The building and facilities
ESCI-UPF

ESCI takes day-to-day environmental actions in the following areas:

• Green purchasing. We prioritise environmentally friendly products and services. Our purchasing managers receive green purchasing training and follow general guidelines for different kinds of products.
• Energy. The school has 100% renewable energy. Electricity consumption has been reduced in the lighting of spaces, air conditioning, operation of equipment and the use of lifts by means of a magnetic pin for access.. 

• Waste. ESCI offices have been separating paper, cardboard and printer toner from general waste for some years. We recently set up selective waste collection points for paper, cardboard and packaging (metal, plastic and drink cartons) throughout the school.
• Water. The whole school is fitted with low-consumption water cisterns and taps with energy-saving aerators.

You are one of the key tools for greening our school: every little bit you do to change your daily habits helps improve our overall performance.

Remember the six Rs:

• Rethink your way of life: what are your basic needs and what can you do without?
• Reduce excessive consumption.
• Reuse products and materials to extend their useful life.
• Recycle and reincorporate materials into the production cycle when they come to the end of their useful life.
• Restructure the economic system to meet everyone’s needs by including social and environmental costs in the final price of consumer goods.
• Redistribute so that we all have an equal share of resources.

Take the following common-sense steps:

• If you notice that offices or classrooms are too hot in winter or too cold in summer, tell reception: we can turn the temperature up or down instead of wasting electricity.
• Turn off all lights in empty classrooms and offices.
• Make the most of natural light.
• Turn all computing equipment fully off, including monitors, printers and all other electric devices. Appliances on standby continue to use electricity.
• Think twice before printing a document; if you do have to, use recycled paper and print on draft quality on both sides.
• Reuse paper that has already been used on one side to take notes, print out drafts, etc.
• Use recycled/green paper. Look for green labels, such as the Catalan “Distintiu de garantia de qualitat ambiental”, the German "Der blaue Engel" and the "Nordic Environmental Label".
• Design your documents so that you use as few pages as possible: narrow margins (< 2.5 cm), single or 1.5 line spacing and 10- or 11-point font size.

And:

• Cut water consumption: don’t use school toilets as waste bins and tell reception if you come across any dripping taps.
• Separate waste: remember that the blue container is for paper and cardboard and the yellow one is for packaging (metal, plastic and drink cartons). If you put waste in the wrong container, you may make the rest of it unrecyclable.
• Use public transport whenever possible. The school is close to bus stops and metro, train and bicing stations connections—use them!