King's Cross:
Launched in February 2009 at Nido Student Living, The Green Agenda was set up to enable residents and staff to work together to bring about a change in their environmental impact at Nido King’s Cross by:
• Reducing waste and energy use
• Reusing as many items as we can in the building
• Recycling as much waste as possible
What is being done?
Building Infrastructure
• Provision of recycling facilities on site
• Paper recycling bins within staff offices
• Installation of flow restrictors on shower heads
• Solar powered lighting to bike storage stair well
• Default black/white printing and double sided printing on office computers
• Re-use scheme for leftover furniture, books & clothes from residents
Education
• Good recycling practise signage
• Competition to encourage residents to recyclemore
• Environmental tips signs on all staff desks
• Hosting of an Eco Fair to educate and engage residents on the environment
• Dimming the building lights for Earth Hour to make a statement about our environmental intent
Local Community
• Inviting local environmentally friendly businesses to our Eco Fair
• Working with Living Streets King’s Cross to provide walking tours of the local area and to encouraging walking and cycling
• Donating leftover furniture and clothes to local charities
Building Infrastructure
• Investing in technology to automatically dim all unnecessary corridor lighting
• Switching to renewably sourced energy if viable
• Provision of widespread recycling facilities in residents rooms and communal spaces
• Sourcing inventory e.g. cleaning products & stationary from environmentally friendly suppliers
Future plans
Education
• Environmental reminders signage for all residential rooms and communal spaces
• Incorporating good environmental practice as part of the staff and resident’s code of conduct
• Participating in more local and national environmental awareness campaigns
Local Community
• Working with more local businesses and their provision of environmentally friendly services and goods for our residents
Future Developments
• Implementing The Green Agenda at all future Nido Student Living developments around the world
• Incorporating Reduce, Reuse, Recycle at the design and development of stage of future developments
Visit Nido Spitalfields and Nido Barcelona for what Nido is doing to help the environment during the build of these student housing complexes as well as what the environmental plans are for the future of these buildings.
In the short time that the The Green Agenda has been set up we have quickly been able to introduce good environmental practice to our building at King's Cross. Residents, staff and the local community commend our initial efforts, however we are aware of the long term task at hand and will be working hard to maintain and improve The Green Agenda.