Bruce Green

Residents and staff at Bruce Hall have a long-standing commitment to reducing our impact on the environment. Ways we do this include:

Recycling

Every resident has their own recycling bin and we encourage everyone to recycle paper, plastics and metal where possible. At the end of each year, we collect clothing, books and other useful items that are no longer needed and either recycle them within the Bruce community or donate them to charity or to the Bruce Hall library. The Bruce Hall kitchen is one of the sites chosen to contribute to an ANU Green composting project in which all of our kitchen organic waste stream is converted to compost.

Saving Water

The Bruce Green group runs regular education campaigns, reminding residents of the importance of saving water, including such simple steps as reporting dripping taps and running toilets. Bruce Hall has been selected as one of the sites for a pilot project recycling grey water waste and waste water from showers is treated and used to flush toilets in North wing. The landscaping around the buildings includes plants which are drought tolerant and require little water to stay green.

Saving Energy

Bruce Green's education campaigns include encouraging residents to turn off appliances and lights when not in use and to use their curtains and windows to help control the temperature in their room during summer and winter. Only a few of the common areas of the Hall have airconditioning; most rooms (especially those with balconies) have high natural light levels and are well ventilated. The roof of the Packard wing has been fitted with a new type of solar heating system designed by one of the research groups at the ANU. Climate sensors on the roof of the building control ventillation louvers in the corridors of the building, allowing fresh air to circulate and cool the building instead of relying on airconditioning.

Transportation

Most Bruce Hall residents do not bring cars with them to Bruce Hall. Instead, there is a bus stop at the front of the Hall from which you can get to the city centre interchange and hence almost anywhere in Canberra. The city centre is also a short walk (about 15 minutes) from the Hall and we have a number of stations for bicycles, including a lockable bike shed. A network of bike paths link the ANU with just about every place in the city you would like to go, including a great circuit of the lake. The Hall also has a bus which is used by the Common Room Committee and Senior Residents to organise trips around town, to the coast and to nearby destinations. In particular, it is used for regular shopping trips for residents in the self-catered studio apartments in the Packard wing. On-campus parking permits are expensive, parking spaces are limited and we really encourage residents to take advantage of the Hall's convienient location and care for the environment by leaving their cars at home when they come to live at Bruce.

Education

We collaborated with ANU Green to develop a Sustainability Learning Community. Based at Bruce Hall, many of the learning community live off campus or at other Halls and Colleges. We work together to learn more about sustainable sustems as well as how to reduce our individual and communal impact on the environment. This year we have established a communal organic garden on campus, planted trees and toured sites such as an organic farm, a community garden and a retrofitted solar house.