The USMB Avant (vacation) calendar

We remind you of the rules this year:

  •  - Every morning, from Monday to Friday, 1 question with 3 possible answers. The question of the day remains open until 11:59pm.
  •  - The correct answer will be given the following morning, and a new question will be revealed.
  •  - The aim: to get as many answers right as possible and score as many points as possible! Take your time to answer 😉

How to get involved

Turn over the card of the day to discover the theme of the day. Click on "Question", a window opens with the question and all you have to do is choose your answer!

To participate, you must be studying at the USMB this year. Please enter your university e-mail address ! (prenom.nom@etu.univ-smb.fr)

See the full regulations.

#1

December 1st

Sustainable campus and micro-forest
(1 point)

Answer #1

#2

December 2

International mobility (1 point)

Answer #2

#3

December 5

Climate change (1 point)

Answer #3

#4

December 6

Eco-responsible food (2 points)

Answer #4

#5

December 7

Eco-gestures on campus (1 point)

Answer #5

#6

December 8

Digital pollution (2 points)

Answer #6

#7

December 9th

Campus biodiversity (2 points)

Answer #7

#8

December 12

Mobility to campus (1 point)

Answer #8

#9

December 13

Green chemistry (1 point)

Answer #9

#10

December 14

Circular economy and recycling (1 point)

Answer #10

#11

December 15

Eco-gestures on campus (3 points)

Answer #11

#12

December 16

Thank you all for participating in this Pre-Holiday Calendar!

We hope you've enjoyed this little contest, that you've learned lots about eco-gestures and the various ways of preserving the planet from your campuses, and above all that you've had a wonderful holiday season. Winners to be announced the week of the new school year in January 2023! See you next year 😉

How many different varieties make up the micro-forest?

Answer: a, b and c...

Well, we admit, we got a bit confused between species and variety, and the question wasn't exactly easy to answer at the start of the calendar... The micro-forest is made up of 50 tree species, including 39 varieties of fruit trees. In a few years' time, we'll be able to eat an apple or a few cherries between two courses.
 
So, as the question was confusing, we gave 1 point to everyone, and a Christmas present in advance! (I promise, the next questions will be clearer! I'm off to the forest to study the trees again...)
 
Back to our sheep, or rather our trees! Winner of the 2021 "Biodiversity & Energy Transition" student competition, the micro-forest was installed on the Bourget-du-Lac campus in autumn 2021.
 
Another student competition focusing on eco-responsible projects is underway at the USMB. If you have any ideas, there's still time to submit your project to theCall for Student Projects, which closes in February 2023. From all the projects submitted, the jury will select 1 per campus, to be implemented over the course of the year.

What is virtual mobility (1 point)

Answer b): online distance learning courses.

Unfortunately, there are no VR headsets on the virtual mobility program, but international teachers offer you a variety of courses on a wide range of topics. Afterwards, you can take online exams and earn ECTS credits towards your degree.
 
Big Data Analysis, International Financial Management, Developmental Psychology, Climatology, language courses, etc., discover the catalog of mobility courses on offer for the 2nd semester. The Virtual Mobilities campaign is open until January 2, so there are still a few weeks left to register!
 
Want to get around after your virtual mobility? Take advantage of the "Top-up mobilité verte" scheme under the Erasmus+ program: if you take the train, coach or carpool to get from your home in France to your place of study or work placement abroad, you can get funding: + €50 per stay, + 2 days added to the duration of your stay to compensate for the time you spent in transport.
 

What form does the USMB Climate Fresco take? (1 point)

Answer c.) A 52-card deck.

With the help of this game, participants will create a collaborative fresco to understand the essentials of climate issues and take action. Once the cards have been placed in the right places, it's time for the artists to personalize the fresco with felt-tip pens and colored pencils!
 
All the data on the maps is taken from a scientific reference base, the one that today guides the choices of political and economic decision-makers: the famous report by the IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
 
At USMB, the workshop is offered by the Campus 1.5 collective, which brings together 265 USMB students and staff, and organizes awareness-raising activities on campus around the theme of global warming. Why 1.5? Because of the IPCC's special report on the consequences of global warming of 1.5°C. To find out more about their actions, don't hesitate to follow them on Instagram!

 

What is the name of the association? (2 points)

c.) Throughout the year, the Légumes et Cagettes Rebelles association offers all USMB students organic fruit and vegetable baskets.
 
It's easy to reserve your basket: just click on the link in the association's Insta bio (links below), then pick it up on the day of distribution, on the Annecy or Bourget-du-Lac campuses. For students on the Jacob-Bellecombette campus, LCR meets you every Thursday afternoon in front of the ō79 in Chambéry. Please note: you must reserve your basket no later than the Sunday before distribution! Every week, different vegetables and fruit await you to vary the pleasures and tastes, but also according to the seasons. 
 
Check out the upcoming baskets on their Instagram :
 
On campuses, the Crous Grenoble Alpes is also taking action to ensure that food is sustainable and resilient to climate change:
 
- Most of their dairy products and desserts are certified organic
- 58% of their fish comes from sustainable sources (MSC label)
- More than 70% of their meat is labelled Viande Française, and the Crous continues its commitment with Bleu-Blanc-Cœur to sustainable livestock farming.
- More than 150 new vegetarian recipes for students all year round
 
And to limit waste, the Crous Grenoble Alpes is providing students with a new, highly reusable glass Crous Box!

What else do you think can be done with 1 kWh? (1 point)

b.) 1 classroom on for 3 hours = 1.5 days' work on your laptop! With 1kWh, you can also charge your smartphone almost 50 times, and order around 60 coffees (over the course of the year, not the day, or you won't sleep!).
 
Turning off the lights is one of the easiest eco-gestures to carry out in your classrooms and campus buildings. There are others, just as effective in reducing our energy costs: report a water leak in the toilets to responsable.sep-bourget@univ-smb.fr (1 leak consumes 25L of water per hour!), or put your draft paper in the waste paper basket in your room so that it can be recycled.
 
A little less easy, but also very effective in reducing your carbon footprint: give preference to cycling, taking the bus or carpooling to get to campus.
 
On the school side, the USMB has set up a relamping plan: a total of over 1 million euros will be invested to replace fluorescent lighting with LED lighting, which consumes less energy.

Given that an e-mail stored in your mailbox generates an average of 10g of CO2 per year, and that 1 round trip Paris/New York by plane emits 1 tonne of CO2, how many stored e-mails does this trip equal? (2 points)

a.) 100,000 e-mails, equivalent to the carbon footprint of as many plastic bags!
 
To reduce your impact on the digital environment, there's an easy eco-gesture you can do from your computer or smartphone: sort your e-mails, archive important ones locally, and empty your recycle garbage can regularly. So yes, it's true that deleting e-mails from your inbox has a limited impact on CO2 emissions compared to a plane journey. But there are no small victories! And then, if you add to this eco-gesture other good digital consumption habits, and if you start doing it together, knowing that there are several billion of us on Earth...
 
Tips for more eco-friendly digital consumption :
- bookmark your favorite sites for direct access; the bookmarks bar uses 4 times less energy than a systematic URL search
- use eco-responsible search engines (some even plant trees!)
- close unnecessary tabs/applications, which consume energy by constantly refreshing themselves
- regularly empty your browser's "cache" (there's a lot of it hidden away!)
- unsubscribe from newsletters you don't read
 
Speaking of e-mail, don't forget that you must change your password on the USMB Intranet, link "My account", "Change password" to improve the protection of your data, before January 10, 2023! After this date, if you have not changed your password, access to your account will be blocked. The password used to access your USMB account must now be at least 12 characters long (alphanumeric and special characters).
 
At USMB, we're also working to reduce our digital carbon footprint. The university has optimized its website (optimizing images, implementing "lazy-loading", client-side caching, etc.) and thanks to these best practices, it has been ranked number 1 in Greenspector's 2022 ranking of the carbon impact of university websites!

Which species do you think you share your campus with? (2 points)

a). As small as a sparrow, the torchepot nuthatch can be recognized by the colors it proudly wears on its plumage: ash-blue on the upper parts, orange-red on the underside, and a thin blackish line highlighting the eye. Fun fact: it has a habit of walking on tree trunks with its head upside down.
 
Speaking of winged animals that sometimes have their heads upside down, we'll also find on our campuses the "Molosse de Cestoni" bat, which is in fact a gentle bug measuring .... 8 cm! Fun fact: the panda ant, found in Chile, is neither an ant nor a panda, but a wasp.
 
On the USMB campuses, a number of actions have been implemented to preserve biodiversity:
- some thirty bird nesting boxes installed on the Le Bourget and Jacob campuses, and bat nesting boxes soon to be installed at Le Bourget, in partnership with Cohab Faune.
- anti-collision stickers soon to be installed to prevent our bird friends from being stunned on building windows
- demineralization of the central square on the Le Bourget campus: the concrete will gradually give way to greenery, providing shelter for campus biodiversity (insects, small mammals, birds, etc.) and coolness in summer (evapo-transpiration from trees, shade, reflection of light rays).
- a "biodiversity" diagnosis is currently underway on the Annecy campus, which will provide a clearer picture of future actions to be taken
 
And as for student associations, Univert and Blairoudeurs offer a wide range of events all year round, focusing on bioversity and the environment.
 
Speaking of biodiversity, a USMB student is currently taking part in COP15 in Montreal, an international meeting bringing together governments from all over the world to discuss the issue of biodiversity! Ambre, a L3 biology student, has been selected to be part of the French-speaking delegation of the Global Youth Biodiversity Network taking part in the convention. On December 13, she will be presenting a workshop on Greenwashing. Follow her incredible adventure on Instagram!

How many students took part in the survey? (1 point)

b. 732. Not bad, but we can do better next time! You didn't have the opportunity to take part in the survey, but you have ideas for improvements to facilitate soft mobility? We invite you to contribute by sending your ideas and experiences by e-mail to the USMB Mobility Unit.
 
The USMB did not wait for the results of the survey to implement concrete actions on campus:
- more than 500 bicycle racks and wheel clamps on the 3 campuses
- Mobility Days organized to raise awareness of alternative forms of mobility
- The Sports Department offers a car-sharing system to get to campus activities, thanks to an application created by students. It's the perfect way to help you find transportation to suit your class schedule! To take advantage of this service, visit the USMB Sports Service website.
 
Coming soon, the "Tous en selle" project, a future eco-responsible bicycle shelter on the Le Bourget campus, and another bicycle shelter to be installed on the Annecy campus.

What is the 1st principle of green chemistry stated in their letter? (1 point)

b.) Green chemistry, sometimes referred to as sustainable or renewable chemistry, is the application of the principles of sustainable development to the world of chemistry. Twelve basic principles of green chemistry (corresponding to the values of sustainable development) were set out in 1998. Principle 1: pollution prevention at source, i.e. designing a chemical process that avoids the production of future residues that will become waste.
 
The Green Chemistry and Eco-Innovation Master's degree, 100% dedicated to the ecological transition, is not the only academics eco-responsible program at USMB. Aware of the challenges facing the environment, the university offers a number of courses and degrees to help preserve the world of today and tomorrow.
 
These include the engineering degree Sustainable Building Engineering from Polytech Annecy-Chambéry, the Master's degree in Environmental Sciences Applied to the Mountains from the UFR Sciences et Montagne, the professional degree in Energy Management, Electricity and Sustainable Development from the IUT d'Annecy, and the Master's degree in Solar Energy (Polytech Annecy-Chambéry/IAE Savoie Mont Blanc/Faculté de Droit) with a "Energy for Solar Buildings and Cities" track and a "Solar Energy, Law, Economics and Management" track.
 
Other departments include modules dedicated to energy transition and sustainable development (Sociology of the Environment, Environmental Studies/Environmental Humanities, Energy Issues, Environmental History, etc.).
 

The masks have been recycled and turned into..... technical t-shirts! How many masks do you think it takes to make a T-shirt? (1 point)

a.) It takes around 50 masks to make a technical T-shirt. After isolation/disinfection/high-temperature washing to eliminate any potential viral load, the elastics and metal bar are sorted for separate recycling. As for the polypropylene, it is ground and processed, then destined for weaving and textile manufacturing. All the companies involved are located within a 130 km radius of the campuses. A fine example of the circular economy in action!
 
Eco-what? The circular economy consists in producing goods and services in a sustainable way, by limiting the consumption and wastage of resources and the production of waste. We recycle, we valorize waste and we create/support jobs close to home. Pretty cool, eh?
 
Another "circular economy" initiative to be implemented in 2023 at the USMB is the recycling of paper collected on campus by ESAT (établissements ou services d'aide par le travail), structures that enable people with disabilities to work while benefiting from medical, social and educational support in a sheltered environment.
 
Circular economy is a multi-disciplinary field that is also involved in the research work of USMB labs and in a number of training courses (IAE, engineering schools, IUT, etc.). Would you like to find out more about the circular economy and the projects set up at the university? Contact Grégory Chatel, teacher-researcher in the EDYTEM lab and "circular economy" project manager at USMB.

Your mission: on the USMB Ecogestures Guide, you have to discover the identity of a little character to answer the question of the day.

Which scientist utters the words "In the evenings and at weekends, only you will be plugged in"? (3 points)

c.) You'll recognize him from his famous moustache: Albert Einstein, the world's coolest scientist!
 
His quantum theory of light won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921. This contribution to science is extremely important, as it led to the invention of technologies based on the knowledge and mastery of light (screens, telecommunications, imaging or even lasers). Without Einstein, it would be impossible to watch your favorite series on your smartphone or TV!
 
Eco-gestures to remember for electrical equipment :
- remember to switch off your appliances completely at night and even during the day when they are no longer in use
- use a power strip with a switch, very practical for switching off all your TV equipment and avoiding unnecessary consumption of electricity
- ensure that the charger is not connected "empty".
 
In terms of technological equipment, the USMB refurbishes the majority of its IT equipment. The aim is to increase the lifespan of each device by 1 year (a computer that works 1 year longer saves 33 kgCO2eq, or the equivalent of 200 km travelled by car). The university shuts down as much equipment as possible (screens, computers, etc.) when it is closed, and invests more and more in energy-efficient equipment.
 


This calendar will have enabled you to discover several actions and projects set up at the USMB to help the environment. But we're sure there are plenty of other actions or eco-gestures we could add to the list! So let's hear your ideas: what could we put in place at the university that doesn't already exist? (5 points)