Students seeking to be elected as LUU’s community officer for next year have pledged to go paperless with their campaigns as the Leadership Race gets underway.

Each of the six hopefuls is opting to ban paper flyers and posters in a bid to protect the environment and win students over with a ‘green’ campaign.

Candidate Jonny Foster told The Gryphon, ‘I think it’s a great way to reduce our impact on the environment. It leads not only to far more creative campaigns but noticeable ones also. I hope to see future Leadership candidates undertake the paperless campaign regardless of category’.

However, candidates agreed the difficulties in finding greener ways to promote their campaigns.

Edward Hardy explained, ‘A paperless campaign is a great idea for the elections, as it is extremely wasteful and damaging to the environment for candidates to print off a large number of posters and leaflets for a campaign lasting three weeks. All candidates should adopt a policy which is environmentally friendly and that is why I have chosen to use only up-cycled materials.’

Shona Brown added, ‘A great way to measure its benefit would be to count the amount of votes the Community Officers get versus other candidates who used paper after the results are announced’.

University charities Green Action and Love Leeds have backed the move by donating bed sheets and recycled paint to help the students to raise their profile on campus.

Candidates for the role of Community Officer agreed to go paperless for the first time in last year’s election.

Emily Willson

Photo: Jack Roberts