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.



1. First of all, how does it feel to be Green Impact Environmental Hero 2017?

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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