Building an environmentally sustainable campus – together

Building an environmentally sustainable campus with students and staff who are eco-conscious is high on the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) list of priorities.

No, it’s not a quick fix and requires a complete mind shift to make it happen. What this means is that students, staff and visitors need to start thinking and doing things very differently – commit to saving water and normalise recycling, properly. So, don’t forget to rinse your cartons and dispose of them in the right bins.

Getting the community to reflect and understand what it takes to build a sustainable campus is a hefty task and research groups are doing their bit – developing unique projects and positioning them in public spaces for all to see and to encourage some out-of-the-box thinking.

So, if you were anywhere near the Sarah Baartman plaza last week, you would’ve seen two important projects: “Flush and go or flush and grow, which one are you?” conceptualised and led by students and staff in the Future Water Institute; and the Sustainable Campus Guided Walking Tour, initiated by the African Climate and Development Initiative (ACDI). Both projects were designed to encourage reflection and ultimately get participants to adopt more sustainable behavioural practices long-term. The initiatives form part of the Khusela Ikamva (Secure the Future) project – a R10 million five-year long campus project, created to support the environmental sustainability ambitions of UCT’s Vision 2030. The initiative includes leading research, feasibility studies, and proof-of-concept living labs on campus.

Flush and go or flush and grow?

With this unconventional display, students placed a toilet in the middle of the plaza to get their peers and staff to think about “waste”, specifically in relation to using the toilet. According to Rise Tanino, a research assistant in UCT’s Future Water Institute, the display aimed to encourage a different level of thinking regarding each individual’s daily water practices. The display also formed part of the broader urine-to-fertiliser work currently led by UCT’s Professor Dyllon Randall. This project focuses on developing innovative methods to collect, treat and transform human urine into valuable products.

“We hope the installation raised awareness and perhaps changed how students view and use water.”

“We hope the installation raised awareness and perhaps changed how students view and use water. This project combined awareness-raising, communication and marketing of campus sustainability efforts, education, and student engagement,” Tanino said.  

She added that the initiative also aimed to drive home the importance of developing sustainable water practices – a priority for the university. It sought to gather students’ experiences around water use and their views on UCT’s water-related initiatives. Part of the display included a poster with a QR code that linked directly to the Khusela Ikamva website. Participants were encouraged to scan the code, answer a few questions and leave their contact details if they wanted to continue the conversation. The idea, Tanino said, is to use students’ ideas and experiences to inform similar future projects.

“The installation sparked strong reactions, as the concept of recycling human waste and reintroducing it into the system was unfamiliar to many. However, this was precisely the point of the installation: to provoke thought and initiate conversations around sustainable water use. In particular, the urine-recycling process became a key talking point, as students learned how nutrients from urine could be recovered and reused in a safe, sustainable way,” Tanino said. “The idea was to raise awareness and perhaps even change how students view and use water. We hope this installation prompted them to be more mindful of their overall water use, including flushing the toilet, showering and watering plants.”

Touring campus

The Sustainable Campus Guided Walking Tour, led by the ACDI’s Dr Marieke Norton, offered participants a glimpse into sites on campus where UCT is making good progress in the campus-wide sustainability project and the areas that still need work. The tour started on the Sarah Baartman Plaza – the heart of UCT – and made its way to various sites, including the Cissie Gool plaza, the waste enclosure and dam, as well as the tennis courts. The annual tour changes every year and attracts both undergraduate and postgraduate students, members of the executive, as well as international visiting research groups.

“We try and think of our sustainability goals and targets as nexuses and as flows, rather than people or things or events. One of the reasons we do this tour is because unless you actually walk through the space and consciously look at stuff, it’s very easy to miss the things that are going wrong and the things that we are proud of,” Dr Norton said.

When the tour reached its first stop, the Cissie Gool plaza, the site sparked interactive discussions on the importance of following proper recycling practices, which include rinsing all recyclable containers before disposing of them in the correct bins. For those who fail to rinse their cups and cartons, as an intervention, some suggested installing a water fountain next to the bins as a reminder. At the dam, Norton told students that the structure has been an excellent source of water during Cape Town’s fire season. As a bonus for the university, UCT also uses the water to irrigate the sports fields.

“If we are going to be an agent for change in society, that lens has to be turned on us and we have to be reflective of our own practises too.”

“We are trying to develop this tour as a tool of learning on campus to think about [several of] the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in an intersectional way, but also to turn the research lens onto us. If we are going to be an agent for change in society, that lens has to be turned on us and we have to be reflective of our own practises too,” Norton said.