Environmental Hero 2017: Q&A with Katie Langford
Katie is the IT Communication Business Support
Officer in IT Services. She moved to Leeds in 2014 with her partner so he could
attend Leeds Beckett as a Game Design student. She joined the University around
the same time and enjoyed the culture and community so much she pursued a
Master’s in Media which she was awarded this year. Katie loves all forms of
media, playing video games, reading books and going to the movies. She is
originally from Cape Cod, Massachusetts but has fallen in love with Yorkshire and
Leeds and feels like a real Northerner.
It is really wonderful to be recognised
by the University as having made a significant impact to our Green Impact
efforts. I enjoyed working on creating visuals and a video that highlights the
importance of sustainability. It is such an important issue but I realised that
sometimes the message can get lost in the massive amounts of information that
staff get every day. That is why I felt creating visuals that stood out would
help capture people’s attention and get them to think about their own impact on
sustainability.
2. How
did you manage to communicate about Green Impact to your colleagues?
In IT Services, we tackled the issue of
communication in a number of ways. First, we started to post signs around the
Grange and at City encouraging people to switch off equipment and lights before
they leave to conserve power. We also posted small signs near sinks and
bathrooms that instructed people to report leaks to conserve water. I made a
short little video about recycling that talked about how IT Services recycled
old equipment so it doesn’t end up in landfill. This helped promote what we do
every day to help Green Impact that people don’t even know about. I also made
sure the visuals were bright and fun to catch peoples attention.
3. IT
Services are to date the largest team in terms of members, what has motivated
your team that much?
We are people who love technology and thinking about the future,
with many people who work in IT constantly looking ahead. A big part of looking
ahead is thinking about sustainability and knowing that what we do now will
have a huge impact on the world of tomorrow. That is why I think IT services
was so supportive of Green Impact, it is a way of future proofing our world.
4. Beyond
Green Impact, what kind of projects has IT got in mind to promote
sustainability? New eco-friendly computer equipment? Or maybe some sort of
campaign targeting student?
We are launching a IT Community newsletter very soon and there
will be a portion of that dedicated to promoting Green Impact each issue. The
first issue calls out the number of PCs we have donated to charity as well as a
reminder to report leaks. We are also working on promoting our printing
services such as scanning documents rather than copying them to save paper.
5. On
a personal level, how has Green Impact and the Environmental Hero title had an
impact on your daily life?
Personally, I am more conscious of how
I am impacting the environment with my actions. I now make sure to separate
packaging to make sure that everything can be correctly recycled. I also have
started taking shorter showers and have changed all of the Halogen lights in my
home to LEDs (Certainly saves on the energy bill!)
6. How
would you describe being involved in Green Impact in one word?
Responsibility!
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