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Investing in Success: turning a camera on campus sustainability

29 May 2013

A six-month placement with the Environmental Sustainability (ES) team has resulted in a series of 20 films on ‘green’ themes which are helping to communicate this important enabling strategy for the University’s Goal 3 to staff and students.

Peter Liddell, a Building Attendant in House Services since 2008, has recently finished his placement as part of the Investing in Success scheme.

While doing overtime in the George Begg and Pariser Buildings, Peter noticed that computers in the buildings’ clusters were left on 24/7. Around the same time, he heard about Investing in Success, a fund to help staff engage in projects to accelerate their personal development and benefit the University, and was inspired to contact the ES Team with a view to helping them raise awareness of green issues.

Peter was invited to join the team in June 2012 and one of his first tasks was to help with the organisation of the Annual Cycle Event (ACE). The team quickly discovered that Peter had studied both film theory and production, so he was given the task of filming the event.

The resulting film was so impressive that Peter was asked to make a further 19 films for the Team, including an interview with Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor. The films will be used in the upcoming ES induction and have also been made available on the ES website.

Lucy Millard, Environmental Sustainability Manager, said: “We enjoyed working with Peter and utilising his filmmaking skills, which have really added value to our training material and comms.”

View more of Peter’s films at:

At the end of his secondment, Peter returned to his job in the AV Hill Building, where he works in the morning.

However, that wasn’t the end of his film career. Operational Services in the Directorate of Estates and Facilities were keen to go on using his production skills and engaged Peter during the afternoon to record the University’s various recycling operations. This additional series of short videos will soon be available on the Estates web-pages.