save energy used in treating and pumping water and conserve water supplies for the future, protecting us against drought.
Here are 7 things we can all do to save water:
- Turn off the tap: this could be when washing up, brushing your teeth or washing vegetables. A running tap wastes over 6 litres per minute, this water is taken from our local rivers and aquifers so save it for the wildlife.
- Report leaky taps and toilets: a dripping tap wastes at least 5,500 litres of water a year.
- Drink tap water: one litre of bottled water can take up to 5 litres of water to produce.
- Reuse scrap paper: it takes roughly 10 litres of water to produce 1 sheet of paper. Save water by reusing scrap paper.
- Try a meat-free Friday: one hamburger requires 2,400 litres of water. Having at least one meat-free day is healthy and will save water around the world.
- Eat in season: seasonal food is produced in tune with the weather. Help the global water crisis by seasonal eating.
- Take a short, sharp shower: a bath typically uses around 80 litres, while a short shower can use as little as a third of that amount. But beware since many power showers may actually use more than a bath. Try taking shorter showers to reduce the amount of water you use.
For a fun, interactive website about water usage see http//everylastdrop.co.uk/
Source of facts and tips: www.waterwise.org.uk
Tree planting and cakes for Green Impact
Earlier in the summer the SSL was presented with two Green Impact awards and part of our prize was the opportunity to plant a tree. Last week Sarah and Joanna planted a very fine oak tree in a field at Wytham Woods on behalf of the SSL. In all, 15 oak and beech trees were planted by representatives from the award winning teams at Oxford. Oak trees have a life expectancy of 600 years, so our tree will absorb carbon and provide shelter for grazing livestock for some time to come.
We are taking part in Green Impact again this year and one of our first actions for 2015/16 was to host a Macmillan Coffee Morning, jointly with the Politics Department, on 25 September. Lots of delicious home-made cakes were consumed and we raised the grand total of £175.48 which will help to support people affected by cancer.
We’ll be looking for more ways to help reduce waste and carbon emissions in the SSL so please tell us your ideas.
Green Impact is a national environmental accreditation scheme run by the NUS and managed at Oxford University by the Estates Services’ Environmental Sustainability team.
SSL wins two Green Impact awards

The SSL Green Team receiving their Green Impact Awards from Christine Mitchell, 2013-14 Environmental Hero award winner (centre). Image credit: David Fleming.
We are very proud to have been presented with two Green Impact awards at a ceremony held on 17th June in the Weston Library. We received a Bronze award and the award for Best Newcomer 2014-15.
Green Impact is a national environmental accreditation scheme run by the NUS and managed at Oxford University by the Estates Services’ Environmental Sustainability team. Oxford University ran it for the first time in 2013-14 with departments signing up as individual teams and working through a set of tasks in an online workbook.
The SSL was one of the first libraries to sign up to the scheme in Oxford and we have been busy making tangible changes around the the library to reduce waste and carbon emissions, such as:
- relabelling and promoting our recycling bins
- switching off lights in rooms not in use – thank you to our readers who have been taking note of our new signs!
- switching off some of our photocopiers in vacation
- setting up duplex printing by default on staff printers
- activating ‘sleep’ mode on staff PCs
…and regularly putting up posters in the library suggesting ways that our readers can help green the SSL.
The awards are made of reused Welsh slate and we will be displaying them in the library. In the meantime, they have been walkabout and found the books on climate change:Part of the Green Impact prize is the opportunity to plant a tree in Wytham Woods so we are very much looking forward to that and to getting started on the Silver award for 2015-16.
Do let us know if you have any ideas for further greening of the SSL!
Think green: save paper
Old lecture notes and photocopies to get rid of? Don’t just put them in a general waste bin! If they are used on one side only, then re-use them for taking notes, to save buying more paper. If the paper is used on both sides then recycle it so it can be made into new paper products.
According to the WWF, 400 million tonnes of paper is produced globally per year and the pulp and paper manufacturing industry is the fourth largest industrial energy user and a significant emitter of greenhouse gases.
Even if the paper we use comes from sustainable, well-managed plantations, by saving paper we can reduce our carbon footprint.
Here are some tips on how to reduce your paper consumption and help green the SSL:
Use less:
- Use both sides of every piece of paper
- Photocopy double-sided (you’ll also save money)
- Think before you print – only print the pages you need
- Write small
Re-use more:
- Use paper printed on one-side only for notetaking or put it in the Scrap Paper box in the Photocopy Room
Recycle more:
- Put old photocopies and printouts in the Quality Paper bin in the Photocopy Room. This is made into high quality paper products.
- Put any waste paper and cardboard in the Dry Mixed Recycling bins located around the library – don’t put it in the General Waste bins
Buy recycled or FSC certified products:
- The shorthand notepads we sell are made from recycled paper
- The A4 pads are FSC certified paper
Greening the SSL step by step
The SSL has signed up to Green Impact, an environmental accreditation and awards scheme run by the National Union of Students and coordinated here by the University’s Environmental Sustainability Team. The scheme involves completing specific actions in areas such as waste reduction, recycling and energy saving and builds on work done previously by SSL staff.
Steps that we have been taking to reduce our environmental impact are listed below along with ways that you can help, but what we would really like is for you to tell us your ideas for how we can green the SSL, particularly with regard to saving energy. Please let us know by emailing ssl@bodleian.ox.ac.uk, writing in the Comments Book on the Issue Desk or talking to library staff.
Steps we are taking to reduce our environmental impact:
- Using recycled paper in all our photocopiers & printers
- Sending used toner cartridges for recycling
- Switching off half the photocopiers in vacation when there is less demand
- Setting the copiers to go into low-energy ‘sleep’ mode after 15 minutes’ inactivity
- Setting PC monitor brightness as low as possible
- Enabling power saving plans on staff PCs
- Switching off our monitors when leaving our desks for more than a few minutes
How you can help:
- Recycle your paper, cardboard, plastic bottles and drinks cans using the labelled bins
- Think before you print – only print the pages you need
- Learn how to photocopy double-sided – it’s cheaper and saves paper. See the instructions next to each machine or ask staff to show you how
- Enable power-saving features on your laptops and other devices
- Switch off electronic devices when not in use
- Switch off the lights when you leave the Discussion Rooms
- Bring a suitable bag to take your books away
- Buy an SSL cotton bag for £1.20
- Reuse Bodleian Libraries plastic bags or return to us for reuse
- Ask for cardboard covers instead of plastic when using our binding machine
Greening the SSL
We have recently been looking into ways to green the SSL by saving energy, using less plastic and improving our recycling efforts. This is what we have done so far:
Photocopiers
- We are switching off and unplugging half of our copiers in vacation when there is less demand
- We have enabled the standby feature so that the copiers go into low-energy ‘sleep’ mode when not in use
Lighting
- We leave the lights off in the Discussion Rooms, the IT Training Room & the Graduate Study Rooms when not in use
Computers
- We only switch on the PCs on the first two rows of reader desks in the morning. The other PCs are switched on by readers when they are needed.
- The monitors go into standby mode after a few minutes of inactivity
Using less plastic
- We ask that if you take a Bodleian Libraries’ plastic bag (free of charge) then please reuse it or return it to us for reuse
- Alternatively, we sell SSL cotton bags for £1.20
- If you are using our binding machine, please consider whether you really need plastic covers, or ask us for cardboard covers instead
Recycling
- We use recycled paper in the photocopiers
- Many of the stationery items we sell are made from recycled materials
- Staff are recycling their food waste
What else can we do to green the SSL? Please tell us your ideas!