On the 7th November the Sustainable Development Unit hosted its Annual Sustainability Awards to celebrate the achievements of the those taking part in the National Green Impact projects as well as other sustainability achievements. Below we announce the winners, share their achievements and say thank you for their efforts.
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Green Impact Bronze Award
The Bronze award in Green Impact is awarded to those who have completed all the Bronze criteria within the Green Impact workbook. This is often the hardest section to complete as you have to set all the ground work going forward and get people on board. The winners of the Bronze award 2014 are:
Information and Library Services – Chris Gallagher
Student Union University of Greenwich – Ana Lopez
Information and Library Services Drill Hall Library – Jim Skinner and Jody Belcher
Accommodation Service Greenwich – Heather McGlinchey
Humanities and Social Science – Kathryn Holt
Vice Chancellor’s Office – Elizabeth Bell
Pictured right to left: Chris Gallagher, Ana Lopez and Jim Skinner
Green Impact Silver Award
Building upon the Bronze the Silver award requires departments to engage senior management, create a sustainability pledge, and actively involve students in sustainability within their department. The winners of the Green Impact Silver Award are:
Information and Library Services Mansion Library – Carol Rostek
Greenwich Research and Enterprise – Lara Everest
Recruitment and Admissions are awarded Silver with Honours in recognition of the department going beyond the Silver criteria – Alice Coyle
Pictured right to left: Carol Rostek, Neil Cormack-Bissett representing GRE and Alice Coyle.
Green Impact Gold Award
To achieve the Gold award departments must complete all three awards section and often they go way beyond this with some extraordinary actions.
The winners of the Green Impact Gold award are:
Human Resources – Liz Laurence and Anna Radley who achieved Gold and set up a project with the local foodbank that allows University staff and students to donate food and other items to support their community.
The Office of Students Affairs – as well as coordinating the first triple Gold from across all the campuses OSA have been instumental in the annual Swap Shops that take place as part of Green Week.
Greenwich – Norma Powell, Sara Ragab, Jenny Peart and Edgar Pereira Gutierrez
Avery Hill – Amanda Hatton, Julian Murphy, Adeola Napthal, Paul Rees and Sophie Clements
Medway – Angela Ware and Yvonne Pendry
Pictured from right to left: Liz Laurence, Norma Powell, Jenny Peart, Amanda Hatton, Julian Murphy, Paul Rees and Angela Ware.
Green Impact Platinum
The Platinum Award is awarded to the department that goes above and beyond by not only achieving the Gold award but building upon this by completing many of the bonus criteria. The winner of this award went as far as completing every cirteria that they were eligble for! The winner of the Green Impact Platinum Award is:
Natural Resources Institute – Caroline Troy
University of Greenwich is one of over 50 HE Institutions taking part in the NUS national project of positive behaviour change.
Green Impact Excellence
The Green Impact Excellence scheme is designed to help high achieving departments that are wanting to step out of the Green Impact workbook and design their own projects. The Excellence projects have set to receive their final awards however, they were celebrated and thanked at the awards ceremony to highlight their great efforts. Below is a summary of some of the projects they have been working on:
The Business School – Mary McCartney, Sonia Mankad, Nithya Gopalakrishnan, Emma Gates, Sarah Sheikh and Amanda Bicott.
The Business School have been working on a number of projects to reduce inefficiency and move to paperless operations where possible. They have also been seeking to ensure that every new student in the school has been inducted into sustainability.
Natural Resources Institute – Caroline Troy and Roman Zipaj
The NRI have developed and Environmental Management Information System website that will allow all those involved with managing environmental risk and processes a one stop shop for everything they need. The website can also be used for Sustainability Champions to share resources. The website is now moving into the testing phase by different user groups.
Facilities Management Medway, Engineering Department and the Partnership Division – Richard Cottam, Wim Melis and Geoff Hallam
A partnership between perhaps an unlikely group of departments but linked by location and sustainability. These departments have started MedSAT (The Medway Sustainability Action Team) with the aims of helping sustainability projects and ideas progress with proper support and funding to ensure the longevity of the projects and good sustainability outcomes for the campus and the University.
Thank you to everyone who has taken part in Green Impact Excellence and I look forward to working with you on completing your projects.
Green Impact Laboratories Gold Award
One of the specialist Green Impact Workbooks is the Laboratories workbook that focuses on reducing the environmental impacts associated with high use laboratories. The 2014 Green Impact Laboratories Gold award goes to:
Natural Resources Institute
Green Impact Catering Gold Award
The second specialist Green Impact Workbook is the Catering workbook that focuses on reducing the environmental and social impacts associated with high use catering outlets. The 2014 Green Impact Catering Gold award goes to:
Sodexo led by Paul Harvey and Lorraine Hudson
Loraine Hudson from The Dome, Avery Hill
Outstanding Contribution to Sustainable Development at the University of Greenwich 2014
This award does not come around every year and is awarded to departments who have gone beyond anything asked of them and who hold sustainability as a core value of their strategy. This department have driven sustainability forward not only in their own department but through their mission.
The winner of the Outstanding Contribution to Sustainable Development Award is:
Natural Resources Institute
With special mention to the following:
Natalie Morley – “Going beyond her role as a laboratory manager, Natalie has made a positive impact at NRI and has taken on the responsibility of embedding sustainable behaviour within NRI’s labs. She has worked consistently to change operational procedure through recycling furniture for the labs, purchasing recycled lab consumables and recycled stationery whilst encouraging other departments at NRI to purchase the same, and trying to introduce peat free compost into NRI’s greenhouses.”
Charles Whitfield – “While still a PhD student with very limited technical time, Charles Whitfield was responsible or a major refit of both the NRI glasshouses and insectaries which is intended to significantly reduce energy usage in these power‐hungry areas. The renovations were a team effort between FM and NRI staff, but the continuous driving force for the project was Charles. During the planning stage, he carried out extensive research to ensure that there would be significant reductions in energy use while ensuring that the practical needs of NRI would not be impaired and costs would be reasonable.”
Sarah Arnold and Simon Springate – “Sarah and Simon run short bee walks in the Medway area. For anyone interested in learning a bit more about bumblebees – and other insects – near the Medway
campus Simon and Sarah give up their own time to conduct short bee walks (approx. 1 hour) at the Lower Lines Park, Gillingham. The events consist of an informal walk around the Lower Lines Park (with all its wealth of historical interest as well as fantastic biodiversity), learning about the wildflowers, bees and other wildlife living in the park and how to identify some of them.” Please find out more by emailing medway.bugs@gmail.com.
Frances Hawkes – “Frances is a PhD researcher at the Natural Resources Institute, and is the first winner of the University of Greenwich ‘Student of the Year’ award. The energy she put into the
University and the community of Medway has contributed to improving the University’s environment, the well‐being of local children and the community as a whole. In‐between her studies Frances co‐founded the Universities at Medway Students’ Association (UMSA) Environmental Society, where she lobbied for a full‐time sustainability officer and for allotment facilities to be provided for students.”
Caroline Troy – Caroline is the driving force of sustainable actions within the NRI. In her role as a Sustainability Champions she has inspired colleagues, students. fellow champions and the Sustainable Development Unit. She has seemingly endless energy for sustainability and has been a valuable support for the Sustainability Team who would love to steal her away from the NRI and have her work with them! A personal thank you from myself as Sustainability Projects Officer to Caroline for being a constant source of encouragement and positivity when things are not always going to plan.
There are other individuals and projects from the NRI that we hope to showcase through the blog over the coming weeks.
Environmental Hero 2014
The final award of the afternoon was our annual Environmental Hero Award that is awarded to an individual or group of individuals who have made a big difference often out of nowhere! It also exists to reward those to have stuck it out and continued to strive for positive change despite barriers being put in their way.
Our winner this years as stormed onto the sustainability scene joining the ranks of Champions half way through the Green Impact year and leading her department to a Silver with Honors award. She has also made a big impression at the Avery Hill Edible Garden and her input there has been invaluable. It has been a pleasure to get to know her over the year and the Sustainable Development Unit were extremely pleased to award the Environmental Hero 2014 award to:
Alice Coyle
Alice accepting her Environmental Hero Award.
Thank you once again to everyone who has taken part in Green Impact and who has contributed to the Sustainability efforts at Greenwich.
For more information on the Green Impact project at Greenwich please contact the SDU at sustainability@gre.ac.uk
