News – FX Plus

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AMATA Photovoltaic Extension Set to Save 20 Tonnes of Carbon Annually

August 28, 2024

A Photovoltaic (PV) extension on the AMATA roof at Penryn campus, which is expected to reduce carbon emissions by 20.3 tonnes per year, was successfully installed last month (July 2024). It is now fully operational and connected to the high-tech campus PV system. The new PV panels are estimated to contribute over £30,000 of financial savings each year.

This installation adds to the total PV output capacity by approximately 13%, bringing us to almost 1,000 kWp across Penryn campus. This latest addition of PV panels, along with those previously installed on the Daphne Du Maurier building (October 2023) and the roofs of Peter Lanyon and the Sports Centre (July 2023), forms a key part of our carbon reduction programme.

Fergus Chan, Carbon and Energy Manager at FX Plus, said: “we are really pleased to have completed this project, which forms part of our carbon reduction programme to reduce Penryn campus’ demand on energy drawn from the grid by increasing our own ability to generate renewable energy here on campus.”

The PV system at Penryn campus, now spanning across four buildings, will reduce carbon emissions by an estimated 169 tonnes each year. In addition to reducing the universities joint impact on the environment; the financial savings are great, too. In total, the investment is predicted to generate a £145,000 annual cost saving. These calculations are based on 18p/kWh but savings could be greater than this whilst the current unit rate continues to rise. 

To date (August 2024), we have recorded a 60% reduction in our relative energy emissions (electricity & gas) against our 2005/2006 baseline on Penryn Campus (based on per meter squared). The campus PV system is one of the main projects contributing towards this success, as well as other sustainably driven modifications such as LED and electrical upgrades, analytics, and sub-metering upgrades. 

Together, the Universities and FX Plus Estates and Sustainability teams, are tirelessly looking into new technology and finding new ways to introduce green energy initiatives, improve energy efficiency and reduce our campuses reliance on fossil fuels. For more information about this, contact sustainability@fxplus.ac.uk.

Image of the new PV panels on the roof of the AMATA building, looking out across the treetops towards Penryn.

The PV panels pictured on the roof of the AMATA building, surrounded by trees with the Exchange campus building in the background.

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Penryn Campus Celebrates Green Flag Award for Seventh Consecutive Year

July 30, 2024

Falmouth Exeter Plus are pleased to announce that Penryn campus has been honoured with the coveted Green Flag Award for the seventh year in a row.

“I was thrilled to hear that we have once again received the prestigious Green Flag Award, marking our seventh consecutive year of recognition. This accomplishment highlights the exceptional dedication and care shown by the Falmouth Exeter Plus Grounds and Gardens and Facilities Management teams in maintaining our beautiful green spaces,” said Stuart Gaslonde, Executive Director and Director of Infrastructure at Falmouth Exeter Plus.

The Green Flag Award, administered by Keep Britain Tidy under licence from the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, is a benchmark of excellence for well-managed green spaces across the United Kingdom and around the world.

“This award is a testament to the hard work and passion of our staff, as well as the invaluable contributions of our volunteers who actively participate in various conservation and sustainability initiatives on campus. Their efforts ensure that our campus remains a vibrant and welcoming environment for all. Thank you to everyone involved in achieving this milestone. Your commitment to excellence is truly appreciated,” adds Stuart.

Each year, the Falmouth Exeter Plus teams implement all sorts of green initiatives that have contributed to this years’ award. One of which is the Wildflower Planting Project at Penryn campus, which recently celebrated over 1,200 wildflower plugs being planted throughout January through to June 2024. The project was first initiated the previous year, by Abishek Dixit and Alastair Garnett, Gardeners at Falmouth Exeter Plus, and is supporting biodiversity on campus and helping wildlife thrive.

“This summer, we’ve seen Goldfinches, Meadow Brown Butterflies and Buff-tail Bumblebees feasting in the wildflower meadows that we planted last year!

“Our new (2024) plantings of Ox-eye daisies, mallows, self-heals, yellow rattle, and many more native wildflower species will further support bees, butterflies, and birds on campus grounds,” explains Alasdair.

Penryn campus is set in 100 acres of countryside, with the grounds and gardens boasting a unique collection of herbaceous beds, subtropical planting and a fruit producing orchard. The site also features outside spaces with historic relevance, such as the Tremough Grotto and Star Pond which was built in 1944 by US forces based here prior to the D-Day landings, an 18th Century lime avenue, and a drive with Pinetum native woodlands and historically rare rhododendrons which were cultivated on the site in the Victorian era.

Keep Britain Tidy’s Green Flag Award Scheme Manager, Paul Todd MBE, said: “I would like to congratulate everyone involved at Penryn campus on achieving a Green Flag Award.

“Penryn campus is a vital green space for the local community to socialise, enjoy nature, for children to play safely and it provides important opportunities for users to improve their physical and mental health.

“We know that staff and volunteers work tirelessly to ensure that it maintains the high standards of the Green Flag Award, everyone involved should feel extremely proud of their achievement.

“It is important that our free to use spaces are maintained to the Green Flag Award standard, making them accessible for all members of the community while ensuring the environment is protected.”

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Wildflower Planting Project at Penryn Campus 2024

June 13, 2024

At the start of the year (January 2024), the FX Plus Grounds and Gardens team set themselves the target of planting 1,200 wildflowers over the course of the year.

“It was bit of an arbitrary number that meant beating how many we got into the ground the year before,” explains Alasdair Garnett, Gardener at FX Plus.

Through a combination of the conservation volunteering sessions and the continued planting in spare bits of time, we are proud to announce that this week, on 11 June 2024, the team achieved their target.

The honour of planting wildflower number 1,200 was undertaken by Abhishek Dixit, who first initiated the project and conservation volunteering sessions with Alasdair and has just started back with us as part of the Grounds and Gardens team.

All this planting is supporting our biodiversity efforts and helping wildlife thrive on campus.

“This summer, we’ve seen Goldfinches, Meadow Brown Butterflies and Buff-tail Bumblebees feasting in the wildflower meadows that we planted last year!

“Our new plantings of Ox-eye daisies, mallows, self-heals, yellow rattle, and many more native wildflower species will further support bees, butterflies, and birds on campus grounds. 

“We’ll keep planting, and if the weather and time permits then we could end up doubling that number by the end of this year (2024) – you’ll have to wait and see,” says Alasdair.

Below, you can see a photo of wildflower number 1,200 going into the ground and marking this wonderful milestone, as well as some of the other wildflower planting on campus.

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Sustainability Café Menu Refresh

June 12, 2024

Introducing our latest offering: the refreshed menu at the Sustainability Café!

The Food and Drink team are excited about their new array of plant-based delights, featuring low-cost options and exciting vegan additions. Proudly certified by the Vegetarian Society, the Sustainability Café is exclusively vegan and vegetarian. Our catering team has crafted this menu to cater to the increasing appetite for plant-based cuisine, ensuring there’s something for every budget.

The new menu features vegan breakfast Belgium waffles with tantalising Biscoff sauce and Biscoff crumble or opt for Belgium waffles loaded with plant-based yoghurt and berry compote. For just £2.50, savour our scrumptious vegan yogurt pots with granola and berries.

For lunch you can choose from a range of flavoursome vegan multi-seed bagels served with salted crisps and a side salad (£5.50).

For something warming, try the new plant-based homemade soup of the day at the affordable price of £2.50, or enjoy our vegetarian offering of mature cheese on toast with a choice of chutneys and dressings, also at £2.50.

Indulge your sweet tooth with our freshly baked vegan pastries and a selection of locally made cakes, including vegan and gluten-free options. Pair your treat with a pot of ethically and sustainably sourced Nuditea ‘tea of the week’ for just £1.50.

In the café, sip on Cornish coffee, roasted in Redruth, with dairy free milk alternatives including oat, almond, soya, and coconut milk. Don’t forget to bring along your reusable cup, or ask us about our circular returnable cup scheme.

View our new menu here.

Remember to share your feedback through our ‘Rate Us and Win’ kiosk. Plus, every month during term time, you have the chance to win a £50 voucher in our prize draw!

Stay in the loop with menu updates and events by following the @foodandddrinkoncampus team on Instagram.

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Sustainability Café Achieves Vegetarian Society Accreditation

April 17, 2024

We are thrilled to share that the Sustainability Café on Penryn campus has achieved accreditation from the Vegetarian Society for producing a fully vegetarian and vegan menu offering.

This accreditation marks a significant milestone in our commitment to offering sustainable and ethical dining options to you, our valued customers.

With this accreditation, you can trust that our vegetarian and vegan offering meet the stringent standards set forth by the Vegetarian Society, ensuring the integrity and quality of our products.

This accreditation reaffirms our dedication to promoting environmentally conscious practices and supporting the global shift towards plant-based lifestyles. By choosing our accredited vegetarian and vegan food, you can not only enjoy flavourful meals but also contribute to a more sustainable future for our planet.

We extend our thanks to the Vegetarian Society for their recognition and support, and we look forward to continuing to innovate and expand our range of vegetarian and vegan options. Join us in celebrating this achievement as we strive to make a positive impact, one delicious meal at a time.

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Belmont Garden Group at Falmouth Campus

April 12, 2024

A new gardening group launched this spring (21 March) at Belmont Garden, Falmouth campus. Students, Staff and community are invited to plant, potter and pick fresh produce every Thursday between 10:00am to 14:00pm – it’s free – simply turn up!

Belmont Garden is a hidden haven situated behind the Life Drawing Studio in a quaint corner of Falmouth Campus. Under the shade of a Eucalyptus tree, the allotment and greenhouse boast leafy vegetables, herbs like mint and rosemary, potatoes, rhubarb, strawberries, and much more.

The sessions are organised by volunteer Chaplain John from the Multifaith Chaplaincy, in collaboration with the campus Grounds and Gardens team. The Belmont Garden Group is open for all to join and welcomes novices and seasoned gardeners alike, to learn and grow together.

Students, staff, and the public are encouraged to get involved in our community garden. Here you can enjoy planting some veg, watering seedlings in the greenhouse, feeding the robins and blue tits, and take satisfaction in harvesting some fresh produce for your larder. For more information, email chaplaincy@fxplus.ac.uk.

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Falmouth University & the University of Exeter Student & Staff 2024 Commuting Travel Survey

April 9, 2024

On behalf of Falmouth University and the University of Exeter (Cornwall), FX Plus is delivering a campus wide commuting travel survey to gather insights into how students and staff are travelling to and from our Cornwall campuses. 

We encourage all staff and students at Falmouth University, the University of Exeter (Cornwall), FX Plus and the Student Union, to complete this survey. Your responses will provide us with valuable information for campus planning, services, and infrastructure improvement, and will also help improve our carbon profiling as part of the university’s net-zero strategies. 

The aim of the survey is to better understand the commuting travel behaviours across our Cornwall campuses. It is applicable to all students and staff based in Cornwall, who are commuting and travelling to our Cornwall campus. This includes Falmouth University, the University of Exeter (Cornwall), FX Plus and the Student Union.

If you are a University of Exeter Cornwall based employee or student, please fill in this survey, and do not fill in the University of Exeter Devon based staff survey.

Everyone who completes the survey, and enters their email address at the end, will be in with the chance of winning a £100 Amazon Voucher. Please provide your email at the end of the survey to be entered into the prize draw. We have three £100 Amazon vouchers to give away! 

Data Protection Act: This information will be recorded and processed by the Falmouth Exeter Plus to:

Help understand the journeys being undertaken by students and staff travelling to and from our campuses, including distances travelled.
To support the planning and development of initiatives and projects to support sustainable travel to our campuses
Your data will not be shared or used for any other purposes.

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‘Bin it to be in it’, with a chance to win £1000 with our special LitterLotto bins

April 9, 2024

Have you seen our new ‘LitterLotto’ stickers which are appearing on campus recycling and food waste bins near you? Our Facilities team and Sustainability team have partnered with LitterLotto to give you a chance of winning £1000 every time you dispose of your recycling or food waste correctly.

To be entered into the weekly prize draw, all you need to do is scan the QR code on the recycling or food waste bin and a pop-up will appear on your phone (no app download needed), select what you are binning and take a picture of the waste to enter. So long as you are putting the right waste into the correct bin, the entry will be validated within the portal, and you will be entered into the weekly jackpot draw to win £1000.

The aim of the initiative is to reduce waste by educating and rewarding positive recycling behaviour. When scanning the LitterLotto QR code, if what you are wanting to throw away doesn’t appear in the options, it reminds you that the entry will not be valid and that it could contaminate the bin.

Dylan Jones, Recycling and Waste Officer said, “we are proud to be the first university campus to roll out LitterLotto. We know people want to do the right thing and hope the LitterLotto initiative will incentivise positive recycling behaviours and help to raise awareness of what cannot be placed in recycling and food waste bins (such as coffee cups!)”.

Initially, the scheme will run for a duration of 12 months. For more information about the LitterLotto, please contact Dylan on recycling@fxplus.ac.uk.

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Archivist Appointed to Catalogue Collections Relating to Political Movements in Cornwall

March 4, 2024

The Archives on Penryn Campus, shared by the University of Exeter (Cornwall) and Falmouth University, have appointed a new project Archivist and work has begun to catalogue four key Collections relating to Political movements in Cornwall in the mid twentieth century, from our Institute of Cornish Studies Archives: the papers of Mary Mann, Len Truran, Royston Green and Dr Adrian Lee.

Cataloguing Archivist, Lizzie Pridmore, has joined FX Plus Archives and Special Collections in Penryn and has launched the one-year project to catalogue the four Cornish collections, with the view to make them more accessible for all. This has been made possible thanks to the £35,000 grant funding awarded by Archives Revealed Cataloguing Grants Scheme, supported by The National Archives, The Pilgrim Trust and The Wolfson Foundation.

Lizzie said: “I am looking forward to getting to know these collections better and as an archivist, bringing order to the collections through cataloguing and then making them available for reading and research is very satisfying! I’m interested in Cornish culture and identities so it’s a real privilege to work with these particular collections and I’m excited about the potential they have for exploring the political ideas that have helped to shape Cornwall as it is today.”

These collections share a common theme in the examination and documentation of the birth and growth of the Cornish Nationalist movement; however, the subject coverage is wide spanning – everything from proposed postage stamps to political posters are covered – including papers of industry, tourism, transport, employment, migration, devolution, language and more.

Having just skimmed the surface of the collection in the week since she joined us, Lizzie treated us to a glimpse of a few items from the collections that have already caught her eye. Below, you can see some of the treasures pictured and we cannot wait to see more in the coming year. Once completed, the collections will be made available for students, staff and the public to view by appointment at the Archives on Penryn campus.

Lizzie Pridmore, Cataloguing Archivist at FX Plus, with one of her favourite finds from the Royston Green collection, an introduction to the Cornish language, Kernewek, looking at the meaning of different place names.

A log book detailing work on the Falmouth & Camborne Liberal Association’s 1966 electoral campaign, from the papers of Mary Mann

From left to right: Electoral campaign poster for Len Truran, Meybon Kernow. Rules and Aims for the political party Mebyon Kernow. Press cutting from the Cornish Guardian, 7 June 1979, describing the formation of a Cornish Assembly and including a photograph of five members.

Poster for a production of a medieval Cornish mystery play, ‘Gwyrans an Bys’, ‘The Creation of the World’, at Piran Round.

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Cornwall Campuses Achieve Gold Cycle Friendly Employer Award

January 15, 2024

Both Penryn and Falmouth campus have achieved Gold Cycle Friendly Employer awards, administered through the national Cycle Friendly Employer program and run by Cycling UK. The gold award is the highest standard available and demonstrates to students and staff the active travel and infrastructure on offer for cyclists.

Based on our climate emergency declarations in 2019 and a focus on supporting student and staff’s physical and mental wellbeing, active travel such as cycling and walking poses a lot of positive opportunities.

Oliver Milliner, Head of Sustainability at FX Plus, said: “the benefits are crystal clear when it comes to taking on active travel measures commuting to and from campuses. Active travel measures such as cycling not only supports personal health, but is a direct emission reduction initiative, reduces traffic congestion in the local community and also helps to save money”.

Oliver also highlights, “this award doesn’t deter from the fact there are still areas in which we can improve upon, in terms of service level, infrastructure and communications to encourage the uptake of active travel. Based on a survey we ran for staff and students in June 2023, 56% of staff and 11% of students are driving alone to and from campuses. This equates to approximately 54% of total commuting emissions each year. Only 4% of staff and 7% of students use cycling as their main mode of transport to and from campus.

“The main pieces of feedback from the survey are that people do not feel safe cycling on the roads and this is deterring them from getting out of vehicles”.

Oliver adds, “based on the survey figures, there needs to be a focus on phasing away from single car occupancy. We’re in the process of finalising our 2030 Sustainable Travel Plan to address key areas for improvement”. The new plan aligns with Cornwall Council’s 2030 Transport Plan which effectively focuses on modal shift as well.

The gold award achievement supports FX Plus and the universities of Falmouth and Exeter, by providing a roadmap to achieve continuous improvement. For any questions or queries on travel, please email sustainability@fxplus.ac.uk.

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