Balliol’s Climate and Biodiversity Committee is sponsoring two initiatives for Oxford’s Green Action Week 2024: Beef-free February and another round of the Jowett Energy Competition. Green Action Week 2024 runs from 19 to 23 February, with a programme delivered by over 30 partners across the University.
Beef-free February
The idea of this campaign is to encourage people to try to avoid eating beef for one month. Explaining that the emissions from beef are far higher than any other meat or protein source, Derek Moulton, chair of Balliol’s Climate and Biodiversity Committee, wrote in an email to all current members: ‘This need not be an all-or-nothing campaign: for instance, if you regularly eat beef 5 times a week, try cutting down to 2 or 3 times. If you regularly eat beef once a week, try cutting down to every other week. … Behavioural change is not easy, but avoiding the worst impacts of climate change will require behavioural changes across society. We can all improve our habits, and we encourage you to encourage each other to consider these issues and your role.
As part of this initiative, Balliol’s Kitchen is going beef-free for two weeks in February, weeks 5 and 6.
Jowett Energy Competition, Round Two
This competition is between Towers 4 and 6 of Balliol’s student accommodation at Jowett Walk. These two towers are equipped with smart radiator valves that enable users to monitor and control room temperature from their phone. The valves also provide access to how much energy each room uses as a time series, and even gives a measure of carbon savings. The College hopes to expand the eco valves to more and more rooms across College.
- The Tower that uses the least heating energy between 11 February and 24 February will win a free pizza party for the whole tower.
- There will be a separate prize for the individual who uses the least energy during the competition
By running the competition the committee hopes to remind people to be conscientious about the energy they use and conserve as much energy as they can.
Results update
In a landslide victory, Tower 4 beat Tower 6, using less than half the amount of energy over the two week period:
- Tower 4: 504 kWh
- Tower 6: 1090 kWh
The individual competition resulted in a three-way draw: Callum Webb, Henry Masding, and Kiran Bahra, all from Tower 4.
Announcing the results, Derek Moulton said: ‘It is worth noting how much difference we can make with our choices. The difference between the rooms that used the most energy and the least energy was about 180 kWh. Extrapolating that figure: suppose the same difference is continued over a four-month period, when it is coldest. That comes out to about 180×8=1440 kWh, which equates to roughly 260 kg CO2 emitted, which is about the same as a round trip flight from New York to Boston.’
This article was updated on 28 February 2024 to include the results of the Jowett energy competition.