Fresh Minds project

OU Head of Properties, Regions and Finance Dorian Holloway told the Year 9 students that he needed ideas for encouraging employees to stop using cars and help the university become a more sustainable environment.

He added: “At present 22 per cent of our carbon emissions, that’s 4,600 tons per year, come from staff commuting.  We pay £192,000 in carbon taxes and would like to cut this.  We teach courses in sustainability so we should practice what we preach.” 

Students worked in two teams to discuss a range of ideas and then presented them to Mr Holloway.

The first group focused on ways of encouraging employees to use the existing shuttle bus service by adding features such as wi fi and work tables and expanding routes.

Other students believed that providing more incentives to leave the car at home would work best and presented a reward card scheme idea.

13-year-old Georgia Dunsford said: “The whole experience was loads of fun and it made us work together as a team.  I was surprised by how involved everyone got and how we all wanted to pitch the best ideas.”

After hearing presentations from the students Mr Holloway praised the effort involved and said some ideas could be put into practice.  He added: “We will look at the best ideas, do feasibility work and take it from there.”

Academy Director of Personal Development Deborah Gockelen described the experience as being very rewarding for everyone.  She added: “It is important for students to connect their learning to the workplace and they had an opportunity to develop essential work sills for their successful future lives.”