“We didn’t want to bury electrical cables around the wetland, so we went with solar,” said Mehir Lewis, Maintenance Coordinator, Property.

Mehir says the work involved has highlighted how rapidly solar technology is advancing. “Advancements in solar lighting technology created an opportunity to install an economical option which avoided the usual trenching for underground cables through the wetlands. These lights can now be installed and maintained by just one person, without the need for scaffolding or cherry-pickers which is the case for electrical street lighting.”

This makes cleaning, repairs and changing globes much more cost-effective. Adding further efficiency is the use of long-lasting LED globes and motion-activating sensors.

The initiative gets a tick on a health and wellbeing front too, offering students a safer walk home at night through the area with motion-sensor lighting guiding their way.

Are you an avid shopper at the Wednesday produce market? From today, you’ll find them in their temporary new home in a retail space next to the Mac Shop.

Run by the student group the Locavores, the market operates with the philosophy of eating a local diet – one that’s healthy, environmentally sound and in support of local farmers. And given Macquarie was once a market garden, the group aims to reconnect with our past, with food forests, cooking and gardening workshops, closed-loop composting systems, and chickens.

The new retail space is being trialled for one month with thanks to the generosity of Campus Life, and support from the Harvest Hub and Macquarie Sustainability. “It’s great to see students engaging with an important topic like eating seasonally and locally, so we’re happy to support the Locavores in this exciting project,” says Niels Pantenburg, General Manager of Campus Services.

Show your support by simply shopping local, participate in Sustainability’s latest campaign, Seasonal Greetings to help realise the group’s goal to becoming a permanent fixture in their new space.

Opening hours
Tuesday – Thursday: 10am – 3pm

Every Thursday from 9am, the market will transform into a student kitchen to offer free breakfast, cooking workshops, recipes, and cheap ready-made Locavore-approved meals.

More than 150,000 Australians are expected to demonstrate the power of the pedal as they hop on their bikes and enjoy the health benefits of riding to work. Information Technology Project Manager Andrew Elliston is encouraging all of us to give it a go.

“Riding to work is a great way for people to get active, de-stress and save money on petrol and parking,” says Andrew. “It’s also something you can easily fit around your busy work and family commitments.”

With more than two-thirds of Australians not getting enough exercise, this year Bicycle Network is aiming for 10,000 new riders to take part in Ride2Work Day – and to keep riding.

Chief External Relations Officer from Bicycle Network Chris Carpenter says Ride2Work Day plays an important role in inspiring Australians to jump on their bikes and get active.

“More than half of riders who start commuting to work on Ride2Work Day are still regularly riding twelve months later,” he says.

Ride2Uni Day
Featuring a free breakfast for all riders, ‘pimp-my-ride’ station, bicycle route and information stand, free bike health checks, slow bike race and a lucky prize draw.

When: Wednesday 14 October
Where: Central Courtyard
Time: From 8am

Register now.

Congratulations to Professor David Raftos and Adjunct Professor Dayong Jin on winning prestigious Eureka prizes for their pioneering research.

Professor Raftos was awarded the new Eureka Prize for Rural Innovation for his pioneering work on safeguarding and improving Australia’s iconic oyster industry. Adjunct Professor Jin was awarded the Eureka Prize for Excellence in Interdisciplinary Scientific Research.

Research by Professor David Raftos and researchers from the Department of Biological Sciences promises disease protection for entire populations of oyster. Disease can wipe out an oyster population in a single day, which can mean ruin for small oyster farmers and hurt for the surrounding rural communities.

“This prize is fantastic news because it rewards years of collaborative research with the NSW Department of Primary Industries and Australian oyster farmers,” says Professor Raftos. “It goes to show that you can do first class fundamental research that has direct benefits to real people.”

Working with oyster farmers along Australia’s east coast, Professor Raftos has already helped breed stronger, more disease-resistant oysters that promise a 10 to 20 per cent increase in yield for this $200 million industry.

“The work of Professor Raftos and his team allows us to understand and prevent diseases that can kill millions of oysters in a single outbreak,” Kim McKay AO, Executive Director and CEO of the Australian Museum said. “It’s great news for industry and oyster lovers alike!”

The next step may be to immunise entire crops of oysters against a particular virus. The team’s results show that immunising one oyster might also protect its descendants. Potentially, immunising just a few oysters could create a population of disease-resistant offspring.

If his selective-breeding approach works for Sydney rock oysters, Professor Raftos expects it will also work for other farmed marine creatures, from other oyster varieties to abalone and prawns.

Adjunct Professor Jin’s research on Super Dots focuses on the world’s smallest ‘flashlights’ which may be able to light up diseased cells in our bodies. The infected or cancerous cells may be hiding among millions of healthy cells. The Super Dots team led by Professor Jin from Macquarie and the University of Technology created tiny crystals that can be implanted in the body to reveal these infected or cancerous cells.

Professor Tanya Monro from the University of South Australia and University of Adelaide, and Professor Bradley Walsh from Minomic International and Macquarie are also members of the Super Dots team. The work is being progressed by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics.

The Super Dots team has developed fluorescing nanocrystals that ‘switch on’ at different times, shining an intense, short burst of light – just tens of millionths of a second – that can reveal any diseased cells.

“By combining physics, chemistry and biology, this research should ultimately allow us to watch the interaction between drugs and cancerous cells at a molecular level within the patient’s body,” Kim McKay AO, Executive Director and CEO of the Australian Museum said.

As well as real-time diagnosis of disease, the technology has potential for creating invisible, lifetime-coded inks that could add ‘uncrackable’ security to banknotes and passports.

Learn more about the Australian Museum Eureka Prizes.

‘The (re)Generation Project,’ a Macquarie University research project supported by the NSW Environmental Trust and partnered with OzGreen, recently launched a new program that puts power into the hands of young people to (re)generate an interest and love for nature through storytelling.

Young storytellers (15-25 years) are invited to share bold, inspiring stories about a human experience with nature through any creative medium such as film, art, creative writing or photography.

Ten story ideas will then be selected by ‘The (re)Generation Project’ to receive editorial and production training, including digital storytelling workshops and a mentor to help craft powerful and impacting digital stories to inspire a new generation to visit and value nature.

“Storytelling is a powerful way humans share values, expand knowledge and spread ways of acting. As a storyteller, you are providing the viewer with the material for them to form their own connection rather than telling them what to do,” says Dr Iqbal Barkat, member of the project and lecturer in Screen Production.

The best digital stories with be shared at a premier event on 26 October. An online campaign will also invite other young people to vote for their favourite story and to explain if/why it inspires them to visit and value nature.

“This is an opportunity for young people to build valuable skills and networks, show their work and win prizes. It’s also a creative and fun opportunity for them to participate in developing a positive change for our relationship with our planet. We hope to explore ways young people in NSW connect with each other, and use this to form new connections with them and their natural world,” says project leader Wendy Goldstein.

Know a young storyteller? Tell them to apply by Sunday 6 September here.

Household batteries, mobile phones, printer cartridges and globes can be disposed of in the station and will be collected for recycling. “Partnerships of this kind are crucial to the development of sustainable communities and are important demonstrations of social responsibility in action”, said Leanne Denby, Director of Sustainability. “Our new recycling station initiative with the City of Ryde complements other university waste initiatives such as the campus Furniture Re-Use Store”.

Visit the Sustainability website for more information about the initiative.

As early as 1974 the University adopted aims for the maintenance and development of landscaping on campus to support the founding vision of Macquarie as a ‘campus in a park’. This commitment has seen landscaping become an integral part of development on site.

“Into the future, the founding vision is to be reinforced through stewardship involving substantial planting, landscaped public spaces and bushland regeneration projects,” said John Macris, Biodiversity Planner, Property.

As part of the University’s building renewal initiative, the E7A project requires pruning of the lemon-scented gums on the east side of the Central Courtyard,  as well as the removal of one London plane tree to the south of E7A and the jacarandas to the west of E7A. This work will take place over the coming weeks.

“Our approach to trees on campus is always to avoid or minimise the impact works have on them,” said Mark Broomfield, Director of Property. “When trees must be removed, there are suitable replacement trees sought and planted elsewhere on campus at a ratio of two for one for non-natives and three for one for natives.”

Mark said the relocation of the jacarandas was investigated, however the viability of the trees surviving the transplant was limited.

“In order to preserve the lineage of the trees, seedlings are being gathered and will be transplanted to a new location once they are more established.”

Mark explains when trees are removed during construction at Macquarie, their timber is reused and/or recycled.

“The first way the timber is reused is through education programs where it is used for carving and furniture making,” he said. “The recent removal of trees during works on University Avenue saw the timber gifted to an educational project in wood carving.”

When timber is not suitable for carving, it is used for other landscaping needs on campus.

Visit the Property website for more information and to keep up to day with the E7A project.

Late last year staff were invited to take part in a Sustainability Culture Survey to provide a baseline for the University’s sustainability status quo. The results are now in.

“This is the first time Macquarie has undertaken a baseline survey to get a better understanding of staff attitudes toward sustainability, and what factors are both helping and hindering the University to achieve its sustainability outcomes,” said Director of Sustainability, Leanne Denby.

Leanne says overall the survey revealed staff feel the University has a clearly defined commitment to sustainability, and that commitment is well communicated.

“There is a strong sense of the importance of sustainability amongst staff and a high level of responsibility towards it. 73% of staff believe campus sustainability has improved in recent years which is a fantastic outcome for us,” she said.

However, while staff feel there is support from leadership and management for sustainability, Leanne says this is not always demonstrated in management adopting sustainable behaviours themselves.

“Staff also perceive a lack of support from immediate managers to adopt more sustainable behaviours and feel they lack a clear understanding on how they can actually make a difference at work,” she said.

The survey results have provided the Sustainability team with valuable insights and information to move forward.

“We now need to spend time with Executive and managers to see how we can support them in demonstrating ‘walking the talk’. This will be a priority for us, as will clarifying how staff can make a substantial difference at work. We’ve already started this process with the Vice-Chancellor who championed our Litterati campaign earlier this year. Programs like M-Power provide an easy and fun way for staff to undertake actions and make a difference, so we need to work out how we inspire everyone to get involved,” said Leanne.

On completion of the survey, staff were given the change to enter into a prize draw. Congratulations to Linda Maher from the Faculty of Human Sciences who won a $100 Coles Myer gift card.

Every year World Environment Day (5 June) reminds us to take positive environmental action. To show support, Macquarie will celebrate the month of June with events and activities focused on sustainable consumption and how to live within our means.

“Our urban lives mean we often don’t realise that everything we consume costs the earth, as we don’t see the direct impact on nature of producing our food and other consumer goods,” said Wendy Goldstein, Program Director for the Master of Sustainable Development.

Wendy says that during Earth Care Month, staff can try practical ways to be a responsible consumer.

“The weekly fresh produce markets on Wednesdays and Saturdays at Macquarie offer a practical and convenient way to access local and seasonal fresh food, while Permaculture Workshops provide the knowledge and skills to become more self-sufficient from your own balcony or garden,“ she said.

Visit the Sustainability website to learn more about Earth Care Month events, including how to win dinner for two at Billy Kwong in Potts Point.

 [Pictured above] More than 300 staff and students donned gloves and litter pickers to collect over two cubic meters of litter from across campus as part of the Clean and Green campaign. 352 litter items were snapped on Instagram with #litterati, helping Macquarie gain a better idea of where high-litter sites are on campus.

Macquarie’s annual Amazing Race was dominated by some great staff teams last Thursday. Now in its second year, this exciting campus-wide event saw registrations reach capacity with 200 participants, including many staff teams.

Team ‘Amazeballs’ (from Information Technology) were the fastest finishing team for the second year in a row! The award for Best Dressed Team was won by ‘Running With Scissors’ (from Campus Life) for their fabulous KISS costume efforts and the prize for Most Points went to another staff team ‘Victorious Secrets’ (from the Sport and Aquatic Centre).

Check out all the event photos online.

Earlier this month, the Careers Fair saw more than 50 organisations and almost 1000 students meet in the Atrium to discuss future careers.  Opened by Pro Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sherman Young and attended by blue chip organisations such as KPMG, Optiver, PWC, Telstra and  Bloomberg, the event demonstrated the clear interest students have in developing their future careers and enhancing their employability.