Environment & Sustainability
Welcome to the MCR Website Green Page, maintained and updated jointly by the MCR Webmaster and Green Officer. Here you fill find information on how to engage in a more sustainable lifestyle during your time at Catz, and how to get involved in green activities both within the college and Cambridge wide.
For any question, suggestion, idea or comment, you can always email mcr.green@caths.cam.ac.uk.
Picking up sustainable habits in our daily life is the first step towards a greener society. However, sometimes it’s hard to know what to do practically to be more sustainable. Luckily for you, that’s what your Green Officer is here to help you with!
Below you can find a Catz Green Guide beautifully put together by the Catz JCR. It is packed with advice on how to change your lifestyle here and now to make it more sustainable. You are encourage to take 5 minutes to read it, and then just experience picking up some of the habits you read about, and see how it goes! Collective change ultimately relies on individual change. Click below to read it.
The Catz Gardening Society
The newly-formed and student-run Gardening Society grows fruit and vegetables in allotment owned by the college on the way to Grantchester. If you’re keen to learn more about it, join the Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/955972317828093/ or email the current head of the society Katie Dahen at ked38@cam.ac.uk. Gardening is a really nice and therapeutic activity and you’ll learn what it takes to actually grow the food you so often simply buy in a supermarket!
Following a more sustainable diet at Catz
The MCR and the college Catering Team started collaborating more in 2017-2018 to improve the environmental sustainability of food options in college. This means promoting locally sourced food as well as vegetarian and vegan options.
The first every MCR Green Formal was held on 8th February 2018 to celebrate the goodness and variety of plant-based, locally sourced food. The plan is to now hold a Green Formal with a completely vegan menu once a term.
St Catharine's College is a member of the Sustainable Restaurant Association, offer a selection of Fairtrade items, and all its packaging items are now biodegradable Vegware.
The Student Switch-Off competition
Catz competes every year against 16 of the other Cambridge colleges in the Student Switch Off energy-saving campaign. Please do support the campaign by liking the Facebook page www.facebook.com/CambridgeSSO and posting the name of our college on the wall.
If you’re not on Facebook you can sign-up to support the campaign via http://studentswitchoff.org/unis/cambridge/get-involved/. The campaign hosts a series of mini-competitions over the year where colleges receive a bronze, silver, gold or platinum award based on how involved we get in the competition. Students who get involved stand the chance of winning Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and NUS extra cards for themselves so there’s loads of great stuff up for grabs for doing your bit for the environment!
Catz is known for always getting Platinum awards and often winning the competition. The latest quiz won was the second Quiz in 2018, which earnt us 50 tubs of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream!
If you’re a keen, green person you’ll be interested in the Student Switch Off Ambassador training. Everyone who attends the trianing sessions gets a Fairtrade t-shirt and reusable Ben & Jerry’s coffee cup and being an ambassador will look great on your CV. Again, you can find out more on their website!
Environmental volunteering opportunities in Cambridge
There are plenty of opportunities to get involved in green projects or societies in Cambridge. This poster made by Cambridge Hub shows you all environmental societies as well as interesting charities active in town:
The Cambridge Green Challenge is the University’s sustainability department and coordinates all the University's green activities. You can learn more about them at https://www.environment.admin.cam.ac.uk/cambridge-green-challenge. They have a monthly sustainability newsletter called GreenLines and packed with useful information on what is going on around Cambridge.
You can sign up for it here.