THE University of Salford is set to take part in a ‘Blackout’ event in aid of the universities ‘Go Green’ campaign.

The University will be running the ‘Go Green’ campaign event on Friday 10th of March as part of the National Union of Student’s Blackout campaign. As part of the event teams will audit all non – essential equipment that has been left on before the weekend and turn off selected equipment.

The teams will compare the energy usage during the blackout with the usage on a comparable weekend.

Neva Mowl, 28, who is helping to run the event said: “It is basically getting staff and students together to see how much energy we can save.”

She continued: “Non – essential equipment will be switched off over the weekend and then we can use the results of that to help with future energy saving campaigns.”

The event will begin by meeting at the Atmosphere Café in the University House. The staff that will be attending the event will have been given training before hand, and the volunteer students will receive their training on the day and be given a brief overview of what they will be doing on the day.

The group will then be split into smaller teams and will be allocated a specific area to audit, where they will use an auditing pack and auditing sheets to count the equipment in that area and count how much of it has been left on.

The blackout event is just one of a few events that have already taken place at the university.

Neva said: “We have had the swap shop, that was not that successful because I think it was hard to get the message out there for that, we would like to do it again.”

She continued: “I think we would maybe have to do collections over a certain period, and have the swapping event one day or maybe in the evening.”

The University has also hosted a bicycle maintenance session and another of those sessions will be taking place on Tuesday 28th February.

There will also be a litter pick on Wednesday 29th February which has been organised by Desos and is open to both staff and students.

In addition to these events there is also a lunchtime led walk organised by TFGM.

Neva commented: “The local walking guide will take us on a 30-minute circular walk and it is going to have a bit of a nature theme as well.”

The ‘Blackout’ event has been designed to not only benefit the university in a positive way but to also bring a number of staff and students from different departments together.

Neva said: “It has not happened for a couple of years but the feedback has been that it has been really fun and they have got to see a different side of the university and actually have a positive impact.”

She continued: “It brings lots of people together who kind of have the same mind set of the way it is important to be sustainable and save energy, even people who aren’t taking part, hopefully they will see the information and maybe think again about leaving their computer on all weekend.

One of the main goals for the event is to keep getting messages about sustainability out to as many people as possible.

You can sign up for the ‘Blackout’ event by logging in here, or email Neva Mowl at N.Mowl@salford.ac.uk. Volunteers must sign up to the event by Tuesday 28th February.

Or if you would like to see some of the work that the University of Salford environmental sustainability team have already done visit the website here.

Listen to why Neva thinks events like the ‘Blackout’ event are important for the University.

Here are some ways you can be sustainable and preserve energy:

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