Green Week in full swing

Fancy a vegan brownie? How about some insight into the 'nine planetary boundaries' that leading scientist Johan Rockstrom argues humans should protect in order to preserve the Earth's limited resources?

These are but a few of the plethora of environmentally-conscious offerings during UCT's annual Green Week that kicked off on Monday, 16 April.

Opening with a "vegilicious" bake sale on Jammie Plaza on Monday morning - at which students clamoured for baked vegan delights - Green Week aims to bring sustainability discourse to the fore among students and staff.

Second-year sociology student Prosper Gasua holds sustainability issues particularly close to his heart, and believes that Green Week is a useful vehicle to raise awareness on campus. "Students really need to be part of issues like this,'"he says. "(Dealing with these issues) starts with students. It doesn't start with people 'up there', but with us."

While Green Week is in the foreground of UCT's efforts to combat the effects of climate change, a host of efforts are taking place behind the scenes. From managing water and electricity use to drafting a sustainability procurement policy, the UCT Green Campus Action Plan 2011-2012 details dozens of initiatives currently or soon being implemented.