The Annual Sustainability Awards 2014

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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

“NRI’s mission is to discover, apply and share knowledge in support of global food security, sustainable development and poverty reduction”

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.

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

 

Sustainability Champion wins 'Best Ambassador' prize from Mayor of London’s Low Carbon Entrepreneur of 2014!

Nithya is an MBA student currently working in the Employability Office in the Business School at the University of Greenwich. As well as being a Sustainability Champion, she recently won the ‘Best Ambassador’ award from the prestigious Mayor of London’s Low Carbon Entrepreneur of 2014. Below she reflects on her interest in sustainability and journey to the competition.  ———————————————————————————————————————————– Passion for Sustainability + Perseverance = Success and Satisfaction. Sustainability has always interested me because of my passion to contribute back to the environment, community and our world at large through prevention, protection and perseverance. Ever since childhood, I have been very conscious of my actions and their impact, and I wanted to lead by setting an example. As an MBA student, I joined the Green Society as a founding member last year, and due to continued interest in the field, I was also selected as a sustainability auditor for the Business School and attended the training provided by the NUS Green Impact team. My interests in Green Impact and sustainability did not stop there. I chose a dissertation on sustainability in supply chains; the project looked at how retailers in UK and India can trace the supply chain activities that contribute to sustainability. This will be embedded into the retailers’ strategies directly and indirectly, and drive their competitive advantage in an intense and fierce industry which is realising the impacts of climate change and consumer behaviour. The MBA International Business degree requires me to do a placement year and I am now working within the Faculty of Business as an Employability Officer. In addition, I have become a Sustainability Champion for the support staff and have been helping the team in submitting our project book for an ‘Excellence Award’. It encompasses ideas that can make a difference showing a clear identification of relevant ethical and environmental challenges or opportunities within our Faculty of Business. This will then be submitted as a case study and taken forward for project implementation and reporting with Emily Mason, Sustainability Projects Officer, who constantly monitors progress. The Mayor of London Low Carbon Entrepreneur 2014 competition appeared to be a unique project to engage, gain and enhance my employability skills. For example, my time-management, project management, organisation and communication skills have improved immensely. My confidence was boosted by attending the ‘pitching for ideas’ training at the Mayor of London’s Office. I was well supported by the Low Carbon Team Delivery Team within Greater London Authority (GLA).

Dr Katherine Eames (PhD), Low Carbon Entrepreneur Delivery Team (Greater London Authority) and myself with the certificate.

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience of being an ambassador and promoting this project among fellow students through emails, social media messages, sharing updates, designing flyers and other promotional materials. I ran a competition which invited ideas of how students plan to reduce London’s carbon footprint as individuals and gave away free Thames Water vouchers to winning student entries for best ideas chosen by the Employability Team (University of Greenwich Business School). The incentive of the best ambassador winning a two week work experience placement next summer at City Hall was very motivating and I was excited at doing all the requirements to secure the prize. I contacted my lecturers who were interested in sustainability and asked for permission to sign up with the GLA team so that they can promote the competition next year to our students. I am very thankful to the team for choosing me and I cannot wait to start my placement at City Hall, Greater London Authority Office, which I look forward to undertake with immense enthusiasm and passion. The Sustainable Development Unit has been very supportive and encouraging in all communications with students and has promoted a wealth of good opportunities on campus such as organising Green Week, running sustainability workshops, stalls at events, emails to students, internal communications, flyers at the students centre and notice boards etc. I always try and stick to the motto- “if you want to do something, you will find a way and if you do not want to do something, you will find an excuse”. Hence, I strive hard to find ways to do what I love and what I stand for. This gives me the pleasure in doing my best and the can–do attitude which drives me to deliver and go beyond. To conclude, I would like to say that being involved with societies and heading up projects will add immense value to our CVs and boosts confidence. I would say the best thing to do is to ‘get involved and get noticed’! Rewards are secondary, but personal satisfaction of having done something meaningful with our talent and potential is hugely important. Good luck! Nithya Gopalakrishnan MBA International Business.

Green Impact Audits 2013

Two weeks ago 18 University Schools and Departments took part in a ‘half time’ audit as part of the Green Impact Scheme.

Green Impact challenges departments to enact a number of criteria that promote sustainable behaviours that contribute to the reduction of our environmental impact as a University. Green Impact works from a ‘bottom up’ approach asking staff through a series of criteria to make changes in their workplace. It is this criteria that each department is audited against and from these audits each team received a feedback report, which set them goals to achieve before the final deadline this summer.

The audits were carried out by student volunteers that received IEMA accredited training from the NUS’ Sophia Perkins who is the University’s Green Impact Project Officer. After their training the students got practice what they had learnt by auditing Schools and Departments across the three campuses.

Student Volunteers taking part in the Green Impact Auditor Training Session

Over the course of three days 23 students completed the training and practical auditing experience and will all receive certification of their achievements.

From the staff that were audited the praise for the students was great with comments on their professionalism, eye for detail and encouraging and supportive manner.

It is important that the audits are carried out by students to give both staff and students a chance to sit down and talk about sustainability at their University, as well as offering students a chance to receive training in highly transferable skills that they pick during the process.

A sustainable menu for lunch was laid on by BaxtorStorey for the auditors at each campus. The menu incorporated local produce, fairtrade produce, less meat, MSC fish and reusable crockery.

The audits themselves were very successful and the Sustainability Team would like to thank all the Sustainability Champions that have taken part so far. At the time of the ‘half time’ audits the Schools and Departments of Greenwich had completed 489 sustainable actions. Congratulations!

To find out more about Green Impact at Greenwich please contact Emily Mason at e.mason@gre.ac.uk.