HOW IT ALL STARTED AND WHAT WE HAVE ACHEIVED SO FAR
It was a mistake to appoint Kathryn Carruthers as PCS Green rep and then to allow her to attend the Climate Solidarity Course. Ever since all we have heard from her is green this, green that, save the planet. (Save water bath with a friend, you know the sort of thing.) She pestered everyone until she got her own ‘green’ way. She coerced and cajoled Andy Mitchell into producing a green newsletter for the centre and persuaded management that a green committee was needed so that she could pester the whole centre with her ‘green message’. Anyway everyone thought this was a phase she was going through (maybe that age, you know), so Andy agreed to try and produce a newsletter and The Puddock was born and Puddock didn’t waste any time hopping about the centre getting stuck into things, looking for areas to spread the green word. Management also agreed to a green committee and appointed an ops manager to take the lead on green issues for them.
The first Puddock was produce in May 2010 and seems to have been an immediate hit with its core message of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. So much so that it has been a regular publication ever since taking the green message to the masses. It highlights where everyone can do a little bit to help reduce waste, save energy and even has a gardening section. At first it was mainly Kathryn and Andy working together to come up with articles and ideas for the newsletter. The first two projects they started were the stationery amnesty and card out monitor off (como). They set up amnesty points within the office for people to return surplus stationery. The items returned in just 2 months would have cost £869.06 to buy as new again. Which is pretty good considering this is just stationery that was in people’s drawers and on their desks not being used.
The second project Puddock got involved in was card out monitor off (como). They publicised this through Puddock and the centre daily e news bulletin and then designed small flyers to be put up by the flexi machines to remind people before they leave. This has been a success as late night duty managers are reporting less monitors left on at night.
Through the Puddock they asked for volunteers to become green champions and eventually the green group was put into place. The first meeting of the Green Group took place in February 2011 and meets once a month. The "Green Committe" consists of colleagues from the shop floor and management, and is good example of both union, non union members and management all working together with the same message. To date through the "Green Committee" we have set up a Gardening Club within the centre, have started raising money for various local charities and organisations through recycle clothes using the "Rag Bag" organisation. We have also organised and run the first every "Green Day" in the centre, as well as continuing to produce the centre's "Green Newsletter" the Puddock. Not a bad acheivement for the first few months of the "Green Comittee".
PUDDOCK GARDENING CLUB The Gardening Club has now started. It was publicised through the Puddock and at present has 22 members from the centre and a couple of other members in other DWP departments. The club has been registered with a scheme run by Marshall Seeds and will receive at least a 20% discount on all vegetable seed orders. The club has been set up to encourage members to grow vegetables and will help provide the know how.
GREEN DAY The centre held its first Green Day on the 20 May 2011. We two stalls on the main floor promoting both engergy savings and recycling. The energy saving stall was staffed by Energy Saving Scotland and the recylcing stall was staffed by the local council. These were well attended on the day and everyone who visited the stalls (which seemed to be most of the staff in the centre), agreed that they were very informative and has given them a better insight into how to better save energy and recyling. We also held a "Free Cycle" event, which once again was a great success. We invited everyone to bring in unwated items to place on the table in the conference room and invited anyone who wanted any of the items to take them away. The Gardening Club also provided lots of plants for people to take away with them. Most of the plants were vegetable and herb plants and they all disappeared within the first hour of the event starting. Most of the items left on the table through the day were taken, (proving that anything you do not need anymore and would maybe othewise have thrown away could be just what somone else needs). Anything that was left on the day was donated to Tayside Recyclers, which is a charity that supplies those less fortunate with furniture and white goods. PUDDOCK SWAP SHOP The original suggestion for the Swap Shop was to have a day when people can bring in excess vegetables etc and swap them in the centre, but this has been expanded upon. Through discussions at the green group meetings it has been decided the we will set up a Swap Shop so that colleagues can swap any unwanted items for something they want. (Along the lines of the department’s stationery swap shop but for anything). This was launched at the centres greed day in May through the "Free Cycle" event.
RAG BAG One of our colleagues approached a member of the green group because their son was in an under 13’s football team that is trying to raise funds and found an organisation called Rag Bag. This organisation supplies everything needed to collect and recycle clothes, shoes, handbags, bedding, soft toys, curtains etc. and then pays the local community group directly. This has been agreed in principal with the centre management and work is now under way to start a scheme that will benefit many of the local community groups represented in the centre.
SO WHY THIS WEBSITE? The Puddock news letter has been circulated quite widley through the ULR network and throught out the PCS and we have received a lot of positive comments and also suggestions like making this a national publication. Because of time restraints and the lack of facilities to make this a larger publication the Dundee ULR's decided that the best way to get the REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE, message out to everyone would be to start a website.
The Web Master is Andy Mitchell and if you have any comments, suggestions or anything you would like to see on this website then please sent and email to [email protected]