South Lanarkshire College is proud to be a sustainable college campus. On Friday 9 December 2022 the College held a sustainable launch to promote its brand-new E-Cargo trike and briquette maker.
The launch which was held in the College Horticulture classroom, was attended by an array of guests including, Collette Stevenson MSP for East Kilbride, Phil Jones from XYZ CARGO Bikes and Cycling Scotland, and Bronah Byrne from Air Quality Action Planning at South Lanarkshire Council.
The aim of the event was to share South Lanarkshire College’s sustainable practices with external partners and stakeholders. Throughout the morning, presentations were delivered to explain the environmental benefits of having the trike and briquette maker on campus.
Phil Jones from XYZ CARGO Bikes said “The South Lanarkshire College trike which we have renamed ‘The Green Machine’ is the first custom-built e-cargo trike to be built in the UK. It has been made using fully recyclable materials, runs using electric assist.
Phil continued “ The trike is the ideal way for staff and students to travel across campus when transporting items to and from each of the College buildings. The trike is great for delivering large items that are too awkward in size or heavy in bulk to be carried on foot. The E-Cargo trike really is as green as it gets, hence the name ‘The Green Machine’!”
South Lanarkshire College Head of Alternative Funding, Anne Doherty added “the trike will be used for lots of different reasons across the campus, one of which will be to transport plants from the Horticulture classroom to the College garden”
Anne added “Thanks to the support of the Environmental Health team at South Lanarkshire Council and their financial support through the Air Quality Action Plan Fund, we were lucky enough to receive funding for the trike. The trike which was built under licence in Scotland, by Scottish manufacturer – XYZ Cargo Bikes will be used daily to move college materials from building to building”.
To coincide with the trike, South Lanarkshire College also launched its new briquette maker South Lanarkshire College construction curriculum manager, Alisdair McTavish explains “the briquette maker is a new wooden offcut recycling machine, which will be used to recycle wooden offcuts into small briquettes. Once cut, the briquettes will be used as a source to fuel and kindle domestic and commercial log burners and stoves. The briquettes will then be sold off to contribute to the maintenance of the machine and to help local charities. We will also use the briquette maker as a teaching tool and to help promote the College’s sustainable practices".