Sustainable purchases
One of the tasks of the UNamur Service for the Managment of the Campus (SIGeC) is to purchase consumables for laboratories, services and administrations.
Water consumption
The Service for the Managment of the Campus count the water consumption of each building. Over the years, several initiatives have been taken to reduce this consumption:
- Maintenance: systematic hunting for water leaks and analysis of the water circulating in the pipes
- Toilets: flushes with water-saving devices and automatic flushing of urinals (an action that now saves 3,000 cubic metres of water per year)
- Labs: cooling system for scientific machines with recycled water in a closed circuit rather than waste city water
Building construction, renovation and maintenance
TThe Service for the Managment of the Campus ensures that opportunities to apply sustainable development to the construction and maintenance of buildings are seized during projects:
- Designing a building in line with SD at the time of construction by advocating optimal use of modular spaces
- Properly insulating the walls of relatively traditional buildings
The best example of the use of local short-circuit supplies in the field of construction at UNamur is a CaNDLE 2015 project devoted to the construction of 300 wooden doors from the Haugimont Estate forest, the cutting and carpentry work of which were also carried out nearby.
The purchasing policy currently applied to office furniture is to buy furniture with high repair rates even if the price is more expensive.
Technical clauses already exist concerning the nature of the materials to be used (wood and metal) in public contracts for the purchase of office furniture.
Purchase of consumables for labs, services and administrations
The General Commissay (Economat) is committed to offer a range of products that are more environmentally friendly and sustainable. Ecological alternatives are offered mainly for three groups of consumables:
- Office supplies: while most items have a good ecological score (recycled plastic, manufacturing method, natural materials, ...) there are also 100% ecological items. It's up to you to make your choice.
- Catering: no more single-use items sold at the commissary are made of plastic. Only sugarcane fibre cups and plates can be found there.
- Responsible paper use: Several initiatives have been taken to promote more responsible paper use. These are voluntary initiatives by individuals, departments, institutes or entire services across the university.
- Reduction of paper consumption: default double-sided setting of printers, gradual elimination of individual printers, printing of 2 pages per sheet, sending documents by email rather than by internal mail, use of scrap paper;
- Use of FSC certified paper
- Recycling through selective sorting
- The University Press (PUN) works with printers who use FSC paper.
- Cleaning products: Ecovert cleaning products and reusable cups are also available.
Second-hand materials are displayed on a shelf at the entrance of the commissary for reuse by anyone who passes by and wants to buy them.
Finally, hand towels, dish towels, dishcloths, work clothes and bed sheets are available, brought by the cleaning company.
The General Commissay also collects recyclable products.
Heart of the forest - UbiCast project
For the past two years, UbiCast, the supplier of the in-auditorium recording solution used at the University of Namur has replaced its end-of-year 'goodies' with participation in reforestation projects. This year, the University of Namur is sponsoring 22 trees located on a project plot in Bolivia. Find out more about the project (in French) here…
The UNamur investment policy
Given the social and environmental issues that each actor has to face, the University of Namur adopts a policy of ethical and sustainable management of its portfolio of movable investments. Read more here...
